Graves Mountain, Georgia
(click on picture to enlarge)
Hey gang,
Chrissy and I spent the weekend digging in northeast Georgia. We spent most of our time at Graves Mountain near Lincolnton. For those of you who haven't been to Graves Mountain, the following picture and computer generated artwork derived from the first picture, should give you a flavor of the place.
If you want to see more pictures of Graves Mountain, click on the little miner dude below for a slideshow featured on McRocks.com (scroll down on the slideshow page to Grave Mt. Slideshow).
We joined up with a couple friends to try out another digging spot in the mine. We were mostly interested in finding rutile crystals but we would settle for any of the many other goodies that we might find along the way. We found rutile in matrix and also goethite and quartz crystals that are coated in highly iridescent hematite.
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rutile in matrix
iridescent hematite/goethite and pyrophyllite
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quartz crystals covered in iridescent hematite
We discovered some very unusual specimens - some that I had never seen before in the over 5 years that I have been digging there. Some of the rutile crystals on a matrix of mostly quartz, mica, pyrophyllite and fine-grained/massive rutile have somehow had their interiors hollowed out leaving outer shells that are partially to completely filled with goethite and hematite. I have tried to properly represent this phenomenon with the following set of pictures:
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Click on pictures to enlarge
Click on pictures to enlarge
We spent part of the day on Saturday at an amethyst location a couple counties away. We broke rock for a few hours and retrieved some specimens with small water clear quartz crystals with a few larger secondary amethyst crystals.
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It was a hardworking two-day trip but worth every shovel full and swing of the hammer. We drove home a bit tired but feeling good about our trip.
KOR
Mike