Fieldtrip report:
Ray Mica Mine,
Yancey County, N.C.
Part Two, Flood Series,
September 27th, 2004_______________
Hello all, as you know the Ray Mica Mine suffered severe flood damage last week which has unearthed much new material for us rockhounds. Last Friday John Deney and I conducted a fieldtrip to the site to see if it was possible for our club to make a larger trip there this coming Saturday. We found the backroads to the site and also found much nice material washed up in the creek. Our member Brian Taylor was in town this weekend because of yet another hurricane "Jeanne" which was pounding the Florida coast. Brian wanted to check out the Ray Mine but had to return to Florida before our trip Saturday, so I made a mini-fieldtrip with him today. Brian has only been to the Ray one time and did not find anything on that trip, today he was picking up beryl within five minutes of starting the search in the creek. I found out later that our member Dave L. had been to the site two days this weekend as well as several others. I will be back at the mine this Wednesday and Friday if anyone wants to come along as well as the club trip Saturday. I have talked to a couple of old timers who mined at the Ray, when this mine was being worked, some of the sorters or mica cobbers would seperate the rocks with beryl in them and put them in a pile, sometimes you will hit pockets where these piles were, I think I may have found one of these the last couple of trips, so far about fifty pounds of matrix material has come from one area, I will show the club members where this is Saturday (not before) so they can all find some good material. Along with the beryl, I have seen plenty of nice moonstone, feldspar crystals, amazonite, columbite, huge mica crystal specimens and more, I guarantee everyone should find some nice pieces. It seems some of our members are going to visit the site before Saturday either because they cannot come Saturday or whatever, so I plan to make a fieldtrip series of reports to show what is being found. Here are a couple of pieces I found today:
There is a lot of this smaller matrix material found scattered over the creekbed, crystal is 1.5" x 1".
This is the best piece I found today, the specimen measures 8" x 5", the crystal is a double terminated 3" x 3" beryl with no damage.
