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James Tovey's Blog

Working the Tripp mine 9-30-09

30th Sep 2009

The effort to widen the W/L pit top area bench went well. As anticipated, the area did not not produce much beryl crystal and what was found was common beryl. Because the area was so barren of beryl and the peg was consistently of poor quality, we could move it out quickly. This part of mining is one of the bitter tasks to be done.

TRIPP MINE LOOKING SOUTH WEST 9-20-09

TRIPP MINE, LOWER W-L BLAST PILES

We were all glad to be back working the better peg and ran into some nice beryl crystal and black tourmaline. We found some of this high quality tourmaline in 2007 but just a few specimens. As for this time we found a lot of the black tourmaline single and matrix specimens. I was able to prep about 25 specimens for the Franklin NJ show and only brought back 4. So not only the crew like the black tourmaline.

TRIPP MINE, BLACK TOURMALINE AREA

As for the beryl crystals the were mostly broken by the blast. That’s not a problem for us because the lapidary material pays the bills. The beryl crystals found are of good color and some large in size. Making for good lapidary material (beads, cabochons and figurines). But not much gem beryl rough was found.

TRIPP MINE SAWING OUT BERYL SPECIMEN

TRIPP MINE, BERYL CRYSTAL .75 X 2.75 LG.

LARGE BERYL CRYSTAL.

Because we are coming to the end of the mining season we will concentrate on the lower area of the W/L. The lower W/L is also the better peg making for a more fun experience. I have also started to pump out the old Tripp Mine pit. We will see what that tells us.
That’s it for now
Later
James Tovey
www.Toveco.com

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Comments

Hi Jim.....As always, it's interesting to see how things are progressing at the Tripp. It's hard to for me to imagine the drastic changes in material there in just a few feet, good beryl, poor Beryl, Golden beryl,, No beryl.....I guess i just expect things to be more consistent in a small area like you are working in. A friend of mine from NJ stopped at your booth in Franklin on Sat. to say hi and was impressed with the Black Tourmalines as was everybody by the sounds. He was going back to get some on Sunday but you were gone already. I would be very interested to see what kind of old stuff got thrown in the old pit, it would be neat to come up with some artifacts from the old mining days, at least it would be for me. Thanks for the update.....Andy

Andrew Brodeur
1st Oct 2009 12:48am

Hi Jim; That was me who stopped by and you definately would have headed back to your neck of the woods with one less Tourmaline but your booth was crowded-a good thing- and by the time we got to you, my son was starving and ready to head off to our favorite diner. Alas you were not there on Sunday. Perhaps another time.

David Bernstein
1st Oct 2009 3:35pm

David,
Check us out at the June 2010 Gilsum Rock Swap. We will be using a silent auctions to sell a great deal of the mine specimens.
Later
Jim

James Tovey
19th Oct 2009 12:24am

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