Wyoming Gemstones

New GOLD Book Published

2012-01-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

Our new book on nearly every gold deposit in Wyoming is now available at Amazon. If you would like your own gold deposit, this book tells you exactly where they are. All you need to do is learn to use a topographic map. Wyoming is the most under-explored state in the West for Gold (exclusive of Alaska), and should have produced 50 to 200 times more gold than it has - this means there are some major gold deposits that remain to be discovered.

This nearly 7.5 ounce nugget was recovered from old dredge tailings near Rock Creek at South Pass by a prospector with a metal detector. How many other large nuggets were missed and how much gold continues further downstream from the old mine tailings? The Rock Creek mine was closed by the War Production Board in 1942 because all mining was ordered to provide war support. The mine never started up again after World War II ended.

A 34- ounce nugget found on Rock Creek downstream from Atlantic City. A similar gold placer exists on Willow Creek south of Rock Creek. Willow Creek has less gravel, but its placer was partially derived from the rich Carissa mine lode at South Pass City. This placer likely is very rich at depth, but has been withdrawn from the public as has the Carissa mine. The Carissa lode is likely a multi-million ounce gold deposit taken from the public by the State Government.

There are many gold prospects waiting to be explored and developed in Wyoming and the adjacent states. While searching for gold, always keep an eye out for diamonds, diamond indicator minerals, rubies, sapphires, platinum, palladium and any gemstones of interest. In this photo above, the gold has one tiny garnet that proved to be a pyrope garnet, or diamond indicator mineral. Placer diamonds were found upstream from this locality, but the diamond lode remains to be found. So, keep your eye peeled for any interesting minerals and rocks when you search for gold. There are many gemstone deposits yet to be discovered in Wyoming.

Gold from South Pass. This gold was produced by two placer miners in the 1980s in a gulch overlooked by everyone. They were experienced miners and used a small backhoe and trommel and recovered about 20 ounces of gold/week.

GEMSTONES in WYOMING

2011-11-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Thank you Planet News for recognizing the significance of accomplishments over the many years. Please visit their blog to see what I'm talking about.
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Fist-size almandine garnet from Tie Siding with several
translucent zones.

Until the start of this century, Wyoming was thought to be an energy rich state, but very poor in gold and gemstones. However, research over a span of 30 years showed Wyoming to be one of the richest terrains in the US for gemstones, gold, as well as copper and other base and precious metals. Wyoming has many undiscovered diamond deposits based on work I completed for DiamonEx Ltd as well as for myself.

Sloan 5 Diamondiferous kimberlite,
Colorado. This is one of the better exposed
cryptovolcanic structures in the region and
it is underlain by diamondiferous kimberlite.

We found dozens and dozens of cryptovolcanic structures with features characteristic of kimberlite pipes: distinct depressions along linear fractures, open parks with rounded boulders, some with wet or dry lake beds in the Precambrian terrain surrounded by calcium carbonate-rich soil (the Precambrian terrain in this region is very calcium carbonate poor). Several of these were verified as having considerable calcium carbonate and blue ground typical of kimberlite. Are these kimberlites? Several likely are, as many were found within known diamondiferous kimberlite districts and others are surrounded by kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies.

We found more than 300 kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies and more than 400 cryptovolcanic depressions. I think it is safe to say that Wyoming is underlain by a major diamond province that has been totally and completely ignored by the State. Would you like to create several thousand jobs in this region - get your local politicians to open their eyes (when they are not stealing us blind) and work on promoting these resources.

Gem-quality peridot from Leucite Hills.

In addition to diamonds, there are world-class colored gemstone deposits in Wyoming. Before I left the WGS, I was working on two of the largest colored gemstone deposits on earth - Grizzly Creek and Sherman Mountains. The Sherman Mountains deposit is very intriguing. When I first examined a very small part of this deposit on a county road in 2005, I found several, very high-quality iolite gemstones but much of the deposit remained untouched as far as gemstones. So what is the story on this incredible gemstone find?

