The GemHunter State

 

Since Idaho is known as the Gem State, shouldn't Wyoming be referred to as the Mineral & Rock State, Gemstone State, Rockhound State, GemHunter State, and/or Prospector State? After all, once we began to take a close look at the geology in Wyoming from 1977 to 2007, hundreds of gemstone discoveries, gold anomalies, mineral discoveries and unique rock discoveries were made, providing this once, homogeneous, Cowboy State and Jade State with a long list of minerals, rocks and gems that were mostly unknown prior to 1977. 

So what happened to change things? The answer is, someone decided to look. Yep, that's all it took. And over 30 years, literally hundreds of new discoveries were made statewide, many in the middle of nowhere (which is just about any place in Wyoming), others were found along dirt roads, state highways, and even along the Interstate system. It's amazing what one can find when they actually take a look. And after discovering potentially a king's ransom in gemstones, I was in demand all over the continent for talks. 

DIAMONDS ANYONE?

Industrial and gem-quality macro-diamonds collected from
Wyoming kimberlites along Highway 287 south of Laramie.
This larger diamonds were extracted from kimberlite a about
5 years after the first micro diamonds were found in the area.

Starting in the 1970s, diamonds were accidentally discovered in kimberlite (a very rare igneous rock on the earth's surface) in Wyoming, after rock samples from a kimberlite were collected in Wyoming by Dr. M.E. McCallum and Chuck Mabarak from CSU in the Colorado-Wyoming State Line district. These were tested by the US Geological Survey in Denver. 

The samples of garnet peridotite nodules (another rare rock type) were trapped in the kimberlite magma as it rose from the upper mantle of the earth. The peridotite, enclosed in kimberlite yielded several, tiny micro diamonds from sample concentrates. Not sure why it took so long to find these since a prospector in Colorado - Frank Yaussi, was actually recovering diamonds (and gold) from a creek in Colorado adjacent to a quarry of serpentinized rock on the Sloan Ranch (Frank Yaussi, personal communication). It turns out that the rock mined from the quarry later proved to be kimberlite by McCallum and Mabarak.

Later, mining companies, recovered many gem-quality (and some industrial) diamonds from a group of kimberlites extending 2.5 miles north into Wyoming and about 10 miles south into Colorado.  All within a short district of US Highway 287 running from Laramie to Ft. Collins. Hard to imagine that all of those kimberlite volcanoes, with the diamonds and many other gems and unique rocks, remained hidden and untouched for so long. Part of the reason was possibly due to the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872, where people including civil war generals and even a US Senator, lost investments on a diamond scam that occurred west of this area. 

Kimberlite specimens containing hidden diamonds along with
visible chromian diopside and pyrope-almandine garnet gem
megacrysts. Sloan Ranch kimberlite, Colorado. Kimberlite is
considered to be one of the rarest rock types on the earth's
surface.

Did we find all of the kimberlite volcanoes and diamonds? Nope! Barely touched the surface, so to speak. Based on research by the Wyoming Geological Survey, hundreds of kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies were identified in the region indicating the presence of hidden, eroding, kimberlite pipes all over the place. Some research by the Wyoming Geological Survey and later by DiamonEx Ltd, found more than 300 cryptovolcanic structures with characteristics similar to kimberlite pipes - only one of these was ever drilled! And there have even been some geophysical anomalies detected that are interpreted as buried pipe-like structures sitting adjacent to known diamondiferous kimberlite pipes. So, yes, there is still a lot of possibilities. Then there is the extensive diamond indicator mineral anomaly (along with a couple of diamond-bearing lamprophyres) found in a region of the Greater Green River basin extending from Green River and Rock springs, south to the Utah-Wyoming border, and extending into the Uinta Mountains in Utah north of Skinwalker Ranch. These are described in a number of reports by Tom McCandless, Bill Nash, Dan Hausel and others. 

WATER SAPPHIRE, SAPPHIRE, RUBY, AND A BIT OF KYANITE?

A 24,150-carat iolite rough gemstone from Grizzly Creek. This giant, is actually tiny, when compared
to some of the larger iolites sitting in outcrop that are estimated to weigh more than one million
carats. 

