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 Post subject: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:21 pm 
I've made a strange promise to myself that the diamond I use in the engagement ring I propose with - I have to find myself, or at least be around when it's found by someone who knows what they're doing.

I've called and emailed every commercial mine in Canada, they all politely told me I was insane.

So... I'm checking out the State Park in Arkansas (Crater of Diamonds), but I'm also open to any suggestions the community might have. My plan currently is to fly down sometime in January/February (I live outside DC), rent a cabin for about a week and spend my days digging at the park, hopefully bothering the locals there into giving me some guidance and assistance.

If anyone knows of a place I might be more successful, or if anyone has a plot they'd be willing to let me work in, please let me know. I'm a *complete* novice to all of this. I've been with my girlfriend for four and a half years, and I've decided she's the one... so it's time to get digging :)

I'm willing to go just about anywhere in the US/Canada, and I'm willing to do this in the winter so long as conditions aren't too extreme.
Appreciate any advice you guys have!


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 11:55 pm 
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Crater of Diamonds is the only mine in the world I believe you will be able to go dig for diamonds yourself.
What is the likelihood you'll find something?
Well I guess greater than the probability of being hit in the head by a meteorite, or winning the lotto.....maybe, or maybe not.

Good luck.


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:50 am 
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Crater of Diamonds is the only place I've been looking for gems/minerals and found absolutely nothing. Downright bupkis. Even our failed quest for beryl in Virginia left us with some beautiful schorl crystals. Crater of Diamonds only left us with frustration and sweat. I wouldn't schedule an engagement around finding a cuttable diamond there unless it was something I didn't mind putting off indefinitely.
Frankly, diamonds are just too nailed down and controlled to be a viable candidate for self collection. You may need to adjust that self promise to make it more feasible--but there are still some good options. For instance, you could go with finding something like sapphire instead, perhaps for accent stones. My family has had very good luck finding beautiful sapphires at Gem Mountain in Philipsburg MO, enough that we've been back three or four times. You can't go up into the mine proper to look for the stones these days (though my parents did on their honeymoon), but they still have unsalted concentrated dirt available to shake there. There are other good mines around that area as well, that's just the one I know best.
Other than sapphire, I can't think of too many engagement ring-feasible gemstones that you would be able to dig yourself. There are places here in NC to look for emerald, but finding a facet-grade piece would be quite a coup, and while it's certainly precious and beautiful it isn't exactly the best stone for everyday ring wear anyway.
Topaz is hard enough, but the cleavage probably adds enough durability issues to disqualify it, and anyway the ones you can find in America don't tend to be the precious colors anyway.
Spinel is probably durable enough, but I don't know anywhere you can look for it.
Tourmaline certainly has the beauty, but its hardness might be too low for serious daily ringwear, though perhaps that could be accounted for in setting. That said, there are some great places to look for it yourself, and you can get impressive pieces. The one that springs to mind most is the Himalaya mine in California, where you can buy pegmatite dirt contents or dig through the dump pile yourself. I'm pretty sure they're telling the truth when they say the dirt is unsalted and unsearched, because we got one whopper of a green crystal in one of the bags. Tourmaline there comes primarily in green and pink.

Overall, I'd say the sapphire is your best bet. You can get your pick of some beautiful stones out of the deal, and it's the most durable option of the ones I listed above. All of these are 'ring stones,' but an engagement ring is going to see daily wear in all sorts of situations, which raises the requirements to some extent.

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 11:44 am 
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I have a good friend who also wants to go to Crater of Diamonds to find his engagement ring stone. I've been trying to politely tell him he's crazy for months now, and have also been suggesting a trip to Montana for a sapphire. We live in the DC area as well, maybe you two should start a support group for disappointed diamond seekers.

I like the sentiment, but the fact is that there just aren't diamonds (especially ring quality) lying around on the ground. Sapphire would be more plausible, you probably have a good chance of coming away with something usable if you spend a focused week hunting.

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:58 am 
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Sounds like you might have better luck finding a diamond ring by combing beaches with a metal detector.


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 2:51 am 
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It seems a pretty rude response to what I saw as pretty straightforward answers to your request.

Your replies from the mining companies should have given you a hint. You are stating the equivalent, in geological terms, that you would like to fly to the moon. Sure, it has been done, but the likelihood of success by an individual, is pretty much nil.