Around world war II, The Sherman Mountains deposit was examined and trenched by two geologists from Wyoming who were researching the area for possible magnesium mineral resources for the War effort. The geologists reported this one deposit to have massive zones of cordierite (they missed the fact that it contained high-quality gem material). The cordierite was estimated at the surface to include 500,000 tonnes of cordierite. Now if we convert that to carats, we have a WORLD-CLASS gemstone deposit that is unmatched! This many tonnes converts to about 2.5 trillion carats at the surface. Now get this, there is NO information about the subsurface - how deep does this go? One could imagine that every 10 feet deep or so, we could potentially add another 2.5 trillion carats of this gemstone. Now if only 50% of this cordierite is gem-quality iolite, we have a deposit that potentially has much more than $10 trillion in gemstones.

After I made this discovery and discovered the Grizzly Creek deposit, the State Geologist with full support of the Governor's office took away my field vehicle and gave it to his secretary. Four of the most incompetent geologists on staff were then promoted to management, and all of my field gear and samples were dumped by these whimps. My travel and research budget was also confiscated making it impossible for me to stay at the WGS. So, why all of the concern by these politicians? Was this a conspiracy, or just corrupt politicians with egos larger than the Cheyenne city dump? Personally, I would pick the latter. A conspiracy would suggest there was some form intelligence involved.
I found evidence for other iolite deposits north of Palmer Canyon. Prior to finding the gem-quality iolite at Sherman Mountains, I made a discovery of gem-quality iolite at Palmer Canyon, several miles north of the Sherman Mountains discovery. This was what I thought was the first discovery of iolite in Wyoming (it turns out that someone else may have recognized iolite somewhere in this region because John Sinkankas mentions a gem-quality iolite deposit in his book that he visited in Wyoming, possibly in the 1950s. Just before he passed away, I had talked to him on the phone and he could not remember any details as to the location). Palmer Canyon contained many gem-quality iolites, some rubies and sapphires, a large number of gem-quality kyanite gemstones, and a few of the largest gemstone iolites ever found. One gemstone, I named the Palmer Canyon Blue Star, weighed 1,720 carats - a world record gemstone!

While conducting research at Palmer Canyon, I developed a model to assist in locating other similar deposits. In 2000, my field assistant and I published a book on Gemstones in Wyoming in which I predicted that another iolite deposit would be found at Grizzly Creek based on geology and that some ruby and sapphre deposits would be found elsewhere in the state. When we finally got access to Palmer Canyon, wow! My model was right!

The largest iolite ever found on earth from Grizzly Creek

Iolite gemstones that were enormous. I took out the largest ioliteiolite found as replacements in place in the outcrop. Some were likely several hundred thousand carats and others would likely be measured in the million+ carats (for one single gemstone). Along with these, I found billions of carats of gem-quality kyanite. A king's ransom of gemstones.

Wayne Sutherland poses against large
outcrop of iolite. Much of the rock
behind him is solid iolite gemstone.

Would I get an award for these discoveries? Special recognition by the legislature, governor or state geologist? An honorary PhD from the University of Wyoming? Nope! My reward was confiscation of my field vehicle and budget and I could no longer travel to present lectures or field trips to the public - and then it got real bad. But at least I got out with my life, not something that two of my productive colleagues could claim. Robert Lyman and Ray Harris died that year at the Survey and we only had a staff of 25. At least 6 people wore heart monitors. What was going on? Would someone investigate this? Are you kidding, this was Wyoming - we didn't have enough money to buy our politicians.

Gem-quality pyrope and spessartine garnet and
gem-quality chromian diopside and enstatite
from Green River Basin.

Ruby and Sapphire deposits seem to be in many localities in Wyoming. I discovered at least six deposits based on geological models and was working on others including one potentially significant deposit near the southern tip of the Wind River Mountains. After I recognized the connection between ruby and glimmerite, this open the door to find many more deposits.

The possibility of many other gemstone deposits in Wyoming is likely - one that remains of interest is that of emerald. I also found billions of carats of very high quality kyanite gemstones. Well, how about gold. Wyoming has been missed as a gold target. It should have produced about 200 times more gold than it did in the past. And not many were looking, but I was finding gold everywhere - including the Laramie City Dump and I found a whole new gold district near Casper.

