Nice video, I've dug the Crabtree more times that I can count and actually have some nice emeralds sitting on my shelf from there. What you are looking for is not the Gneiss actually... its the pegmatite itself that was part of the contact zone between the country rock (feldspar and quartz rich gneiss and biotite mica) and the pegmatite... That is the stuff you really want to look for. You can find plenty of nice yellow beryl and even the odd (crude not precious) aquamarine in the pegmatite core material (you gotta hit up the nearby Ray Mine for gemmy aqua!) and you can even score some garnet and tourmaline in the host gneiss. I once found pyrite there! (yes! Pyrite in a pegmatite! It was almost as cool as finding emerald!) But that contact zone is where the hot soupy rocks mixed, altered, and formed the beautiful emerald that Tiffany & Co. once sought on this hunk of land... It's thought that the pegmatite brought up the beryllium and silicate material from the mantle and the host gneiss provided the chromium in the surface rock which served as the chromophore to turn that common beryl into precious EMERALDS! (it can also be vanadium at other mines, Russian emeralds are often colored by vanadium and there is a subtle blue hue to that emerald... the Chromium makes Crabtree emerald just a GORGEOUS vivid spring green),... You know you have "the good stuff" when you find chunks of the white pegmatite and one side is covered in a flat, slick coating of biotite mica... (hint, dig in the edges of hill where others seldom stray, the top is largely picked clean and well scanned down to a foot and a half) sometimes the emeralds are hidden under the biotite and you need to scrape it off (TEDIOUS WORK) to reveal the treasure! I often wonder how many folks took home a "funky looking black and white rock" and didn't realize they have a honker of an emerald just millimeters under the biotite. Cheers! Thanks for the nice video about these historic sites! It brings back such nice memories of one of my favorite NC geological sites! Also, do not go here alone if you can help it! Always take a buddy, there is deep water here and BIG boulders which could pin you down, also black bears are commonly seen here and it is REMOTE as it gets... go with a buddy if you can help it.
I went in the 70's,was standing by wash out area,girl asked me what they looked like? She was beautiful, I describe a six sided crytal,etc. She reaches by my foit,picked up a crystal 2 "long,1/2 "wide,clear on one end,but,the last 40% was the cleanest green clear emerald, I've ever seen,and,I use to work for tiffany and co. Thanks,for the vidio. I went,back,w/permission, 15 yrs ago? Looked like they picked it clean. Oh,the mine operation was gonna give her her money back,for crystal. $20. I told her,to 'hang on to that,that's why you came here" probably easy,cut a 10 ct amazing emerald. !
Nice video, I've dug the Crabtree more times that I can count and actually have some nice emeralds sitting on my shelf from there. What you are looking for is not the Gneiss actually... its the pegmatite itself that was part of the contact zone between the country rock (feldspar and quartz rich gneiss and biotite mica) and the pegmatite... That is the stuff you really want to look for. You can find plenty of nice yellow beryl and even the odd (crude not precious) aquamarine in the pegmatite core material (you gotta hit up the nearby Ray Mine for gemmy aqua!) and you can even score some garnet and tourmaline in the host gneiss. I once found pyrite there! (yes! Pyrite in a pegmatite! It was almost as cool as finding emerald!)
But that contact zone is where the hot soupy rocks mixed, altered, and formed the beautiful emerald that Tiffany & Co. once sought on this hunk of land... It's thought that the pegmatite brought up the beryllium and silicate material from the mantle and the host gneiss provided the chromium in the surface rock which served as the chromophore to turn that common beryl into precious EMERALDS! (it can also be vanadium at other mines, Russian emeralds are often colored by vanadium and there is a subtle blue hue to that emerald... the Chromium makes Crabtree emerald just a GORGEOUS vivid spring green),...
You know you have "the good stuff" when you find chunks of the white pegmatite and one side is covered in a flat, slick coating of biotite mica... (hint, dig in the edges of hill where others seldom stray, the top is largely picked clean and well scanned down to a foot and a half) sometimes the emeralds are hidden under the biotite and you need to scrape it off (TEDIOUS WORK) to reveal the treasure! I often wonder how many folks took home a "funky looking black and white rock" and didn't realize they have a honker of an emerald just millimeters under the biotite. Cheers! Thanks for the nice video about these historic sites! It brings back such nice memories of one of my favorite NC geological sites!
Also, do not go here alone if you can help it! Always take a buddy, there is deep water here and BIG boulders which could pin you down, also black bears are commonly seen here and it is REMOTE as it gets... go with a buddy if you can help it.
Fun and informative video!
I went in the 70's,was standing by wash out area,girl asked me what they looked like? She was beautiful, I describe a six sided crytal,etc. She reaches by my foit,picked up a crystal 2 "long,1/2 "wide,clear on one end,but,the last 40% was the cleanest green clear emerald, I've ever seen,and,I use to work for tiffany and co. Thanks,for the vidio. I went,back,w/permission, 15 yrs ago? Looked like they picked it clean. Oh,the mine operation was gonna give her her money back,for crystal. $20. I told her,to 'hang on to that,that's why you came here" probably easy,cut a 10 ct amazing emerald. !
u are so beautiful !