I am working on an Afghan emerald project right now. They need better mining equipment to go after emeralds. Right now they are using jack hammers and dynamite to do their mining. What other tools and equipment can we use to not cause cracking in the crystals?
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:44 pm Posts: 1079 Location: Washington State
This is NOT based on any experience, but just an idea. If a person was not too concerned about speed they could saw the face of the mine with vertical saw cuts, ( With the saws mounted on a gang and driven with a hydraulic motor so that the power source is not gassing the workers in the mine), and then just whack wedges into alternating cuts, spalling off the face in thin sections. Probably won't replace dynamite, since dynamite is cheap and really removes a lot of stuff FAST. On the other hand if they are close to the good stuff, dynamite is a good way to lose all of the value that might have been there. Any way you can get them, to send pictures of the mine? It sure sounds neat.
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Jim, good suggestions so far. I know that diamond chain saws are now being used at many hard rock gem mines in the U.S. for selectively removing pockets and crystal groups intact. Google for more info.
Dexpan is a material now being used in gem mines to crack rocks by expansion. It's poked into pre-drilled holes or crevices and it performs like ice expanding, breaking host rock gently without the damaging concussion of explosives. Again, Google that name and you'll get plenty of informative hits.
Hopefully those products may be adaptable to your mining situation. No fire in the hole!
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 8:32 am Posts: 1730 Location: Suwanee, GA US
Rick said what I was thinking. But on this list, contact Gustavo. He has our emerald cutter and has mining experience there too (Gustavo of the FFF4 emerald discussion in my youtube channel.) After that, a few of have contacts to Terry Ledford (who has worked Adam's Farm and is rumored to be working NAEM right now with Jamey.)
This is NOT based on any experience, but just an idea. If a person was not too concerned about speed they could saw the face of the mine with vertical saw cuts.
This works perfectly, I use this technique. A good old 14'' gas powered concrete saw and a set of wedge & shims work very well.
I know that in the big Emerald mines of Columbia, the ones in which the crystals are in veins of calcite, they pick the veins out carefully by hand so as to not damage the Emeralds.
In my humble opinion, dynamite is the last thing you want to use when mining hard rock for Emeralds.
Pls I want to mine out the emerald in a rock body roughly the size of a plot of land. It has been confirmed before to contain emerald and we have also seen beryl in the surrounding area. Don't know if to blast it as dat may destroy the emeralds in case its close to the surface. Or would dexpan work in this situation maybe safer. Or how can I can go about it to get the emerald safely out of this hard rock without damaging it
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Pls I want to mine out the emerald in a rock body roughly the size of a plot of land. It has been confirmed before to contain emerald and we have also seen beryl in the surrounding area. Don't know if to blast it as dat may destroy the emeralds in case its close to the surface. Or would dexpan work in this situation maybe safer. Or how can I can go about it to get the emerald safely out of this hard rock without damaging it
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IMG_20170824_082506_675.JPG [ 91.47 KiB | Viewed 6748 times ]
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
How about doing it like the guys do it, up in Maine. Jamie Hill, of the NAEM mine in N.C., almost went bankrupt mining emeralds, even after finding millions in emeralds. He had to figure out how to keep the mine running, yet pay the bills and cover the cost of more mining.
The best thing to do, I would think, is the same way they handle the fragility of the gem pockets up there. By going slow, and using pneumatic drills to prep blasting holes for the slow process of benching the rock, in small sections, only a couple feet wide, in the hopes you don't have some of the blast penetrate any nearby pocket, that can't be seen yet. It happened often, if I recall, with Gary Freeman's mining of Mount Mica gem pockets. If you have read his Coromoto minerals site, and followed the detailed "diary" he wrote of each days mining progress, you would think he had put lots of rock behind him. In person, after visiting the mine and going underground, I was amazed at how little material is actually dug out, and thrown in tailings piles.
Blasting is the best thing to go with..they blasted at all the mines I have been to up in Maine. How else does one remove granitic overburden? If you have a good demolition dude, then it's easy to control the amount of rock removed per shot.
In the South, where I learned to mine rocks and crystals, we had only soft kaolinized pegmatites, and decomposed country rock to trouble ourselves with. Easy to dig, but dangerous to mine, if that makes sense.
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