Last winter we discovered that frozen dirt and snow doesn't necessarily mean the end to our mining season. There are several mines that offer gem gravel by mail. I was particularly pleased with Spectrum Sunstone mines. They have a sidebar on the right side on their website (http://www.highdesertgemsandminerals.com/html/spectrum_sunstone_mines.html) offering contact to get gravel, $135 with shipping for 5 gallons of gravel. I ordered mine from their winter caretaker, who was posting on a facebook rock group, but the material and price is the same either way.
Here's what the gravel I got looked like:
The easiest way to find the sunstones was to get the gravel wet and use sifting pans and pick out anything shiny. Fun sidebar; the larger lava rocks sound like Rice Krispie Treats when you put water on them!
Here's the best colors from my gravel, I still got a lot more champagne colored stones as well, but these colored pieces, especially watermelon (red and green combo) pieces are the most valued.
Here's the whole haul I got including the champagne colored stones:
Finally, I sorted through all those sparkly pieces to find some facet-able pieces and cut a simple 6 Main Round gemstone with a design from one of my mentors, Ernie Hawes. It's no surprise how satisfying finding a stone yourself and cutting it into a gemstone is, check back for my adventure with Sapphire gravel in my next post.