Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:14 pm Posts: 640 Location: Hohe Tauern N.P., Austria
Welcome Harjo!
Nice to see you here, I know I still owe you the report of my september trip to the valley!
To all the others on the forum: Harjo is the one who found the best pieces over the last decades in the valley. A really unmatchable prospector and he has extremely profound knowledge in general mineralogy.
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 34 Location: Holland
Hi Nikolaus,
As you know, the emeralds are there, I just had to pick 'em up ....
Here's one more, the crystal is over 3 cm. (3,1 x 1,2 cm.), not as good in quality as the ones before but then again it's BIG....
All the best whishes to you too for 2006!
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 34 Location: Holland
....post scriptum.....
In the valley next to the Habachvalley (the Untersulzbachvalley) there's a locality famous for another gemstone, Epidote.
Spectacular specimen have come out of the Knappenwand, some of them have been cut into brilliant gems.
Here's one I found a couple of days after I found the Emeralds pictured above.
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:14 pm Posts: 640 Location: Hohe Tauern N.P., Austria
Everyone is warmly welcome to join me and / or Harjo in trips to the area! As it is quite unlikely to have all of us there at the same time, just give me a P.M. as soon as you know you have time to come. You will get the true insight and all the hints on where to find what...
We are there anyway, as you said LaShawn: It is truly addictive...
I need my green stuff on a yearly basis... at least two weeks
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 34 Location: Holland
Right Nikolaus!
And if you look and dig you can find loads of really good stuff.
For instance, the Habach valley is famous for it's Emeralds (rightly so!) but last summer I opened a cleft containing hundreds of sharp Anatase crystals, big Quarzes (Rock crystal up to 15 cm.) and Rutile xx up to over 2 cm. big.
Also nice Titanite xx (green, yellow and brown, also in gem quality) can easily be found there....
For those of you that live in the states....look at the site of dealer John Betts, he has some good "field" info on his site (mainly east coast..).
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 34 Location: Holland
Congratz, Nikolaus!
Can you mail me a photograph of the piece?
The thing was, we had to leave for Holland the next day, I didn't have any time left to dig any further
Happy though you guys found some more!
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:14 pm Posts: 640 Location: Hohe Tauern N.P., Austria
Jung Kee,
The big difference to other deposits (Like the ones in the U.S.) is that everyone can go there and search for minerals and keep the finds. All you have to do is follow the rules of the national park: Only light mining tools (Sieves, hammer, a.s.o), no use of any machines, no camping in the park, no littering, no explosives, no waterpumps, no destruction of flora and fauna, searching only allowed in the secondary weathering deosit, so no extraction from the primary deposit (Crystals that are still attached to the mother rock in the mountain itself.)
It is one of the last adventures of Europe and a very good choice for gem - related holidays in one of the most beautiful landscapes one could imagine.
I am just about to finish my book project on the deposit, will inform the forum on it when the work is done. Page hits on this thread indicate that n english version is not a bad idea....
_________________ Gemstones are everywhere. You just have to dig deep enough to reach them.
We almost went to dig emeralds for our holidays this summer The kids were really keen on digging up their own gemstones but with work commitments we just ended up without enough time to make it worth the drive... A week on the French Atlantic coeast instead
Some questions please...How close to the valley can you get a vehicle?
If there is no camping allowed in the park where does everyone sleep? Is there camping close by?
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:14 pm Posts: 640 Location: Hohe Tauern N.P., Austria
Frank,
You can park your car at the entrance to the valley. Personal traffic inside the park is prohibited. There is a taxi shuttle from the entrance to near the deposit inside the valley. Rooms are available in two huts that are inside the valley about 1 1/2 to 3 hours of the actual deposit. You need early reservations for these places sice many frequent visitors (like me ) occupie the limited amount of sleeping places during the summer. These huts are open from end of may to the beginning of september.
There are perfect hotels and places outside the valley (Every category you wish to, even special childrens hotels, wellness resorts etc.) From these places you can go into the park via the shuttle taxi during the day to prospect.
It is wise to book a guided mineral tour in the beginning. These tours, led by experienced Rockhounds, show you the techniques for prospecting, as well as the mineralogical background of the deposit. Most important is the knowledge of the mother rocks of the gems you also get tought during these tours.
_________________ Gemstones are everywhere. You just have to dig deep enough to reach them.
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:41 am Posts: 2 Location: Zalaegerszeg, Hungary
Hi!
First sorry for my por english... !
Last year our little mad mineral-fan group visited the Habactal valley for 3 days. Fortunately we found good articles on the Internet and Lapis magazine, ang Google Earth also help us to plan our tour.
Our goal was only to discover the valley, and maybe find some mineral. So we hiked a lot and found some nice "stone" except 2 emeralds and some berills.
The felt us so good that this year we plan to go there again, this year maybe for 5 days. Now we can rationalize our equipment and we have a concepcion where to look for emeralds. But we are interested in other locationc in the valley or in the surrounding valleys.
So we need some help to find some localities and some informatin, how to collect there. If it's possible we like to join some experts there - for example Nicolaus and Harjo
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