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Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines (Read 5074 times)

Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #15 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:27pm	Print Post
	Sean took this nice wide perspective showing me practicing my patient troweling techniques -- like I learned watching videos of the masters here on RHL.� I�m perched on a ledge of dirt of my own making.� Before, the creek bank was right at the water line so I threw some cobbles to balance on for starting out.� Next big rain, and all the moonstone I missed will wash out.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #16 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:29pm	Print Post
	And another angle. Chip was kindly removing stray tree roots from the stream bank. Being a Boykin spaniel, some of those tree roots �just happened to be� under water, �requiring� him to completely submerge his head to get at them.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #17 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:32pm	Print Post
	Well, it was getting close to sundown, and I had enough of this RHL-style patient troweling. I was going to kill something! Meaning, I got aggressive with the shovel and sliced off two-inch layers of clay and crumbly gneiss. Lo and behold, a small seam of moonstone pops out of the gneiss and breaks apart!

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #18 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:33pm	Print Post
	A closer view.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #19 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:34pm	Print Post
	Even closer. The tan clay was wet and gooey. The black (biotite?) coating and intermixing with quartz made this lower quality than past moonstone finds from this spot.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #20 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:35pm	Print Post
	Close cross-section view of an end-chunk of the seam.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #21 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:36pm	Print Post
	Most of my finds after initial soap and water cleanup.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #22 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:36pm	Print Post
	I like that some moonstone clung tight enough to get a few �on matrix� specimens.� The matrix is so crumbly I might want to stabilize it.� Any suggestions?� I�m thinking of using the thin, varnish-like �rotten wood stabilizer� that you can get from the home improvement stores. And even one of the decomposed garnet balls clung to matrix.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #23 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:39pm	Print Post
	Early literature about this location describes kyanite blades turning up in the plowed soil. On previous visits, I had never managed to find any. I turned up these tiny, faintly blue examples Sunday.

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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #24 - Feb 9^th, 2015 at 4:40pm	Print Post
	It takes a full farm fun trip to get Chip exhausted any more. Even when I use the tennis ball at-latl for greater distance, a session of fetch only momentarily winds him. He barely moved all evening and was snoozing this morning when I left for work.

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JoeM God Member Offline I Love YaBB 2.5 AE! Posts: 4208 Location: Wake County, NC Joined: Sep 30^th, 2010 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #25 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 10:19am	Print Post
	Wintertime is the best time to get out and explore and the weather this past weekend was perfect. Glad to see you were able to take advantage of it and thanks for sharing with us. Great report!


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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #26 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 3:04pm	Print Post
	Thanks Joe!


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Tim4d God Member Offline I like creeks & rivers to do the digging for me. Posts: 658 Location: Chester, VA Joined: Feb 24^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #27 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 3:10pm	Print Post
	Epilog: I lost one of my favorite rockhound tools on this trip. I don't even remember how I came across this apparently home-made mega iron screwdriver. It's great as a small digging and prying tool, and the handle is hefty enough for light rock hammering. It either fell out of my pocket or backpack, or I buried it as I dug into the creek bank. We have an old metal detector that I've never used. Maybe I need to practice with it and then hunt for the lost tool. It's so much metal it ought to ring loud and clear.

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Collin Senior Member Offline RockHoundLounger Posts: 253 Joined: Dec 30^th, 2013 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #28 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 3:52pm	Print Post
	Nice report! I enjoyed reading and the pictures are great! Sorry about your screwdriver, I just lost my favorite one somewhere in Chatham county. I bet it's under some dirt!


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lagniappe YaBB Newbies Offline RockHoundLounger Posts: 22 Joined: May 18^th, 2014 Gender:	Re: Moonstone Creek and Mica Mines Reply #29 - Feb 10^th, 2015 at 7:10pm	Print Post
	You always have great field reports What do you consider central Virginia? I see you are in Chester. I'm out in Orange and we are kinda of central, but your minerals sound like they are coming from an area down your way.


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