Prospectors

yeah i always miss them also ..I did find that u can watch the GEM hunter show on amazon for 2$ a show .. yes i watched 4 shows that night lol I wonder if they will come out with a full season dvd for prospectors ?

All,

I just saw this thread after starting up the same thread only a few hours ago under the thread title, "Prospectors television show on The Weather Channel". I apologize.

They have started a new season. I don't know if this is universal, but here in southcentral Pennsylvania on the Comcast cable television service, new episodes are shown at 09:00p.m. E.S.T. and are one hour each. Re-runs are shown quite often at different times through the week.

My initial entry in the "Prospectors television show on The Weather Channel" thread read(s) as follows:


Hello,

Do any of you watch The Weather Channel's television series, "Prospectors"? I'm betting that many of you do, and that many of you have done some prospecting and mining at the sites the show focuses on.

For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows a few individuals and small family groups who make their livings prospecting, mining, and selling gems. These folks prospect and mine on Mounts White and Antero in Colorado, as well as The Lake George area of Colorado. The land that they prospect on and harvest from belongs to the state, but they purchase exclusive mineral rights for specific areas of this state land. One of the show's individuals of focus recently bought property in the Tin-Cup region of Colorado to do some gold prospecting.

On Mounts White and Antero, the prospectors/miners are finding pockets of so-so quality smokey-quartz with some pretty nice aquamarine. In The Lake George area, the prospectors/miners are finding pockets of very nice and often very large amazonite with very nice and often very large smokey-quartz. Some very nice and often very large topaz crystals are shown being found as well.

The show's only fault is that it is run and re-run to death. I guess The Weather Channel doesn't have that many shows/series of its own and has to fill in their time slots as best they can.

--Chertaceous

Yes,

I too wondered about the valuations that were being given for the reconstructed specimens. Reconstructing those specimens seems to equate to cleaning coins, which seriously devalues coins. Also, I cannot speak towards the creditionals of said "expert", or the realistic or non-realistic values he quotes for the various pieces.

You all probably know already, but I forgot to mention the flourite specimens that were being pulled out of the Lake George area on the show. Their sizes and qualities varied. Many of the flourite pieces seemed quite fragile.

I too, wonder about the prices that the expert? gives. But it is not only him, the miners are always throwing big numbers out every time they pull a specimen out the ground.
Maybe the producers are telling them to do so. The higher the value of the product equates to the higher value of the show. And you know it is staged when they show them tring to get in a tight spot for the first time and there is a camera, already there, looking back at them. But with that said, a couple years ago we had no rockhounding shows on TV at all. I am glad to have something to watch even if it is not produced to my expectations.

Would like to spend just one day up there with them,probably with the "Buckley's or Buckey's"......They seem down to earth...

All gone,you must of figured it out....Thumbs up
I think I missed the show this week! To much activity going on here with company.....

yeah you have to record like 4 hours after the program starts. Last three weeks bad weather has interupted the show. Cant blame the weather channel for going to the bad weather coverage. One of the weeks was when the tornado(s) came through my neck of the woods. They had coverage of that instead.

A few of them times the show got interrupted I dont think new episodes ever came on.

Tu., 12/17/13 @ approx. 10:56a.m. E.S.T. (T.U.S.O.A.)

Folks,

That was one huge smokey quartz crystal they were struggling with on the last episode. It really took me aback; I was in so much awe and disbelief that I thought the next thing they would be showing would be the miners harvesting dilithium crystals for starship warp cores.

Over the last few episodes they have found small bits of clevelandite or cleavendite and phenakite. I had never heard of these minerals before and did my homework on the web researching them. I can't quite figure out if "clevelandite" and "cleavelandite" are the same thing or not.

Are any of you familiar with these two or three minerals? If so, please write a bit about them. It's always fascinating to learn more about the vast mineral universe.

Thanks, All!

--Rick E.

We., 12/18/13 @ approx. 12:52p.m. E.S.T. (T.U.S.O.A.)

Yes!

That fellow, Rich Fetterman if I remember correctly, has a lot of heart to donate that big ol' smokey and forfeit the potential profit he could have made from it. It was also very cool how he was donating it in honor of his late brother who was with him when the two of them found it.

As the folks featured on that show do rockhounding for a living, they obviously really know their rocks and minerals. I write this because I did a little more checking into the mineral "phenakite" and learned an interesting bit abut the etomology of its name. Apparantly, the "phena" part is from either Greek or Latin and more-or-less means "deceptive (but not in a bad way)". This crystal was thus named because it has such a strong, visual resemblance to quartz. It's just a bit harder than quartz, though, coming in at 7.5 to 8 on the good ol' Mohs scale.

-R.H.E.