Rocks from Rio Doce Gem Mine

Rio Doce is one of those places in the North Carolina mountains where you buy a bucket of dirt and look for gemstones. Now I know a lot of you hard core rockhounds frown upon salted buckets, but look what Jerry Call puts in his buckets. These photos were scanned at 24 bit resolution. If your computers display is not set to 24 bit then these pictures will not have the quality they should.

This is a piece of pyrite from Peru. It's hard to see in this picture but it is just covered with little crystals. It weighs 3.7 ounces and measures 2.5x1.5x1 inches.

Here is a garnet that weighs approximately 725 carats and measures about 45 mm in diameter. It is more or less a ball shape. I have three, one smaller and one larger. They came from somewhere in North Carolina.

This is a piece of Brazilianite that weighs approximately 575 carats. I really like this one.

This is my little tourmaline mountain. It's not really as big as a mountain, but it looks like one. At least to me it does. It weighs about 112 carats and is 30mm tall and 28mm wide, at the widest points.

This light colored smokey crystal came from Rio Doce. It weighs approximately 825 carats and is 100mm long and about 40mm thick at the widest point.

This is a small quartz crystal with inclusions of rutile and red mica.I keep trying but I still can't seem to get a good picture to show the mica inclusions. Oh well, try again.

These are a few pieces of imperial topaz, along with a piece or two of rubelite tourmaline.