Maine Pegmatites

Here are some pics and video from some famous pegmatites in Maine.

Havey quarry
Here is a video from the Havey quarry. I was chiseling a blue tourmaline crystal from the wall and trying to pry up some feldspar to find a pocket. That is my good friend scott who I went up there with. Right behind him in the wall was the main mineralized zone of the pegmatite(the dark area). Right to the right of that was lots of little purple apatite crsytals you could chisel out of little pockets. Right above scott's arm and that hole he is digging were some large green tourmalines of low quality. The older gentlemen standing at the top of the mine is Bob Whitmore, famous collector and owner of the world renowned Palermo mine in New Hampshire


Here is a pic of part of the blue tourmaline I was digging at


Here is a video of the whole mine from when it started in 1910(towards the left) to present day



Here I am standing in calf deep water digging with frank perham in the mineralized zone. Rarely does he ever get down and dig anymore so this was not only a treat for me but also for many of his friends who were here as well who never get to see him get his hands dirty anymore


Mt. Apatite
Here are some pics from Mt. Apatite where some of the finest royal purple apatites in the world have been found.










Here is scott searching through the dump piles


Here are some large feldspar crystals in the main pegmatite





Here is Al Falster from UNO. He is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world regarding the coloring chromophores of minerals and in particular tourmalines. Expert on pegmatites as well.


Mt. Mica

Some pics of Mt. Mica







You can easily see the contact zone between the country rock(shist) and the pegmatite




Underground at Mt. Mica


Short video walking up to Mt. mica behind Gary Freeman owner of the mine


Bennett quarry

This was a massive pegmatite. You can see the wall was like 100 feet high. this was where the famous "Rose of Maine" morganite crystal was found





Here is Al Falster again in the Bennett


Here is a cleaned out gem pocket


Here is scott with his whole arm inside a pocket


Here is a couple videos from the Bennett showing the pegmatite and how big it is and it's morphology


Here is a good video showing the cross section of the Bennett pegmatite


Here is a video of the Bennett showing the view. The Orchard pit is down to the right. Right where the trackhoe is at is where the Rose of Maine was found. You can see in the wall to the left where the pegmatite dips. As is the case with many pegmatite mines where it pinches or dips is often where you find the best gem pockets. The same is especially true at Mt. Mica


Emmons quarry

The Emmons quarry where lots of pollucite, apatite and smokey quartz is found along with maybe 80 other minerals. We were a mile away when they blasted. Ray Sprague had done a fresh blast just for us that day so we could hopefully find a fresh pocket which was a special treat. I actually used the information I had gleaned from pegmatology class that week to track down the most likely place for a pocket to be. I used all the telltale signs to determine the best place to start busting and prying rock. I found a pocket with a single reverse scepter smokey quartz crystal. The crystal is nothing special but the fact I used the knowledge I had recieved to track it down from a pocket that was not visible was more special to me. Not many places in america can you dig and uncover an actual pegmatite pocket. Most of the time it's dump piles you have to search through and not hard rock.

Here is Scott and I looking for pockets.


Here I am looking for a fresh pocket which I did find.


and the small reverse scepter smokey that came out of it. It went farther back and if I had more time I might have been able to find more










Here you can see Jim Nizamoff trying to pry out a 10 ton boulder that was hanging over the mine. Had to get this down before it was safe to enter.