Turquoise Dig

TOM KIDWELL · **Posted:** Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:43 pm

I am leading a turquoise dig in Tonapah, Nevada on April 12th. This is at the
Royston mine. The cost is $100 per day paid to the mine owner. You can keep all you dig but hand tools only. I have ten people already signed up and have room
for a few more. Tonapah is about 4 hours drive north of Las Vegas or 3 hours south
of Reno. Contact me If you are interested.

Tom Kidwell

davegibson · **Posted:** Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:02 am

Looking forwards to your post regards the Turquoise dig

TOM KIDWELL · **Posted:** Sun Apr 20, 2014 6:22 pm

The dig at the Royston mine was a great success! The weather was great and
the mine tailings were full of nice turquoise as the warm winter had allowed the
mine owner to operate all winter. Our group numbered 16 and we were the first
group allowed into the mine to search the tailings since last Fall.

The Royston mine is a hard rock mine with the turquoise being found mainly in seams. The rock is dynamited out of the face of a cliff and the blocks of rock are then broken up to reveal the turquoise. I worked from 10am to 6 pm breaking up boulders with a sledge hammer. I came home with 6 five gallon buckets full of rock to be sawed to free the turquoise seams and a gunny sack full of smaller nuggets.
The turquoise I found ranged from dark to light blue and yellow green to emerald green. The mine is famous for its two tone stone of sky blue and emerald green (see photo below)

TOM KIDWELL · **Posted:** Mon Apr 21, 2014 3:09 pm

Photos of mined material

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Turquoise Dig

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Turquoise Dig

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