Emerald Village Mine Tour - Little Switzerland

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 8:54 pm

Enjoyed a tour today of the emerald mine by owner & local geologist, have visited the mine a couple of times in past on my own. The owner took us to a small hidden feldspar mine back in the woods and then later the geologist gave us a tour of the large bon ami mine around the water. This is a large pegmatite with large quartz veins and feldspar and mica in it. Learned a lot about the geology of the area and pegmatites. There was to be a night tour tonight to see the flourescent rocks in the mine with a black light which I understand is spectacular but wasn't able to make it back, will do that at a later date as they have these tours every so often. You can check their web site for the dates & other info. www.emeraldvillage.com

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:19 am

There are old feldspar mines all over the area. Most are on private property. The main item they were looking for besides feldspar was mica.
There is one old mica/feldspar mine on federal property not too far from there, near the town of Burnsville, which is open to public access. It's the Ray mine, sometimes called "Wray" mine in some older publications. It has a wide variety of mineral specimens. One can go to the spoil piles and either scratch thru the dirt or break open rocks to look for minerals. If one has their own UV lamp there's lots of hyalite opal ( bright green glow) and other fluorescent minerals that show up nicely at night. It's a bit of an uphill walk, with open pits and shafts, which are fenced off, to keep people from falling in or to help stop the spread of white nose syndrone on bats.
I got some of my best glowing specimens on the last night tour given at a private mine in Spruce Pine several years ago.

Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 1:02 pm

Tim wrote:

There are old feldspar mines all over the area. Most are on private property. The main item they were looking for besides feldspar was mica.
There is one old mica/feldspar mine on federal property not too far from there, near the town of Burnsville, which is open to public access. It's the Ray mine, sometimes called "Wray" mine in some older publications. It has a wide variety of mineral specimens. One can go to the spoil piles and either scratch thru the dirt or break open rocks to look for minerals. If one has their own UV lamp there's lots of hyalite opal ( bright green glow) and other fluorescent minerals that show up nicely at night. It's a bit of an uphill walk, with open pits and shafts, which are fenced off, to keep people from falling in or to help stop the spread of white nose syndrone on bats.
I got some of my best glowing specimens on the last night tour given at a private mine in Spruce Pine several years ago.

Tim: I'm going to look into getting a light because some of the rocks on my farm look identical to the Opal Hyalite I was shown during the tour, it would be fun to go look at night and see if any rocks do flourese.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:00 am

Most of the time the hyalite opal is a clear and extremely thin layer on the surface of feldspar or sometimes other rock. Very occasionally it can be botryoidal, or looking like little lumps. If you decide to buy a UV lamp, don't waste your money on the 4 amp size. You have to get within a few inches of anything to show up. There are 2 main wavelengths that cause minerals to glow (fluoresce). There's the shortwave and the longwave. Some people with more money than I have also are beginning to use a midwave lamp. It sometimes makes minerals glow a different color than either the long or shortwave lamps and this can help with identification. Usually the avid collectors are the ones that use the midwave.
About 85-90% of minerals that do glow, glow under shortwave and about 10-15% will only glow under longwave. Some of the ones that glow under longwave also glow under shortwave.
Another mineral found in fledspar is apatite which glows orange. It can be almost clear to light gray or green color in daylight. That and the hylalite opal are the 2 main glow minerals in felspar, but there are some other minerals that occur in small bits that also glow.
I have 2 display cases of flurescent minerals, each 2 by 4 feet. Let me know if you find some nice stuff. If you ever decide to start collecting glow minerals let me know. I'll send some nice specimens, no charge except for perhaps postage. I have a large backstock that I need to wittle down.

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:03 pm

Tim wrote:

Most of the time the hyalite opal is a clear and extremely thin layer on the surface of feldspar or sometimes other rock. Very occasionally it can be botryoidal, or looking like little lumps. If you decide to buy a UV lamp, don't waste your money on the 4 amp size. You have to get within a few inches of anything to show up. There are 2 main wavelengths that cause minerals to glow (fluoresce). There's the shortwave and the longwave. Some people with more money than I have also are beginning to use a midwave lamp. It sometimes makes minerals glow a different color than either the long or shortwave lamps and this can help with identification. Usually the avid collectors are the ones that use the midwave.
About 85-90% of minerals that do glow, glow under shortwave and about 10-15% will only glow under longwave. Some of the ones that glow under longwave also glow under shortwave.
Another mineral found in fledspar is apatite which glows orange. It can be almost clear to light gray or green color in daylight. That and the hylalite opal are the 2 main glow minerals in felspar, but there are some other minerals that occur in small bits that also glow.
I have 2 display cases of flurescent minerals, each 2 by 4 feet. Let me know if you find some nice stuff. If you ever decide to start collecting glow minerals let me know. I'll send some nice specimens, no charge except for perhaps postage. I have a large backstock that I need to wittle down.

Tim: I found a nice chunk of white feldspar in a pegmatite vein on the farm and it had just a hint of some green in it and I soaked it overnight in a cleansing agent for cleaning rocks that I bought at walmart and the next day it had two beautiful bright green streaks thru it and when I took it out rinsed it and put it on the shelf it began to fade back to the original color it was when I found it. Based on your comment about apatite I bet that is what is in that piece of feldspar.

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:58 am

Might also be aquamarine or a poory developed non-precious emerald.
They and several other minerlas form in fledspar veins. It depends on what chemicals are present and how slow or fast the feldspar cools as it's formed. Hyalite opal glow is due to radioactive decay but the level is so low as to be safe. Long ago there used to be uranium prospecting in that general area- between Thermal city and your farm. The records I saw didn't show how well they fared if at all.

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:06 am

Tim: I remember the name of cleaner I used it is Super Iron-Out.