More Smoky Quartz

Late Fall 2010 Jim Nizamoff had heard enough about all the smokies that were coming out of the pocket, that he decided that he needed to come over and see what was happening. He jumped in the pocket and stayed for the rest of the day and never took a break, which meant no one else got to get in and dig the pocket. Frank Perham(known as the godfather of Maine pegmatite mining) stopped by as he was in the vicinity and thought he would check on the progress being made at the Havey. Frank is a great person to have stop by as he has seen most of what has gone in in the Maine mining scene for over 60 years. Maine miners are lucky to have Frank who is not only knowledgeable but is also very generous with his knowledge and time. He had picked a good day to come. As we got deeper in the pocket the quality of the quartz went down hill. We were still getting some smokies but most of the quartz were small milky quartz crystals. The interesting thing is that some very interesting minerals can be found below the quartz layer, so that it is well worth the time to see what is down there. We would be working below where Jim is, off and on for another 18 months finding material, but that will be discussed in later post.

Frank Perham inspecting a quartz specimen while Jim Nizamoff continues to work in the pocket

One of the smokies Jim pulled out while I was getting lunch

The deeper we got in the pocket the closer to the present floor of the mine we got and the more difficult the water situation became.  We was into mid November and the temperature high on average was in the mid 40's and usually cooler in the bottom of the mine so any water was cold to be in. As the quality of the specimens were decreasing as we got deeper I decided to do some additional blasting in an adjacent area and quickly came upon another quartz pocket. This one wasn't nearly as big and was cleaned out in an afternoon but it did produce some beautiful smokies.

Smoky Quartz pocket and to the left of the stick is a smoky quartz crystal buried in cleavelandite and kaolin

You can start to see the smoky starting to take shape

The Smoky turned over and covered in cleavelandite

The smoky after being rinsed off.

Even though we were finding some great material I took a day to build up and grade the road before things froze up for the winter. This would make for a smooth and dry ride in plus it would make it easier to plow come snow. I wish some of the other miners would maintain there roads a little better(hint hint), it would make it more pleasant when going for a visit. I think some of them use it as a deterrent for visitors. The way into the Havey is lucky in that the road is relatively short in comparison to some of the other mines.

Ron Larrivee came over and we decided to try one more time working the bottom of Otto's pocket. As I was hammering on the side near the bottom of the pocket I broke into another pocket area which had some additional smokies. These smokies were not as clean looking and they didn't have the transparency of the smokies from higher up or the same clean crystal faces. This seems to be very consistent at the Havey quarry that the best smokies come from near the top of the pocket.

newly graded access road

Ron Larrirvee a long time miner stands in front of Otto's pocket(some of the face and top of the pocket has been blasted away). He stopped by to help out on a warm day in early December. Warm for December, as you can see Ron isn't dressed lightly.