Fieldtrip Report:
Diamond Hill Machine Dig!
Antreville, S.C.
April 2008Report by: Rick Jacquot
Fieldtrip Report:
Diamond Hill Machine Dig!
Antreville, S.C.
April 2008Report by: Rick Jacquot
Some of the crystals were formed singly, others in veins and pockets. Many of the plates were made of drusy crystal with large amethysts attached and covered with a black manganese coating. Here Bryan exposes a drusy plate.
In the ground...
And out!
Basecamp didn't get a lot of use. We would get up in the morning, eat and head down to the pit. We would break for about a half hour for lunch and then continue digging till dark.
Towards the end of the dig, the crew uncovered a huge plate. The next day or so we would have to figure out how to remove it.
We decided to use the trackhoe to lift the plate and place it on the back of my truck.
Once it was in the air, we got our first look at the underside.
We had to place the plate on blankets and then turn it over onto a waiting pallet.
Chet points at a large crystal cluster. The piece has several crystal rosette clusters with 2-4" crystals and many side pockets with perfect crystals. Some of the tips were dinged on top unfortunately, but it is still the largest amethyst plate I have ever seen.
Once on the pallet, we loaded it on the back of Maggie.
Big plate on truck, I used Mark instead of a quarter to show the size.
