A great diversity of gemstones are produced in many parts of the United States. Many of these mines are open to the public and you can pay a fee to prospect.
[1] Many of the mines are not operated by employees. Instead they are open for public collecting, where, for a fee, anyone can enter the mine, look for gemstones and keep whatever is found.ADVERTISEMENT "Pay-to-Dig" Mining Each year thousands of gemstone collectors, prospectors, rock...
Links to information about American turquoise mines can be found under the turquoise heading on this page. We will continue to add more samples of gemstones in the future. AGATE & Agate Gemstones Agate is a member of the Chalcedony species. It's distinctive concentric, banded, shell-like appea...
Chrysacolla is a hydrated copper silicate mineral that forms as a decomposition product of copper minerals in most copper mines, especially in arid regions. It frequently occurs as a crust or mass in the upper parts of copper ore veins where the silica in the copper has been dissolved by wat...
The reason is due to the fact they possess chromium. In its top colors, chromes resemble gem tsavorite (See Tsavorite). The former owner was poisoned in 1980 by his mistress, and his three former wives have been fighting over the mines ever since. This feud causes production to be ...
The law will most affect the disadvantaged minorities near the gem mines. They are already anti-junta. Andrew Cody, President of International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), noted: "Those who will suffer are the very people that the legislation is intended to protect. It is a pity that...
and there are no open-pit mines that span several miles. Handheld drills and minimal blasting extract outcrops of varying size, depending on the mineral. While large-scale copper and coal mines can extract 500-600 million metric tons per year, gem mineral mines hover at about 10,000...
The large open-pit copper mines excavate down through the shallow rock units where the turquoise is formed. When turquoise is encountered, the quantity and quality of the material is assessed, and, only if warranted, will a temporary effort be made to recover the gem material. If the value ...
In 1989 and 1990, spectacular bright blue to bright green elbaite tourmaline, colored by trace amounts of copper, was found in pegmatite pockets at mines in the states of Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Later, violet specimens containing traces of both copper and manganese were ...