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:04 am 
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If you don't need to actually *find* it yourself, but rather only to be at the spot where it is found, something like that, call the Crater of Diamonds park and ask them to put you in touch with The-Man-Whose-Name-Escapes-Me. Can't for the life of me remember his name but I came across him at the bottom of an eight foot hole in the southeast corner of the park about 5 years ago. He's originally from Florida, a carpenter or home renovator by trade; came through Murphreesboro more or less by chance, went digging, and got hooked; sold all his stuff, moved to Murphreesboro the year after to become, a full time one man diamond digger. When I talked to him he told me he had found 149 carats of diamonds the year before. Two or three years ago he married one of the park staff. That should be enough info for the park people to know exactly who it is, and hopefully he may still be there.

Cheers
Hans Durstling
Moncton, Canada

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:11 am 
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Hope it wasn't this guy.

http://www.fakeminerals.com/arkansasdiamondfraud/

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:21 am 
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No one meant to offend you, and I think all of the responses tried to give you helpful advice. You did come to a professional board and ask experts how to do something unrealistic. You have to expect a little good-natured sarcasm, but sorry if it came across as less than good-natured. That said, good luck and let us know what you find.

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:05 pm 
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No, it definitely was not the fraud guy. (Which by the way is an old-hat story). A sudden flurry of "lucky" finds -anywhere- always makes you want to look a little deeper into the story. Or at least it should. The gentleman to whom I refer (I believe his first name may be Darrell) has been in Murphreesboro for some years, and this with the full knowledge and co-operation of the park staff. He isn't lucky. He works - and works hard, and consistently, however many months of the year that the park is open.

Cheers again
Hans Durstling
Moncton, Canada

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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:13 pm 
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Murfreesboro is your only chance, and the odds are poor indeed but NOT zero.

Especially if you'd be satisfied with a very low quality, very small stone, mostly opaque and black to brown, maybe 20 points. No point getting it cut, so have it mounted as is, rough diamonds are getting popular for some reason.

Been there and saw what the locals found that day, very small, very brown.

I would definitely say that if you work hard, and work SMART, seiving and washing your material just like the locals do, (their screens both wash, size, and density-sort, but you gotta learn the method) for a good week, you should at least find a little stone. Are you familiar with manual labor? Do you have a strong back and a high pain tolerance? Not many can do this type of work for very long these days.

Now, if you actually want something silly, like a 1 carat colorless finished stone... forget it.

If you work hard, and smart, for a month, I'd suggest you'd have a decent chance at a stone that would be under 1/2 ct, clear, but not great color, shades of brown or yellow.

So your quest is not utterly irrational, like buying a lottery ticket, or praying for a cure for your great-aunts lumbago.

A relatively reasonable quest; perhaps a week of shovelling and seiving will temper your enthusiasm, perhaps not.

Of course, the sad fact is that finding a lady worthy of such effort is much more unlikely. Everybody is convinced that they've found their perfect love and will be together for life, but over half of them are wrong.

How will you feel if things turn out badly when you've punished your body for a week or a month for that stone?


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 11:59 am 
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Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:41 pm
Posts: 49
Location: Wyoming USA
Dan Hausel has a book on prospecting.
He has done work all over.
He maped the Leucite hills here in Wyoming.
I believe the book is about $170.00
He dug up a ant hill out here it's all on his web site.
Your chances of finding a diamond out here
on public lands is better than finding one on ebay.
You have to learn what raw diamond looks like.
Most diamonds are mined. You cant kick over a
rock to find one.
The black sand in the rivers is where you look.
I love your thoughtfulness.
The hand full of rocks my husband gave me
mean the world to me. Yet probably worthless.
It's too cold to prospect for now. We are having
a rough winter! Check the law's before you start.
Don't dig in someone else claims. Best of luck! :D


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 8:02 am 
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Hi Lucky,

You could always fly to Australia and have a crack at a diamond here. There's a spot on the New England Tablelands (NSW) that is freely accessible to fossickers and gives you a fair chance of finding a diamond. My mate and his three friends have found about 15 in about 5 trips in as many years - about match head size with about half facet quality. Problem is they are from the Copeton area, internally twinned and consequently harder than most diamonds, so difficult to find someone to facet them. Uncut they are perhaps worth $50 - $150 which is a far cry from cost of a flight, accommodation, transport etc that it would cost you. So technically its not impossible, but financially its improbable.

Cheers,
GR


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:44 pm 
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Lucky wasn't so lucky on GO. We flushed him. Won't be back.


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 Post subject: Re: I need to find a diamond...
PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:57 pm 
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There is a guy named "Joe" in the Crater of Diamonds area that has found a large number of diamonds there. If I remember the story right, he gave a number of them to his church, and then he wound up paying the IRS a large amount of money in taxes. If he had sold them and then donated the money, he would not have. ....
In any event, you need to locate him and stick around him if you want to "be near a guy who finds one". I once spent a whole day there looking (unsucccessfully).


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