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[Sapphireminer]

This is still lapidary related but thought it best place to put up some photos of my sapphire mine. I am currently digging at 26ft only finding the odd stone at the moment as I have run into a band of sand about 2 feet thick need to push on until I get through it and hopefully get back onto good wash anyway hope you enjoy the photos. 

[Jhon P]

Looks like fun. Must be an old river bed buried under a lot of overburden. Show us some pictures of the rough you are finding

[Phishisgroovin]

i am interested in seeing the rough as well!
Is that air and power being brought down next to the ladder?

[Sapphireminer]

Hi will be home in 2 weeks so can photography the last pieces of rough . I was blowing air down the 90mm storm water plpe but now have a second shaft so I use the blowers down stairs to move the air around its cooler in summer not blowing the hot air from the surface . I run the power leads down the side of the storm water pipe they come from my 6.5kva light tower which I converted to a straight gen set. The sapphires are in the old river bed wash about 45 million years old they where layed down a bit before my time. I will put up some more photos later today of my above ground plant just need to get laptop going to retrieve photos.
Dave

[Sapphireminer]

some more photos . The first is a lot of billy boulders I have stacked up. When you find billys it is usually a good indicator for sapphire the next 2 are the blowers I use to circulate the air.

[Sapphireminer]

Some more first is the bucket I use to send up the wash next is the processing plant.

[hummingbirdstones]

Very interesting, Dave.  Looks like it's lots of hard work!

[Phishisgroovin]

are these star sapphires?
I wouldnt mind buying a couple nice pieces to play with straight from the mine.
The bonker rings my wife likes, the ones with bog rocks on them so when she is talking and her hands are moving around you stand way back or get bonked.

I would like to make a star sapphire ring like that lol

[Phishisgroovin]

my friends Glen & joan (owners of Jerrys rock & gems here in Kent) go to montana each year to their friends mine for pay dirt to sell in the store.

[rocks2dust]

Very interesting photos of your operation. Thanks for sharing them!

[ILMSteve]

Wow! That is a lot larger operation than I thought! I'll watch for updates. Thanks for showing this. I always wondered what it took to make it happen. 

[Jhon P]

 That’s why the stones are expensive. It’s not like you just walk around and fill your pockets

[Sapphireminer]

Its a lot of hard work. Use a jackhammer to dig then break up any larger pieces with a hammer wheelbarrow to hoist then sent up to tromel that takes out fines   (under 4mm ) and oversize ( over 30mm ) then is dropped into hopper . When the hopper is full 2 to 3 hours I come up cart away all the fines and oversize then start all the water going and process  the wash through the pulseator which uses water and a pulsing action to seperate the heavies being sapphires,zircon,iron stone etc. I find the odd bronze star but mostly blues and most have the green cross table. The darker green the cross table the darker blue the stone will look when cut. Last week I found a part of a dog tooth 7.5 carat ( sapphire that is still in its tapered  crystal shape looks like a dogs canine tooth) its a good blue with a yellow center ( called a Pharoahs eye) on a normal sapphire you work on loosing about 2/3 of the stone but when cutting a dog tooth as it is already shaped with a taper it may be as low as 1/3 loss. Of all sapphires found you work on 10 percent cutters 90 percent sling shot material . When you work it all out you better like eating baked beans and sardines as there is not to many steak diners.
Dave

[Ryaly2dogs]

Thanks for the photos Dave.  Great picture story telling of the situation.  Speaking for myself, this is one of those latent dreams I also carry around, hard to shake the romantic patina of operating a mine oneself! Alas, I have grown too accustomed to steak...keep 'em coming! 

cheers.