We all met up at the California State Gem Mine (www.calstategemmine.com). We weren't actually allowed to mine for the benitoite, but we were given all day to go through gravel brought down from the mine. I didn't get to test out my full Indiana Jones gear, but it was nice not having to try to ignore my claustrophobia, too.
The price for a day's gravel pickins was $70, and we were taught how to sort through the gravel, given tubs to soak off the dirt and mud to make it easier to find the benitoite, and allowed access to a room lit only by shortwave UV light, which makes benitoite glow whitish-blue! (Longwave blacklights are the kinds used at clubs, etc. Shortwave can actually burn skin and eyes.) The shortwave blacklight was indespensible, and thanks to the safety glasses provided by the Gem Mine owners, we were able to patiently sort through our cleaned bits of gravel, hoping to find something that glowed.There were about 3 piles of gravel to get our diggins from. We all got a few buckets to fill, and were encouraged to get through as much gravel as we could to find the benitoite.
The most efficient strategy seemed to be to fill up a couple buckets of gravel, put a load into the sorting screen, sift in the air to get rid of the tiny dirt particles, and stick it in one of the water bins to soak. While the first screen was soaking, fill another screen and start the process all over.
By the time you're done with the second screen, you're first one is ready for a preliminary sorting and breaking up of the muddy clumps. The trick is to let the gravel soak to get the baked-on mud off the benitoite. Patience is a key for benitoite hunting.
After washing the gravel and pulling out the rocks that aren't likely to bear benitoite, it's time to head to the blacklight room for more detailed sorting.At the end of the day, most of us had found at least a small piece of benitoite, and some other fun rocks that couldn't be left behind. The weather was perfect, the the rock hounders were in good spirits, and the seeds were planted for a return trip to hopefully get up to the mine.
