Prospectors on the Weather Channel

[Number9]

Number9,

You are totally wrong about Chunky Gal Mountain in North Carolina! I have been there many times and there is not only still a fair abundance of Rubies and Sapphires in the almost Zoisite type matrix rock there called Smaragdite, there is also some veins of Adventurine. The mine site was mined heavily back during WWI and early in WWII for the aluminum found in the matrix that also contains the Rubies and Sapphires to produce aircraft engines. Tiffany's also mined it for Rubies and Sapphires as there were and probably still is some of Gem quality. The site was also been mined several times prior to WWI for lower grade Rubies and Sapphires that were used to make Industrial Abrasives. In fact, I have a rock in my' basement weighing approximately 300 pounds which is covered with Rubies and Sapphires and which my daughter found and refused to leave behind. I had to go back to the car and get two of the many old, long curtains that we purchased at a Yard Sale to cover the seats in the car to keep them clean. I took the two curtains to where the rock was, tied them togther, placed the rock in the middle and drug the rock over 150 yards back to the car. There are also some nice specimens of the smaragdite, corundum and adventurine occurring together to be found which produced bluish/grey/green stones in veins that has aluminum in them and which make very beautiful cabochoned stones suited for pendants and rings. When a really nice piece is cabochoned in the correct manner, the aluminum inside the stones, causes them to sparkle in the light and sunlight. Since this location is in the National Forest, there is a limit to how much of the Rubies, Sapphires, Adventurine or the matrix rocks you can bring out or as they call it, harvest! Back in the late 1990's, a fellow from New York found a very large deposit of Adventurine there. He enlisted the help of several other guys and they were blasting the rocks out, collecting the Adventurine and selling it to the Japanese. They were eventually caught along with their Japanese buyers when the met at a dock I believe in South Carolina and sold the Adventurine. Needless to say, they all spent some quality time in Federal Prison!

Also, off the backside of Chunky Gal Mountain (the Nantahala Lake side) there is a creek containing many, many specimens of White (not clear) Sapphires compressed into conglomerates with other rocks and possible corundum, that are so dense and hard, that a piece the size of a baseball can weigh over 5 pounds and will literally burn up several diamond saw blades to cut through them.

If you decide to go and look for some of the rocks containing Sapphire, Ruby and Adventurine, it would be best to go in the late fall, winter and early spring months as there are a lot of Rattlesnakes in this area and some have made dens in the holes that prospectors have made in extracting rocks. I went one summer and had one buzz me but it was so well hiiden that I could not find it, so I slowly back away from the buzzing, went back to my' truck and left.

http://www.corunduminium.com/ChunkyGal.htm

Ruby Zoisite | Jewelry Making Blog | Information | Education | Videos (scroll down to the pics comparing Ruby Fuchsite, Ruby Zoisite and Ruby Smaragdite)


Frank

Hey Frank.. I Never said the Gal didn't have corundum!? I said, most of the pay mines at Cowee Valley was salted now.

Oh.. I know every tree on the Gal by it's first name!
... I first hunted her in the 1970's.

"...called Smaragdite."

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