And there are many more large million ounce gold deposits in the State - they are just being ignored or they are being withdrawn or have already been withdrawn by the worse examples of bureaucrats. People who are only interested in their personal self-wealth and self-importance. Wyoming has two of the largest (possible more) copper provinces in the nation. These include the Absaroka Volcanic plateau to the east of Yellowstone and the volcanogenic massive sulfide province in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountains. These provinces (along with major platinum-group metal anomalies) were all withdrawn, piece by piece by the Federal Government, State Government, and government in general. We can thank the US Forest Service and US Bureau of Land MisManagement for taking our public lands and making them government lands. From 1977 to 2007 I watched as deposit after deposit was withdrawn using primitive, wilderness, roadless, too many mice, etc withdrawals to keep mining companies out. Everytime there was a significant discovery, it was quickly withdrawn by the Green Machine known as the Forest Service. This and the BLM should be eliminated as agencies to save our resources and federal budget.

As an example of how things got so out of control, after I had announced discovery of a major opal and agate deposit in central Wyoming in 2003, the BLM was very frustrated as they actually wanted to withdraw the area to protect other resources - but they had NO IDEA where it was located, because I would not tell them.

This ~ 40-carat rough pink sapphire was found in Palmer Canyon with
several thousand carats of other sapphires and rubies.

Cut and polished kyanite gemstones recovered from Palmer Canyon.

Billions of carats of labradiorite gemstones remain
untouched in the central Laramie Range.

faceted ruby and iolite from Palmer Canyon

NOte the high-quality transparent pink, orange and red pyropes
as well as the transparent green chrome diopsides from the
Green River Basin. These are tiny, but all are actually cutable.

One of many fancy diamonds found in Wyoming.

Another Fancy Wyoming diamond with a slight green hint.

A 7.5 ounce nugget found near Rock Creek by prospector at South
Pass, Wyoming. Another treasure that is not suppose to be found
in Wyoming

Not suppose to be found in Wyoming? A 34-ounce
nugget recovered from Rock Creek at South Pass. It is likely
that several major gold deposits were missed in Wyoming. Based on
geological models, Wyoming should have produced about 200 times
more gold than it has. So where is the gold? I know where, but I could
never get the Geological Survey of Wyoming to give me any significant
support. And if you would like to know, I just told the world where to
find the gold in my new gold book.

The author (several years ago) mapping copper-zinc-silver
deposits in Wyoming - other commodities that are not suppose
to be in the State. Yet the known deposits and geology
support Wyoming has at least two major copper-zinc-silver-
gold provinces that were withdrawn by the US Forest Service as
soon as they realized the public might want to explore their
public lands. Little did we know, it was really Forest Service
land.

Sky-blue gem-quality kyanite - billions of carats of this gem
still remain in place in the Laramie Range of Wyoming.

Beautiful several carat faceted chromian diopside from a Wyoming
kimberlite. I had several of these gems that were perfectly transparent
stolen from my office before I could get them cut. But it shows the potential
ignored by the state.

Cabbed jasperoid from Hartville.

One of the largest rubies found on earth - discovered at
the Red Dwarf ruby deposit. Some of the preserved ruby
has the highest quality pigeon's blood color for ruby.

Sweetwater Opal - one of the largest deposits in North America includes
a giant resource of gem-quality Mexican Fire Opal that is untouched.

Wyoming Gems, Rocks & Minerals

2009-01-14T09:52:00.000-08:00

Need a book - its available on Amazon.

As I work towards completion of my next book - Gold in the West (Part 2) focusing on the Western US gold deposits and mines, I am reminded that there are many, many gold deposits out there and all one needs is some luck, MUCH less government, and to use scientific principals to find it. The first volume of this gold book was published in September 2011 and is now available at Amazon.

This book, and the following book (part 2) will work well with my 2009 book on Gems, Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming which is designed to help the reader find minerals and identify them. The books are designed to help you find a gold deposit. I found a few hundred gold anomalies over the years, now I'm telling you where all of these are located.

