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Apologies
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 485
So, I've been far and wide and upon returning found my sofa sublet in the great Kootenay Sofa shortage. No computer and the past couple of weeks have been living out of the back of my jeep (still) - without a computer, which makes for an erratic blog.
My apologies.
Last trip to Calgary, some jewelry making supplies, a cheaptastic tiny laptop, I'll attempt to catch up now...
Batshit Prospectors
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 592
So, at home after a fruitless prospecting trip, I'm again searching for the Fluorite Vein, at 5 Mile Point , this time online. And I came across this gem of a document, a prospectors report of a claim he had, which he believed held a lost mine of riches. These are submitted to the Government as "Proof of Work" on claim, there's tens of thousands online. But this one stood out - a few of the highlights below:
It's gold, everything from the "untitled placemark" to the "Whole area bright Purple and Green rock formation" and the slanted pasted on Fig 37. He didn't actually climb up to the rock, he's just trying to imply it's fluorite.
It goes on and on, a surreal mockery of a prospecting document drawn up by a confirmed lunatic.
You can read the entire thing here: https://aris.empr.gov.bc.ca/ArisReports/32678.PDF
5 Mile Point
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 521
A days prospecting adventure, 12 KM in and out, looking for an old fluorite vein marked on the MTO at 5 Mile Point. No sign of it. But a pleasant walk...
A maze out of river cobbles...
My First Sapphire...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 498
Now I've been there before, read the reports, knew they were there and returned to find my own. Sapphires. This outcrop, just past the avalanche/rockslide zone on the Slocan Valley Rail Trail. I walk the trail, my prospecting is kept low by the snow above the road, and I pass the avalanche zone, walk another kilometer, checking every outcrop, every inch...the report says they're in pockets in the black bands of the gneiss.
Garnets. Plenty of garnets. Garnets aplenty. But nothing that to me resembles a sapphire.
I dutifully bang off a couple of dozen pieces of rock from different zones and haul them off to the Chamber of Mines. Brad, Brad, he's my man. Last trip there was a beautiful young blonde, just graduated, bubbling and all the rest, but I'm about the rocks and I didn't trust her information. I trust Brad.
Brad quickly looks at my rocks and gives me the "nope nope nope". Brad's good. I got a lot more rocks for him, but that's for another day...
He gives me precise instructions. "They'll be small and grey..." he warns me, then shows me a giant blue one, 3 inches across, from Herb Hyder and the Revelstoke area. Yeah, I wouldn't have missed that, and I admire Herb's finding ability, but I need to spot them in the wild, or at least the signs that will lead me to them...
The next day:
A pegmatite/feldspar occurrence, take a photo for Brad.
The place he told me of, the sapphires in the feldspar next to the entrance of the "cave".
A close up of the feldspar. That's black tourmaline (schorl) in the upper right.
And closer:
See them? Grey, I bust one out and bring it in, the tiniest shit-sliver of a sapphire, 2mmX1mmX.5mm, show him the photos. Yep, yep, yep. But, really, who would fucking recognize this?
Still, know the small and you can find the big. The biggest from this claim, (or above this, this is a rail trail, not the claim) is over 500 grams (2500 Carats!), and colors range from a steel grey to a cornflower blue. So...I found one, now to find better!
Links: Herb Hyder's Sapphire Finds:
- https://www.rockngem.com/sapphire-discovery/
- https://www.mineral-forum.com/message-board/viewtopic.php?t=6116&view=previous
Yeah, don't google any further, the instagram and facebook are just disturbing. But he finds good shit.
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