Have you ever imagined finding precious gemstones or treasure? Do you have an interest in Gemology? I recently watched a program called "Cash and Treasures" on the Travel Channel. Basically, the hostess goes around to different locations in search of treasure. The episode that sparked my interest was when the hostess when to the Himalaya Mine to look for precious gemstones. With a name like Himalaya Mine, I expected it to be in some remote location in Asia. Instead, I learned the Himalaya Mine is right in my backyard. I live in San Diego County and as it turns out the Himalaya Mine is just a short drive from my house. The mine has an interesting history that is a bit too long to go into much detail here but it's claim to fame is that is was the largest producer of pink tourmalines for the last empress of China.
What I learned from the show was that for a small fee you could go and dig through the "tailings" from the mine. Tailings are more or less what is left over when they blast or dig in a mine. The mine owner(s) typically look through the material they blast or dig out of the mine once or twice to find any obvious gemstones, then they put everything else into a big pile. That big pile or piles is what is known as the tailings. The hostess of the "Cash and Treasures" show was lucky enough to find a large pink tourmaline while digging through some of those tailings. She later had that pink tourmaline cut into a very nice gemstone and set in a piece of jewelry. The finished product appraised for thousands of dollars according to the show.
I have been around long enough to know you don't get something for nothing but I love Gemology and the thought of digging through a bit of dirt to find a gemstone sounded like a lot of fun to me. So, I did a little google search to get the details for the Himalaya Mine and headed off to try my luck. I drove up to Lake Henshaw located in North San Diego County. They bring the tailings down from the mine and deposit them in a campground behind a little country store by the lake. I asked for directions from the girl behind the counter at the country store and after following a small road into the campground I arrived at my destination.
What I found was not all that impressive at first blush. There were a number of troughs surrounding what looked to be a shallow lawyer of rocks in the dirt. I was greeted by a young man in charge of the operations. He informed me that they had not yet received their tailings for the day and that the tailings should be along shortly. I was there bright and early not wanting to miss any moment of my gem hunting adventure and the new tailings showed up within and hour or so after my arrival. The price for trying your luck was $75. I did not remember to bring any cash with me but was able to pay with a charge card.
All the necessary gem hunting equipment was provided on location. After a short education on how to sift through the material I was on my way hunting for gems. First you start out by using a shovel to place the tailings into a large painters bucket. You then take that bucket to your trough. Shovel a bit of the tailings into a square box screen, give it a few shakes to get the loose dirt off and then place the screen into the trough to get the remaining dirt off the stones. After a few shakes in the water trough you lift your screen to look for your gemstones. If anything is there you will probably see it quickly. The tourmalines really stand out from everything else. Mostly I found pink tourmaline, but also green and occasionally blue tourmalines. Along with the tourmalines I found plenty of quartz crystals, many with small tourmalines embedded in them.
We wrapped up sometime around three of four in the afternoon. By that time I was ready to call it a day. Hunting for gemstones is a lot of fun but definitely hard work. In the end I did not find a priceless stone or even a pricey one but I did find a number of less valuable stones. I could probably sell them for the amount or a bit more than it cost to find them. I've decided to keep them however. My next step is to learn how to cut stones. I am fortunate enough to have a willing tutor. So with any luck I will soon have some nicely cut gemstones that I found myself! Not bad for $75 and a little hard work.
If you are interested in learning more about gemology you can visit the Gemology Forum. They have a lot of information including sections on colored stones and gemstone identification.
