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Diamonds in Alberta
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1287
I've been telling everyone, but nobody believes me. Then they send me articles that confirm what I already know:
Link: https://edmontonjournal.com/business/local-business/david-staples-new-thinking-in-diamond-exploration-points-to-beautiful-stones-in-alberta
Of course, arguably the best proof would be a mason jar filled with them, but I'll be getting on that soon enough...
The Valley of No Diamonds
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1991
Last week, 3 in a row off, not going to Calgary, off to do some prospecting...
First stop the Valley of No Diamonds. It wasn't supposed to be that, but I'd never been and this is exactly how it panned out. That's a prospecting phrase.
The Valley, wide, the mountain peaks apparently ornamented with Kimberlites but in this valley, wide and unending, there's nothing but limestone cobbles. Boring. Pan after pan after pan, not even a piece of quartz to lend some sparkle, raise false hopes, no indicator minerals to show you you're on the right track, not a hint of garnet, chromite, no heavy igneous rocks, nothing, smoothed limestone river cobbles, pebbles, sand, is all.
The next day, Wild Horse Creek, near Cranbrook, sight of a few gold rushes and home to some large nuggets. A large nugget would be good, the daughter wished for one as her graduation present, who wouldn't? And so this was for her.
And, pan after pan, hour after hour, the river gravels so large that it's hard to get a shovel in, to get a pan full, but nothing's perfect, and while I'm possessed of incredible optimism I know that every square inch of this public claim (Fisherville) has been worked time and time again...
A few flakes, some platinum, which I'd heard rumored was on the creek and now I had proof, and a nugget, heavy, black, nugget of what? I'll have to do some research.
(Couple of samples of quartz, the great indicators for chunky gold. Gonna have to crush these up and see what comes out...)
The final day off, closer to Nelson, an old mine adit I'd found, a small entrance, sloping down at 45 degrees, crouched, creeping inside...
...and perhaps 3 meters in the floor drops away, the light, shining on the far wall, from my angle I can't see the bottom, 100 feet at least, the vein has been mined straight down into the earth and the edge of the abyss is far too precarious to venture any closer, a short exploration then wander outside above, a very promising geology...
Unboxing Stormy
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Stormy
- Hits: 1225
Yeah, it would have been a lot better done by the sides of Kootenay Lake, with a bit of make-up and some false (or real even!) teeth, a piece of kleenex to wipe my nose and a bit of duct-tape surgery to hold up the saggy bits on my jowls and face. But this Vlogging, it could catch on...
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The Raptors' Tooth
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 1082
And the daughter's shown it to a few people, who doubt it's provenance, "how do you know it's old?" to which I suggest responding: "well, next time I'll carry bear spray...in case I run into one...no, wait, they've been extinct for 75,000,000 years..." and other bullshit from people who are completely unqualified to have any sort of opinion but nonetheless feel free to have opinions anyways. I mean, she found a dinosaur bone in an area renowned for dinosaur bones, in a place where they are so abundant that the museum leaves them "in situ" for people to see, but, really, it's impossible you could have found one. Must have been a cows' or gophers' tooth...don't feed the cows...
Smart daughter in a world of idiots, get used to it, in this world, the here and now, intelligence is a disability. I try to reassure her that after graduation, in University, she'll meet more intelligent people, more like minded people, but I know, I've been there, it's a lie...
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