Fieldtrip Report:
Fieldtrip Report:
Diamond
Hill Mine,
Antreville, S.C.
Documentary Report,
Smoky Amethyst Crystals,
October 21st-November 2005
photos by: Lee Fleming, Whitney Kirk, Rick Jacquot
Hello all, this is a supplemental report that goes along with the fieldtrip report from October 2005, it is also to document the find of some of the best smoky amethyst crystals found at the mine. Our club, the Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association had joined once again with Chet Karwoski to conduct a machine dig at his Diamond Hill Mine in South Carolina. During this dig, a pocket of very high quality smoky amethyst quartz crystal was discovered, many, like myself who have visited this mine for over fifteen years had never seen such high quality material from this particular area in the mine. One of Chets digging partners David Smith, thought it would be nice to document and name the discovery, so we came up with the "Chunky-Dave Pocket". The name comes from Chunky the trackhoe operator whom without we would not have found the material, and for Dave Smith, whose sharp eye and talent for digging spotted the first crystals which led to the unique find. The find was actually made on the first day of a three day club event we had planned with Chet, Friday the 21st the trackhoe was working the various pits at the mine, skeletal, amethyst, and the smoky pit, the skeletal pit was, as always producing much nice material for the members, the amethyst pit had been less productive the last few trips and was again showing little prospect. Chunky had removed a large amount of overburden from the bottom of the smoky pit and the pit was showing a lot of virgin material to be searched. Dave Smith was working one of the pit walls when he found the first large crystals. The pit was worked by Chets digging crew Friday evening and all day Saturday, many nice crystal clusters were uncovered and removed.
Chunky and his trackhoe.
Mike and Jim Haege working the hole.
Mike showing one of the clusters recovered.
Following are some of the crystal clusters recovered that weekend:
The main pit.
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