Possibly, the greatest gemstone discovery in Wyoming occurred in 1995, and led to similar discoveries in 2004 and 2005. In 1995, the author went looking for the source of a rock collected by Wyoming Geological Survey Industrial Minerals Geologist, Ray Harris (RIP). Garnet was misidentified in the sample, but instead, these red gems had characteristic crystal habits of corundum. After getting the location of the sample site from Harris, the author examined the Palmer Canyon locality in the Laramie Mountains for ruby and sapphire. Sure enough, some high-quality specimens of ruby and sapphire (both varieties of corundum) were recovered from the vermiculite schist. And while searching the area for other outcrops of corundum, gem-quality kyanite, and also gem-quality iolite (cordierite, also referred to as water sapphire) was found including a large, 1,714-carat, fist-sized rough gemstone of the highest quality! Palmer Canyon was a poly-gem deposit. 

A 1,720-carat iolite gemstone rough collected at Palmer Canyon

This incredible discovery lead to the identification of several varieties of iolite gems, along with ruby, sapphire and kyanite. After developing some concepts for an exploration model for iolite, the author began searching for other localities and nearly a decade later, predicted to location of iolite at Grizzly Creek, and found evidence of a potential world class deposit in the Sherman Mountains area of the Laramie Range. The Grizzly Creek deposit contained giant iolite gemstones, some likely weighing millions of carats that still remain in situ, because they were not possible to recover from the outcrop because of size. 

T

Grizzly Creek outcrop containing 
hundreds of thousands of carats of iolite.

he discovery of ruby and sapphire at Palmer Canyon led the author to search other reported sites of vermiculite schist in Wyoming and six of these contained ruby and/or sapphire. Thus, geological models often provide a means to find similar deposits in similar geological environments!

PERIDOT

In 1997, I decided to get out of the office again and go search for possible evidence of diamondiferous lamproite similar to what had been found at Argyle and Ellendale, Australia a decade earlier. One of these, the Argyle, had extremely rich grades for a diamond deposit. Well, Wyoming has one of the largest known fields of lamproites, so I figured I would go have a closer look at the rock types. In particular, I was searching for olivine (also referred to as peridot) because the Aussies had determined this was the identifying mineral in lamproites that separated diamond-bearing lamproites from barren lamproites. 

One of the first olivine grains faceted showing 
excellent transparency. Leucite Hills, Wyoming

After a little searching and some mapping in Wyoming's lamproite volcanic field near Rock Springs, known as the Leucite Hills, sure enough, not far from Black Butte lamproite, I came across two green anthills. Wow, I was excited, here were two anthills that had so many specimens of olivine, that they were green - I examined the olivine with my 10x hand lens, and whazzooo!!! They were mostly gem quality! This was amazing! Since the late 19th century, geologists visiting the field had reported some olivine, but never in concentrations like this, and also, not one had even mentioned these minerals were gem-quality. Talk about wearing blinders when going to the field. So, I collected the two anthills, these were later processed in our laboratory, and more than 1,300 carats of gem-quality peridot were recovered. Why, thank you ants! But, didn't find any diamonds, but at the same time, to find diamonds, typically large bulk samples must be taken with a bulldozer - not the kind of money that we had for research. But a couple of chromites  recovered from a couple of lamproites had favorable chemistry for diamonds. So, Wyoming just needs to get someone interested in digging diamonds near Rock Springs. 

A group of raw and faceted olivine (peridot) collected from anthills in the Leucite Hills, Wyoming
discovery by the author.

GEMSTONES in WYOMING

Thank you Planet News for recognizing the significance of our accomplishments over the many years. Please visit their blog to see what I'm talking about.

Fist-size almandine garnet from Tie Siding with
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 another iolite deposit would be found at Grizzly Creek based on favorable 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 massive 
iolite.

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 large, rough, pink sapphire was found in
Palmer Canyon with several thousand carats of other
sapphires and rubies.

Cut and polished kyanite gemstones 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 cuttable.

One of many fancy diamonds found in Wyoming.

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

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 history records. Where is the gold? 

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.