I have this crazy project I want to do. I want to make a ring for my
wife from scratch. Really from scratch. I want to start with some
ore to get the silver. I am planning a trip to Arkansas next year to
hunt for the diamond(s) I will need. I hope to find a couple of
garnets as well.
So to get started I need to find a person willing to sell me enough
ore to get about 1 ounce of silver. Depending on the type of ore,
that might be 50 to 100pounds I am guessing? I know this is an
off-beat request but I really wantto do this for my wife.
I have emailed and written letters to severallarger mining companies
and have received zero responses back.
So if anyone has a contact number or email address for me I would
love the assistance.
And as a side note. I will not be using anything that will hurt the
enviroment. No mercury or other noxious chemicals. It will be done
safely even if it takes more time and labor.
thanks in advancefor the help.
Gerald A. Livings
Livingston Jewelers
I admire your tenacity, Gerald, even if I don’t quite understand it.
Finding garnets should be the easiest part. I know of one location
in NC where all you’d have to do is search in the gravel below a
waterfall, and surely there are others. IDK about the silver from
ore. As far as the diamonds from Crater of Diamonds State Park, I
think it is possible to spend days there and not find a diamond at
all, so I would check on this before going. it could be a long trip.
I assume you are going to set an uncut crystal. learning to cut a
diamond could take some years. good luck with the project!
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I have been to the Crater Of Diamonds State Park more than once. My
late Mother’s family lives not too far from there.
It’s pretty boring. It is an open field where once a day a bulldozer
reworks he surface. There is no mine to enter. There are lots of
garnets, but they are really tiny.
Mostly you just dig up a bunch of dirt and look through it. The
likelihood of finding a diamond is very remote. Speaking of remote.
So is the location. You’ll have to fly into Texarkana or Shreveport
and then rent a car.
It can make for a fun and entertaining way to introduce kids to
geology though. Oh and don’t go there after early May. It gets really
really hot out in the field and there is no shade.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com
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theoretically feasible. Lot of hard work.
For each of the components, you will want to find a location that is
not too far from where you are or travel costs start to become
prohibitive. The corollary of this is if you get a guided prospecting
experience - no guarantees there either.
Silver is not super common, often mixed in with other metals -
Galena, gold, copper (Michigan Coppere?) - as sulphides or other
salts. You may have to collect and process quite a bit of ore to get
enough silver.
I’d start by looking for silver mines and gem locations near you and
work out from there…
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I’ve got some very high grade silver ore that’s been cabbed. looks
cool with the silver threads & spots in it. got the silver ore from a
geologist in Ontario in a trade.
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Thanks for the
As to local areas for ore, I live in Wisconsin. The closest silver
mines are in Colorado. We have lead and copper mines but they are
all pretty much closed and have neighborhoods on them now. So I have
to travel anyways or find someone willing to fill a couple of 5
gallon buckets with ore and put on a mailing label. I am just
looking for contact for someone who will call me back.
Even if it is to say no. That would be an improvement.
I have been surprised how hard it is to find someone who is willing
to sell 50 pounds of ore. Gold ore I can understand. Gold is not
cheap and the processing is dangerous. Silver, only costs a few
dollars per ounce and I am going to be paying for the ore and the
shipping. So no net loss to whoever sends me ore. But finding
someone who is willing to even email or write me back has been the
problem.
For the stones, I am planning on going in Early April to the park
when it is cool and rainy. The park emails say that more diamonds
are found on the surface after some rain so I am betting that in a
few days, I can find some small ones. My goal will be to gather and
concentrate a bucket of gravel each day there and then carefully
search that when I get home. All I need to find is a.25 point
canhardly gem. That is enough! Something to say I found a diamond.
Having training and better equipment for identifying diamonds then
the average person, I think I have a good chance to find one.
This is a project to be able to say “I did that”. I suspect that the
small silver ring will cost several hundred dollars by the time it
is done. But no one will be able to say my wife does not have a cool
ring with a great story!
Jerry
Gerald A. Livings
Livingston Jewelers
if your only making a ring you will be able to find enough for sale
on ebay for your purpose. you don’t need 50 pounds of high grade ore
to process enough for a 3 gram ring…
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Gerry, finding gold ore and silver ore are hobby activities of the
nonprofit Gold Prospecters’ Association of America (GPAA). They
might be able to help you.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep822m
Lorraine
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Michigan does have silver. As a boy in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan I
lived on the St Mary’s river, five miles or so West of town. We had a
river front lot and lining the shore, my parents had loads of rock
brought in to line the shoreline in front of the house. There were
different types of rock, all glacier worn. I don’t know where they
came from but it couldn’t have been too far from there. Among the
various types of rock were some black slate boulders. some of which
were broken and had small veins of silver in them. It was like little
veins of wire. Seeing that, I would sometimes break them open and
found many of them to have these veins. Always planned to build a
fire and see if I could melt some out of the rock but somehow never
gotaround to it.
Jerry in Kodiak
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