graves1

Hello all, had a great time at Graves Mountain today. Travis, RJ and I left Asheville about 6:30 this morning and headed to Georgia. We met Jerry and Tina F. in South Carolina and headed to the mine. There we finally got to meet Geodepat from Florida. Riviera was there with several members of the Charlotte club. I forgot my camera so all you get is the crystal pic at the end of this report. I have been collecting at Graves for over 10 years. Anybody who has done any serious collecting here usually has at least a dozen or so nice rutile specimens on their shelf. In 1995, me and my friend Bill opened a pocket of rutile and removed over 50 crystals. I still have the biggest ones in my collection. Everyone says that the rutile is the hardest thing to find at Graves, I disagree. I think well formed large lazulite crystals are the hardest things to find. I was hunting for the big lazulites today. I found my biggest crystal ever, so it made my trip worthwhile. After hunting for lazulite, quartz crystals, kyanite and some small rutile crystals we headed to the parking area where Jerry fired up the grill. We stuffed ourselves on sausage hot dogs and a home baked cake that Tina brought (thank you Tina!) everything was great. Tomorrow we're heading to the Little Pine with Geodepat. Here are a couple of pics of the lazulite crystal I found.

Crystal measures 2.5" x 1.5" x 1"

Graves Mountain has been a mecca for rockhounds for years, it is probably the most famous collecting site in Georgia. The geology of the site is very complex, the original rocks were probably deposited during the Pennsylvanian Period (310-280 million years ago). During the late Pennsylvanian or early Permian Period (290-250 million years ago) the region experienced folding and heating, as the region was heated the sedimentary rock metamorphosed into the schists and quartzite that now composes Graves Mountain. The dominant rock here at Graves is a pyrite/sericite/kyanite/quartz rock, this is a metamorphic rock, the primary ore is kyanite. Commercial mining began in 1963, at one time this mine produced half the kyanite in the United States.

The variety of minerals to be found include: barite, jarosite, phosphosiderite, variscite, quartzite, quartz, rutile, ilmenite, kyanite, pyrite, lazulite, pyrophyllite, hematite, goethite, limonite, sulphur, iridescent hematite, etc.. Mined many years for industrial kyanite, the area is now closed to commercial operations, fortunately the site is still open to rockhounds from all over to collect the excellent specimens found there. Graves is located near central Georgia, the site is open to collecting by appointment only, you do not have to be a member of a club to access the site or collect, you will need to contact the caretaker Jr. Norman at: 706-401-3173

American Rockhound