Trip to Hiddenite pays off for a couple of diggers.

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:09 pm

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/emerald-mine-yields-thousands-dollars-worth-gems-amateur/story?id=16011008#.T3ThNYH-mSo

Quote:

By ALEXANDRA LUDKA
March 27, 2012

Jamie Hill thought he found a new way to make money by opening up his aging emerald mine to amateurs at $25 a head, and watched as a pair of couples quickly came away with tens of thousands of dollars worth of gems.

Libby and Kevin Barrieault were the first to strike gold – or emerald – on a group trip to the North American Emerald Mine in Hiddenite, N.C., last Friday.

The next day, Terry Lofgren and her fiance John Kehoe found a pocket of emerald crystals.

Hill, known in the area as the "emerald man," insisted today that he has no regrets.

"We did lose quite a bit of money, but that's okay because it was the experience of a lifetime for these people and it alerted me to another location I should explore," Hill told ABCNews.com.

Hill's amateur diggers were thrilled.

The Barrieaults went to Hill's mine on the group trip with the Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association. They had only been in the mine for five minutes before Kevin flipped over a rock to find a 50.5-carat emerald.
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"My husband asked where we should start digging," Libby Barrieault said. "I said 'This looks like a good spot,' and turned around to get out our picks and shovels. Then he said 'What do you think we can do with this?' and flipped the emerald over to me," she said. "It was just one of those 'wow' moments."

Hill said the Barrieaults' crystal is worth upwards of $10,000.

The Lofgrens, who have been members of MAGMA for seven years, began digging the next day just a few feet from where the Barrieaults made their strike and found what Hill calls a pocket of crystals.

In that pocket, they discovered a 30-carat emerald, 240-carats worth of loose emeralds and about 160-carats of high quality matrix emeralds embedded in the rock.

"We hit the jackpot," Lofgren said. "It's so surreal…It's amazing to see so much green."

Hill said the Lofgrens' crystals could be worth $30-40,000 once they're cut and said they are ideal for cutting stones for jewelry.

The couples are trying to decide on what to do with their bonanzas, whether to keep them as jewelry or sell them.

The MAGMA trip was the first time anyone from the public was allowed in the mine in over 40 years.

Hill said he decided to let people into the mine because the economy was hurting his business and members of MAGMA had been very persistent.

"I haven't had a major find in a number of years," Hill said. "I figured, if you bring in a whole bunch of recreational miners in here and let them go loose, it's a great experience for them and they may just find something. It helps me too because it leads me to new locations. So it's win-win."

Hows that for a day of digging?

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:21 pm

That is awesome!

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:09 am

The official rules that were posted for the dig stated that no one would be allowed to keep more than $10,000 worth of gems. Anything over that was supposed to be tunred in to the owners who would sell them and give the finder $10,000. Does anyone know if the lucky finders were allowed to keep what they found, or had to abide by the official rules? I hope the owners didn't enforce the "official" rules.
Nice finds!!!

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:13 am

I was on this trip and the place is just awesome. I stood there and watched the whole process as they extracted the pocket. I didn't find any emeralds but did come out with some nice specimens of quartz, siderite, rutile, mica and various other minerals. I'll some pics up of some my finds.

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:27 am

Here are a few pics of specimens that I got at the North American Emerald Mine dig.

The first is a nice smokey crystal with a calcite inclusion.

This is a cluster of siderite cubes with rutile

The other side of the siderite cubes

Pyrite on quartz

Pyrite

Calcite, Felsdpar, Mica and Tourmaline

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:29 am

Tim wrote:

The official rules that were posted for the dig stated that no one would be allowed to keep more than $10,000 worth of gems. Anything over that was supposed to be tunred in to the owners who would sell them and give the finder $10,000. Does anyone know if the lucky finders were allowed to keep what they found, or had to abide by the official rules? I hope the owners didn't enforce the "official" rules.
Nice finds!!!

The mine owner did allow them to keep all that they found.

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:41 am

Here are a few more pics from the dig.

"The Pocket"

One of the loose emerald crystals in the pocket

The crowd gathered around (that is me in the blue shirt with my hand behind my back)

A good view of part of the mine

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:07 pm

Just some more photos of finds from this past wknd.
I was digging Friday only over in the exploratory saprolite area. I noticed alot of quartz crystal faces on top of the dumps in one specific area. Using some previous knowledge of digging alpine fissues, I located a vein or fissure and followed it down. Hit a small pocket of quartz about 2-3ft below grade, dug it for about 3 hours, it ended up about the size of 2 shoeboxes. No green in this material, and just as most quartz digging goes, sometimes things look alot better in the dirt than when you get them home and cleaned. No complaints, this stuff is awesome, its just that the bigger pieces that wow'd us in the field, ended up being sub-par to some of the smaller specimens. Alot of this material you can see just how fried,re-fried,baked,chewed up, spit out, flattened, glued back together the hiddenite geology gets. Almost every piece had rutile, siderite, tourmaline, green mica, clay inclusions, etc. here's a few photos.

enjoy!

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:11 pm

AWESOME mitch and greendave! Good looking stuff! Thanks for sharing guys. I love gems/minerals and I want to go sometime and try one of these places.

Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:16 pm

Ya I would have loved to went on that trip that is too cool. Very Happy

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:04 pm

Was there Friday, didn't find anything interesting but met some nice folks, had picture made with Jamie & Mr. Finger at same time, Mr. Finger made the first big emerald find at the mine, I believe it was around 1970 or so. I did get to hold the 50+ carat emerald. Sorry I missed Sat. when they found the pocket.

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:25 pm

NICE......
Thanks for the pictures I love gem and hunting for them.
I love to even look at the pictures.....lol Rolling Eyes

There has never been a rock or gem I didn't like....lol

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:29 pm

Thanks

Astro for the link
I have been to that mine with my sisters. I will forward that link to them...
You always have so much great info..

Dredger Joined: 09 Feb 2011 Posts: 487 Location: ohio

all wonderful finds ... great pics guys !!!!!!

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:38 pm

I love these pictures and post!

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:14 pm

Wasn't Sam at Hiddenite last weekend?

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 11:03 pm

jim1966 wrote:

Wasn't Sam at Hiddenite last weekend?

Sam was there too. I have never met him and was hoping to run into him.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 6:44 am

mitchnc wrote:

jim1966 wrote:

Wasn't Sam at Hiddenite last weekend?

Sam was there too. I have never met him and was hoping to run into him.

You can't miss him if you know what to look for!!! Laughing

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:29 am

Man, couldve happened to any one of us too, thats what I like about these stories. Gives me hope!

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 10:38 am

I'm gonna have to add this place to my bucket list.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:06 am

We are having another dig there April 20th and 21st. You have to be a MAGMA member to attend. They have a free membership and also a membership that costs $15 per year. You get various discounts with the paid membership. It really is worth going to this place. It is considered hallowed ground among rock hounds. It's a lot of work, but anyone who has prospected knows how much work that can be. Jamie is planning on pumping out the entire quarry for the next dig, so it should be good.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:08 am

I have a batchelor party for my buddy that Saturday, Daughter's birthday that Sunday. I will make it there one day.