got my sapphire back today!

[GRAY GHOST]

hi all, we all went to the gemstone mine 2 weekends ago, and found some sapphires, aquamarines, and garnets. i couldn't detect on that particular day, they were calling for severe thunderstorms. if you spend 50 bucks or more, you get a free cut. so we opted to send out one of the sapphires, and came back today at 3.84 carats! it's worth around 200 bucks, and is beautiful. it's not a metal detecting find, but it is a treasure from the earth. today i found a huge thumb sized garnet, having it emerald cut, will see it in 2 weeks. sorry about bottom photo, scanners do have limitations. thanks, and hh,

 

[Magyar]

Gray Ghost...you mean you detected at a gemstone mine???

where are these mines?? I never heard of this....terrific!!

This may seem like an ignorant question to you, but please tell me...how do you find the gemstones...in dirt..in rocks?

this is soooooooooo interesting.

 

[norton4]

Magyar, I've been to one of these mines. The one I went to was in hiddenite north Carolina. You got five gallon buckets of dirt from their mines that they haven't looked through (apparently) and you got to use a strainer with water to see whats in there. Though i think they called it a sleuss instead of a strainer. I found an arrowhead, but my brother found a small emerald. they had different size buckets for different amounts of money. I believe the most expensive was twenty bucks and the least was five. They had some that apparently had a greater chance of having a certain gem, like an emerald or ruby. I don't know how they determined that. hope that helped some.

 

[echostar61]

Very Cool GrayGhost, Which mine did you go to ? The last one I did was Emerald Village in Little Switzerland , NC . I had opals , a topaz and an iolite cut. Still havent had them mounted yet . It's a great way to spend the
day . Thats a very nice sapphire

Terri

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hi echostar! we went to lucky lake gem mine in mckenney, va. it's not far from the house, and we all had a great time. i would like to get a new card for my camera soon, the scanner didn't do the sapphire much justice. but, hey, it's fun! thanks, and hh,

 

[echostar61]

Im glad you had a Great Time. I love it. Here are 2 I had cut I like.
The opals I never really cared for.

Terri

 

[tabdog]

n/t

 

[GRAY GHOST]

hi echostar! it looks like you have a nice emerald cut amethyst and aquamarine[??!!] there. they are very nice indeed! my wife loves opals, so if you still have them, i'm sure she would be glad to work up a trade for something you might like better. i like to go to the mine on days i can't detect. true, it's not metal detecting in the strictest sense, but it's still the recovery of treasures from the earth. isn't this fun? hh,