100 Year Anniversary

Spring 2010 I am excited as this year starts.  I feel as this is the year of the big find . 100 years ago, in late summer 1910, Forrest Havey made a name for himself and the mine finding several major tourmaline pockets. The local and Boston papers had major articles on these finds. It was also reported in many papers throughout the rest of the country. Lewiston newspaper article Although the article talks much about value and carat weight many of the crystals were marketed to museums and universities. Some anonymous  university ended up with approximately 100 crystals from these finds. Much of the tourmaline found in  pockets is broken and does make excellent gem rough and many of the crystals from the Havey are very clean from inclusions giving them a higher value than included crystals from many localities. Prices mentioned in the article were retail prices and it was highly unlikely that revenues were anywhere near the estimated amount. It was interesting  to see that sensationalism in the news was very active back then as it is today.  This was a major tourmaline find and at the time one of the largest in Maine. This tourmaline also was of world class quality definitely some of the most desirable clarity and color. I had hoped to have hit a major tourmaline pocket before now but mining and finding can be two different things. At this point in time I had been mining for several years and I was ready to hit the big one. 2009 had given me a taste of what to look forward to and I was eager for more..

Things started off very early, February 13th to be exact. I have just gotten back from the Tucson Gem and Mineral show and after looking at the minerals out there and the warm weather I was ready to get started. We have not had any snow for over 3 weeks and there is very little on the ground. Very unusual for this time of year. If this is global warming it sure makes it nice in February. Still today is only in the 30's so it isn't really shorts weather. The first thing I needed to do was start lowering the floor which was not the best place to have to start this time of year. It meant pumping the water and moving the ice.  I am hoping that winter is over but it is still very early, On average winter holds on until the middle of March when things finally start warming and melting and heavy snow and freezing temperatures can linger into May. We are apt to get a foot of snow at any time and this would put a crimp in the mining. Thankfully the rest of the spring we had a couple of minor snow events with less than 2". Initiation for any new crew member is to jump through the hole in the ice and bring up some lepidolite, before the water is pumped down of course. Let's get Mikey, he will try anything and I believe he would if you told him there was something interesting down there.

Ice Fishing for Tourmaline. Who says mining in Maine isn't fun? Try and find Ray Sprague in this picture. The answer will be at the end of this blog entry. Very little snow for this time of year. The same date in 2008 had over 4' on the ground.

Montebrasite in blasted quartz under schorl


Rod Stone digging in the first quartz pocket of the year

Typically I don't like to work the mineralized area first thing and that was true this year. Until there are some warm days and the snow and ice are gone it can be difficult and uncomfortable. Ice can also trick you into thinking that it is some other interesting crystal. As the weather got a little more spring like some blast were done in the minerlaized zone and a small pocket of quartz was found. Nothing great came out but it was the start and it was still a long ways to the hundredth anniversary. Since starting to mine at the Havey there has always been promising areas to work. At times even as promising as it looks it doesn't always produce what you think it will. Getting an early start this year hopefully would prove fruitful.

schorl around the basalt dike

One of the quartz that came out of the pocket

 Of course you can't find Ray in the picture as Ray and winter mining do not go well together.