Pegmatite digging for green beryl in South Carolina

Bryan major and I along with Amos Cunningham digging for green beryl in this pegmatite near Due West, S.C.

A thin sheet-like sill, when this pegmatite lenses outwards along it's length you will find beryl up against dark gray or black smoky type quartz
The pegmatite is hundreds of feet long.
























































Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2012 05:55PM by Jason Barrett (2).

Thanks for the photos and sharing your finds of beryl. Reminds me of Amelia Co. Va. when I used to explore there for beryl. Good luck to you! Hope you find some other minerls also there-I know you will be looking for them.

I agree, thanks for the pictures they are great. The smile on his face says it all.

Gee nice story in pictures---that looks so fun!

Ann McDowell

Backhoe.

I wants.

T

Nice Beryl. Have you found anyt6hing other than beryl and massive smokey qtz/ feldspar there?
Also was this a commercial mining operation (gravel/fill sand/crushed) before or is this a new location? Intersting looking vein type peg. We have similar ones but most are large lenses of coarse mica,schorl and feldspar with a quartz core. The Beryl in many of this is similar in association in that it exsit adjacent to the smokey quartz masses or along the massive quartz core border.

Also one more question, if this is a non-commercial venture, how can you afford the equipment. Most people up here (New England) that are working pegs have considerable investment involved before they even begin to find anything of value and specimen mining Beryl, unless it is VERY productive, will seldom yeild a profit or even cover expense. Nice big track hoe rental here goes for $300 and hour not counting the to from transportation charge. At least it does not need to be blasted.

Anyway best of luck and keep following that line ( maybe look for a down slope in the vein and follow that into the hill).

^most of our pegmatites here in southern Idaho are the same way; large mica, massive (non-crystalline) quartz, and feldspar; sometimes if you are lucky you can find a few low-grade garnets or some decent black schorl crystals- I found the latter on a rock hunting trip last weekend but I have been fruitlessly searching for beryl crystals in Idaho for years. Sounds like you hit the jackpot there in South Carolina. I wanna go there now.