Ray Mica Mine, Hurricane Mountain, Burnsville, Yancey County, North Carolina, USAi

Regional Level Types
Ray Mica Mine	Mine (Care and Maintenance)
Hurricane Mountain	Mountain
Burnsville	Town
Yancey County	County
North Carolina	State
USA	Country

The Ray Mine is a historical mica mine and famous mineral collecting locality that is located on the slopes of Celo Knob of the Black Mountains. The mine was originally worked as early as the 1890s, however most of the work on the mine was done during the Second World War as mica became a vital resource.

Today, the mine is part of Pisgah National Forest and is a designated mineral collecting site, and has been for almost a century. Geologists and hobbyists alike have searched the tailings of the Ray Mine for decades, owing to it rich diversity of minerals and easy access.

The mine is best accessed by going to Burnsville through US Highway 19 East, then turning into State Route 197 continuing until you reach State Route 1109. From there you'll continue until you reach conveniently Ray Mine Road from which you'll reach the end which will have a small gravel parking lot that serves as access. You may or may not have a hound dog follow you down the trail, he's there sometime and not there others, but he's friendly. The mine itself is down the trails, there are unfortunately a lot of foot trails that pop up, if you get lost, follow the creek and look for the white rocks. Once you see the white rocks piled high, you've reached the start of the tailings pile.

The host rock is a pegmatite, one typical of the type found in other parts of the Spruce Pine Mining District. Granitic in composition, the dominant minerals are feldspar, smokey quartz and muscovite mica. The main target is beryl var. aquamarine, it's been known to occur at gem grade at this site. The other accessory minerals found most commonly include almandine garnet, microcline var. amazonite, tourmaline (typically black here), and rather flashy moonstone. There's a huge list of rare accessory minerals that can be found as well, such as columbite.

The best way to approach this mine is to find boulders that have a good bit of quartz in them, and split them apart in search of aquamarines. If you're not really up for that, surface collecting can yield fine specimens as well, especially after a good rainstorm. Compared to the other mines in the area, Ray is most similar to Sinkhole, the differences being Sinkhole is less picked through and has more garnets but almost no aquamarine. Ray is fairly different from Crabtree because Crabtree has far more tourmaline and far fewer garnets or muscovite.

There has been some activity at the mine which worked folks into a frenzy, but I think it's a misunderstanding. The National Forestry Service recently went in and closed off some shafts and put new signs up because people kept stealing the old ones. Additionally, while it was extremely dangerous, I presume there was a time when you could go inside the 100-200 feet deep straight drop mineshafts if you were really feeling the urge to. Anyway, all the shafts were closed because of White Nose Fever, an extremely deadly wildlife disease that bat populations all across America have been getting decimated by. To limit the impact, the Forestry Service closed the shafts because the spores of the fungus that cause the disease can stick to bags and clothes and absolutely destroy the roosts inside the mines. Furthermore, the creek was always illegal to dig in, and for good reason, numerous salamanders including the threatened and extremely sensitive Hellbenders make it their home. Also, some standard stuff for Forestry Service lands is that you cannot use power tools, though hammers are alright, and you cannot dig a hole deeper than 4 inches (ca. 10 cm) to help prevent erosion from destabilizing the soil. Additionally, and anyone experienced has heard this before, you cannot sell anything you find there, it has to be for personal use only.

The Ray Mine is a spectacular public use site that really showcases what the Spruce Pine District has to offer. It's a must hit for any rockhound in Western North Carolina.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References