They are often found concentrated in the soils and sediments that form when garnet-bearing rocks are weathered and eroded. These alluvial garnets are often the target of mining operations because they are easy to mine and remove from the sediment/soil by mechanical processing....
The Dallas Gem Mine in San Benito County is the only place in the world where gem-quality benitoite is found and where benitoite is found in specimen-quality crystals. When cut as a gemstone, benitoite has an appearance and optical properties that are similar to sapphire. Most specimens are...
b. Anhui Province Engineering Research Center for Mineral Resources and Mine Environments, Hefei 23009, China; c. Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy., NV 89154-4010, USA Funds: This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science...