In July I visited the Rock Candy mine near Grand Forks, BC
There is a photo report. Don’t forget to click on the picture to see some more on the topic
This was a producing fluorite mine operated by Cominco, until it was closed in 1986
Bob Jackson, the current owner of the mine, explaining the deposit
Me, posing in front of my vug
My fluorite vug. The chisel is pointing to the fluorite cluster that I will publish in the next post.
Very cool vug with quartz druzes on top of green fluorite. If the quartz druze is thin enough, it conducts the colour of the fluorite matrix, giving to the specimen tender greenish hint. Awesome!
This guy was working out the quartz vug. This was his first rockhounding trip and he collected absolutely awesome specimens. Newbie luck.
Working on the fluorite vugs. This man went out with this bucket full of fluorite crystals
Bob Jackson found a barite vug, full of incredible clusters. He just spotted a small barite crystal in the mud. He started to wander around, trying to match the mud from crystal with something near by. It is unbelievable, but he found the source! He started digging, and exposed the vug. When he began to take out one stunning specimen after the other in front of me, I had lost my tongue. I was working a whole day just a few meters away from this spot. I’ve got my cool fluorites, but nothing close to this fortune. This is a classic example of real experienced field collectors work.
Bob taking out the barites from the pocket. All these muddy lumps around him are high-end lustrous barite clusters. I will post some pictures of them later.
The Rock Candy mine hut at the base of the mountain.
In the next post I will publish some videos of Bob working on the fresh barite pocket and a few pictures of the specimens I collected on this trip.
All these specimens can be seeing live at the upcoming Calgary Gem & Minerals show that starts next week!
