Note - we also sell jewelry, faceting rough, thumbnail thru cabinet
mineral specimens, tourmaline butterfly pendants and more. Please check often as stock will vary throughout the year.
2009 MINING ACTIVITY!
Well 2009 is here and things are looking up. We are making progress towards finishing our second adit to allow us to move rock out of the mine faster on the far end. We are hitting some interesting ground in some other areas of the mine too. We are looking forward to another gem pocket that keeps us busy for awhile. Typically it rains this time of year but even as early as today we had some rain but that shouldnt deter a tried and true collector. Would you drive on vacation for a 1000 miles and just sit in a hotel room. We doubt it - grab a raincoat or umbrella and bring it along. Here are some photos from Sunday, February 9th.
Some of our hosts - Lisa and Cheryl.....even braved the rain.
Here's a new attraction at the mine - an ore car...
And for those of you who like some civility in your rockhounding we have a first class bathroom and storage facility up at the screening area as well as a covered eating/assembly area if the weather gets too wet.
February 8th finds by kids that braved the elements in the on and off again cloudbursts.
The big news was a major kunzite find with over 3 kilograms of pure facet grade pink/purple rough and some world class specimens in December 2009. Lots of work went in to creating a new haulage tunnel and another means of removing material as well as an additional emergency exit if need be. We have made the mine infinitely safer to work in and one of the only fully viable and legally operating underground gem mines in San Diego county.
We hit some more small kunzite pockets and some nice smoky quartz pockets as we finished our new adit to allow us to enter and exit the mine quicker from the working face now. All new ventilation, plumbing and electrical have been connected and wer'e ready to tear it up in 2010.
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