Beaver Creek Mine and the Dome Rock

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What's new for 2015

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  New Southeast Area:

  Complete Pockets:

  Erosion Control:

  Skinny Minnie Pocket:

2015 was an exciting year. I started to extend the dome rock exposure to the east. The purpose was to prove that the formation did in fact extend eastward and uphill and, indeed, it was proven true. Part of my goal was to also find the source of topaz that we found in 2014, however, time did not permit. This is not a bad thing, because I got bogged down (literally in clay) with the Skinny Minnie Pocket (see special section devoted to this pocket.). 
The Skinny Minnie Pocket was discovered as part of the eastward expansion of the crystal dome. It is by far the most prolific producer of good quality crystals found thus far. It was still being exposed until operations were shut down by snow in November of 2015. Refer to the page dedicated to the Skinny Minnie Pocket for a detailed explanation and a view of the major findings.
In working on the new section of the mine I realized that I was creating an erosion problem - not that I did not already have that in other sections. Specifically, the uphill cliff that I was creating (on average 12+ feet high), would be impacted by rain and surface water flow. So I placed plastic over the new erosion problem area. Long story short, it worked until the wind had torn apart some of my plastic toward the end of the season.
Pockets are typically formed with a top and a bottom and have crystals growing on both surfaces. Most of the crystal pockets on our dome rock are bottoms only. The tops have been eroded, broken off and floated downhill. When I find them, they are saved as "garden rocks". By the time I get to them, the quality of the tops are usually not nearly as good as the bottoms.

Neil giving talk about new area of mine.

After digging for most of the spring and summer hard rock and pegmatite pockets were reached.

This particular pocket extends up hill and to the east. Unfortunately it is currently covered with 10 plus feet of dirt.

As I dug down hill and to the east more crystals were exposed.

What to do with the overburden (boring dirt). Some was moved out of site on my terraces. This was dumped over the side for George to move with his backhoe next spring.

Even closer.
Closest.

Long view.

Little closer.
Closer.

Zooming in:

In 2015 an area was uncovered that revealed 2 intact pockets. They will remain untouched for demonstration purposes.

6 mil plastic draped over the beginning of the new section upper hill.

Older section with boulder sitting on a ever reducing pile of decomposed granite.

Eroded underside of shelf getting ready to collapse in next year or so.

Upper intact pocket.  Zooming in.

Plastic extended over entire upper section of dirt hill / cliff.

Erosion followed by shelf collapse.

Long view.

Closer.
Close.
Closest.
Lower intact pocket.  Zooming in.
Close.
Closest.
Aerial view of property.

  Views of the Crystal Dome Rock:

Close up Aerial view of the property.  The crystal dome is the light patch to the upper left of the house.
Close in view and description of a pocket in the crystal dome rock.  Thanks to John for identifying the various parts.
Long view of the crystal dome.
  Lower section:
About the lower section:

The lower section of crystal dome was opened up and expanded in 2014. This involved the first use of a backhoe, as well as, the usual digging by hand. So far there are several major features appearing.- The angle of the formation is more vertical than the upper section.
- There is a dominance of good color and size amazonite with much less smoky quartz than in the upper section.
- The right side right side contains mostly amazonite with many twins.
- The upper left portion contains a cleavage looking pocket with large amazonite crystals.
- The lower center contain a basin like pocket that shows some smoky quartz that are amongst the largest in the entire crystal dome.
The digging continues in a downhill direction. Who knows what else we will find.

Newly exposed lower section of dome.  Rain and cleaning will show more crystals over time.

Lower Section:

A large number and variety of crystals were found in the bottom or basin of this pocket. Unfortunately, they were all loose and probably floated down from above and just collected in the basin.

As you can see the pocket appears to be long with good color working its way down to the bottom or basin.

Early in the cleaning out process -  lots of mud and dirt.

Some large well-formed smoky quartz and amazonite remain intact in the basin or bottom of the pocket.

(Check out the section under Mine Products dealing with Processing the Crystals from Basin Pocket.)

The Basin pocket:
The Cleavage pocket:

In the top portion of the lower section of the crystal dome is another river like formation of crystals stemming from two large rocks with large amounts of amazonite in both. Hence the name Cleavage Pocket.

Looking downhill.

Still requiring much cleaning by me and mother nature more goodies are to be found.

Looking up hill at several crystal pockets.
A freshly uncovered pocket of crystals.
A close up while looking up hill.
Digging out a crushed pocket.
A nice pocket after man and mother nature (rain) cleaned it out.
Another close up of a new find.
Crystals are embedded all over the dome.
An amazonite and smoky quartz pocket partially cleaned out.
  Upper section:
Newer Photos:
Older Photos:

Part of the early discoveries is Hidden Pocket. It gets its name from the fact that, as we dig this out, we find that there is a cavern or cavity under the rock surface to the left of the hole that is encrusted with crystals.

A long view of the upper section of the crystal dome. The pockets are more easily identified than in previous photos.

Larger rocks and small boulders rolled & pushed downhill.
Rock debris excavated by hand piled out of the way.
Man made hill created from tailings.

Another view of boulder pile.

  Leftover Material - Tailings:

  Close & Closer:

This is a series of paired pictures showing large pockets and then zooming in to see better definition of the pockets.
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