November
26 - 28, 2010
Reel Amethyst Mine, Iron Station, NC
Three days of digging for the elusive amethyst at the
Reel Mine can
produce aches in places you never
thought was possible, but the payoff can be well worth it.
MAGMA held this three-dayer at the Reel over
Thanksgiving weekend. Although Friday morning started with
rain it quickly dissipated and the rest of the
weekend turned out beautiful.
The
above photo is a panoramic photo I took of the main mine area.
You can click on the photo to
see the full size image. Once the image is loaded into your browser you may have to click on the photo again to magnify it and view it with the optimal size and quality. Rick, the founder of MAGMA is in the
photo sifting for scepters (far left).
The
photo above is an in situ crystal I found while chopping
through the saprolitic granite with my mattock.
The black manganese coated pocket in which it grew can be seen above
and to the right of the crystal.
Here
is another exposed pocket. It is normal to find the pockets
lined with small druzy crystals. These crystals are
iron/manganese stained.
Jim
peers through a saprolitic granite window carved out of the wall that
separated our digging pits. It was a nice addition
to our ephemeral abodes.
Joe
was practicing his telepathy on me here, I think I heard
something like, "Are you done yet?"
Tracy
was delighted with her crystal finds as could be deduced from the hand full of crystals and burnished smile.
This
was the shelf I carved to hold my crystals.
At
its deepest point the pit was about 7ft. down.
Photo by Joe Moylan.
Jim
(window) and I take a break.
Photo by Joe Moylan.
This
is a pocket I found roughly one foot down in one of the walls of my
pit. It was mostly filled with a reddish brown clay.
On
the crystal to the left you can see evidence of white kaolin.
Rick
(seen in panoramic, top of page) showed me two scepters he found from
sifting that pile of dirt next to him in the picture .
Here
is another example of an in situ pocket. The iron/manganese
staining is very evident.
Here
are some of my better finds from the trip.
This
is an example of the druzy lined pocket rinds. Sometimes
amethyst crystals bud out from these plates. The left half
was soaked
in Super Iron Out, and the right half was simply cleaned with a
toothbrush and water.
My
largest piece was this tabular crystal cluster. Both smoky and
amethyst varieties were imbued into this crystal as it was
formed.