Prior to 1975, only jade and a few agates were known in Wyoming. Central Wyoming was scoured by rockhounds searching for jade in the vicinity of Crooks Gap where impressive cobbles and boulders of very high-quality nephrite jade were found. But why were there no other gemstones in this state? The answer was simple: few rock hounds searched for other gems other than jade and agate, and geologists simply could not conceive of the idea that other gems were present. Even so, Dr. J.D. Love identified a few low quality corundum deposits that hinted at the possibility for ruby and sapphire in the state, and a specimen of high-quality precious opal from the Yellowstone region provided evidence for gemstones in that volcanic terrain. The nearby Absaroka volcanic mountains also provided geological evidence that both Yellowstone and the Absarokas likely contained significant gold, silver and copper deposits.

Within a few decades, Wyoming became known as the gem capital of North America. Many new rocks, gems and minerals were discovered by several rock hounds, prospectors and myself. Wyoming has an impressive list of gemstones and has the most diverse collection of documented gems of any state in the US or of any province in Canada.

Some of the gems that have been identified since 1977 are considered world-class deposits and have yielded some of the largest gemstones in the world. The collection of gems in Wyoming now include agate, jasper, common opal, fire opal, precious opal, onyx, gold nuggets, platinum and palladium nuggets, Cape Ruby (pyrope garnet), chrysocolla, malachite, azurite, covellite, enargite, cuprite, spessartine garnet, Cape Emerald (chrome diopside), chrome enstatite, kyanite, iolite, ruby, sapphire, peridot, diamond, specularite, apatite, minyulite, amethyst, aquamarine, jade, almandine garnet, chalcedony, silicified banded iron formation, jasperoid, labradorite, grunerite, amber, heliodor, varisite, jade pseudomorphs after quartz, quartz and others (Hausel, 2008c; Hausel and Sutherland, 2000, 2006). And based on geology, it is likely other gems will be found, such as emerald, sillimanite, andalusite, a variety of feldspars and spodumene.

For over 30 years, while working as a research geologist and geological consultant I hunted Wyoming in search of mineral deposits and became the most successful geologist in the history of the Wyoming Geological Survey following hundreds of discoveries. I documented essentially all of the discoveries in hundreds of articles. Many of the discoveries were made while mapping most of the State's historic mining districts. I felt blessed that no one else had the ambition or apparent interest to search and map the old districts in the state. For this, I was presented the Wyoming Geological Association's highest honor in 2004 - the Distinguished Service Award. In 2001, I was inducted into the National Rock Hound & Lapidary Hall of Fame thanks to the efforts of Norma Beers and many other rock hounds and collectors in Wyoming. In 2009, 5 other geologists, Paul Graff from Casper and myself were awarded the Thayer Lindsley Award of Economic Geology for discovery of a major international mineral discovery - the Donlin Creek, Alaska gold deposit containing more than $45 billion in gold! The deposit was described as the largest undeveloped gold deposit in North America by the Northern Miner. I was inducted into several Who's Who compendiums & received many more national & international honors for my work. Overall, I was presented >100 regional, national, and international awards for my work, but my supervisor at the Wyoming Geological Survey told me that I could be terminated if I was not careful: I was making the rest of the staff look bad. So, below is a sketch of one of the many staff meetings I missed. I'm sure you can pick out the Director, Division Heads and even the visiting Governor.

Staff meeting - sketch by W. Dan Hausel

To decipher Wyoming's complex geology, >1,000 km2 of complex geological terrain had to be mapped. Most geologists avoided these areas because of complexity. However, during the mapping of many of the old Proterozoic and Archean crystalline terrains, many gold deposits were identified, an entirely new gold district was found that may rival Cripple Creek, Colorado, and geological and geochemical clues providing trails to several gemstone deposits overlooked by most everyone else who had worked in the state. It was stated by a couple of researchers at the University of Wyoming that much of what is known of the Precambrian geology in Wyoming was due to my work (Art Snoke and Carol Frost, personal communication, 2006). It was a honor to be recognized as so.

I found minerals fascinating & identified several mineral species in Wyoming that had previously been unknown in the State. I discovered hundreds of mineral deposits during mapping projects & reconnaissance that included hundreds of gold anomalies, a whole new gold district (Rattlesnake Hills), palladium, nickel, diamonds, iolite, cordierite, ruby, sapphire, kyanite gems, peridot, opal & more.

After mapping the two largest diamondiferous kimberlite districts in the US, the largest lamproite field in North America & investigating a group of diamondiferous lamprophyres, I identified a few hundred cryptovolcanic structures that are likely undiscovered diamond deposits in Colorado, Kansas, Montana and Wyoming, as well as in Canada and Africa. I was elated when I found the largest iolite gemstones on earth including stones >24,000 carats while leaving others in the outcrop that could top a million carats.

This led to the discovery of two of the largest colored gemstone deposits on the planet -Grizzly Creek and Sherman Mountains. I found giant opals weighing more than 70,000 carats & mapped what could be the largest opal deposit in North America due to a lead from a Riverton rock hound that covers parts of >14 sections of land. I found other gemstones and previously unrecognized minerals and rocks in Wyoming. Basically, these deposits potentially contain several hundred $billion in gemstones. All I did is I kept an open mind, used geology and geochemistry to find more deposits.

I love to write, so I published >650 professional and general interest papers & geological maps & contributed to 30 books. I'm not even sure how many abstracts I submitted to professional and rock hound groups, but was a few hundred that were published in journals and newsletters - I just never kept track of these. Now, after 30 years of discovery, I decided to describe theses gems, minerals and rocks in Wyoming, where to find them, and provide insight on how to identify diamond deposits. Personally, I believe that one of the largest diamond fields on earth is found in the Colorado-Montana-Wyoming region and is awaiting prospectors & geologists to follow-up on these discoveries. I also found the largest iolite deposits on earth in Wyoming - and I found evidence for others. I found a half-dozen ruby deposits and evidence for many more, but could never get much support from the state. It was as if all of the rock hounds, prospectors and mineralogists were paying attention, but the State of Wyoming was hibernating and could not be bothered. But the heck with them - you can now stake your claim on my latest books - Gems, Minerals & Rocks of Wyoming - A Guide for Rock Hounds, Prospectors & Collectors and find out more about these gems, minerals and rocks at GEMHUNTER.

For more information, contact me at: DiamondProspector@live.com

Some other books -

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

FREE DOWNLOADS

Gold Prospecting Hints
Minerals and Rocks of Wyoming, 1986 Book
Guide to Prospecting and Rock Hunting
Placer Diamonds
South Pass Gold District Field Trip Guide
Sweetwater Wilderness, Lewiston Gold District
Kimberlites, Lamproites, Diamonds of Colorado and Wyoming
Diamonds (in Industrial Minerals and Rocks)
Atlantic City Gold District
Atlantic City-South Pass Gold District

After I had made discoveries of several colored gemstone deposits including ruby and sapphire deposits, I realized there was a close association of these aluminum-rich oxide gemstones with aluminum-rich rocks in Wyoming including vermiculite (glimmerite) and serpentinite. Using an old publication on vermiculite deposits of Wyoming, I made six additional discoveries within months of one another.
Mineral Resources of Wyoming
Field Trip to Geology of Southeastern Wyoming
Field Trips to Western Wyoming.
Guide to the Mining Districts in the Medicine Bow Mountains (it is very unfortunate, but the US Forest Service followed discoveries in some major base and precious metal districts in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountains withdrawing a couple of potentially world-class mineral districts for (1) massive sulfides (zinc, copper, lead, silver, gold) and (2) platinum-group metals).
http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/Publications/OnlinePubs/docs/PIC/PIC-25.pdf Metallic and nonmetallic mineral deposits.
http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/Publications/OnlinePubs/docs/PIC/PIC-38.pdf This circular contains some information on diamond deposits.
http://www.wsgs.uwyo.edu/Publications/OnlinePubs/docs/MR/MR_92-1.pdf Gold in southern Wyoming

NEWS
Gold Discovered in Rattlesnake Hills, WY

Major Gold Deposit Discovered In Alaska

Geologist Nominated for American Order of Merit
Awarded for Accomplishments