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 Capistrano Mining Company
"Your direct source for Sapphire Gravel Paydirt from the Sapphire Mines of Montana, Benitoite from the Benitoite Gem Mine in San Benito County, CA and Tourmaline from Mesa Grande, in San Diego County, CA."
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"We do travel out of town each month on mining trips. Since this is a long term listing, please check the top of our weekly listings to see if we are in or out of town. This way you will know if your items shipping may be delayed. Sorry for any inconvenience".
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Do you like mining or treasure hunting? Do you like finding valuable gems?
  
Then this is for you!
Here we are offering gravel/ore direct from a world famous Tourmaline Mine in Mesa Grande, San Diego County California.
This is our Tourmaline Mine Gravel Pack #10.
In this pack you get 10 pounds of raw gravel/ore directly from the mine tailing from a world famous tourmaline mine. This gravel has not been searched in anyway. It was shoveled into large bags at the mine, then we repacked it for your searching pleasure.
The gravel is mostly covered in dirt and sand. It is randomly scooped into each gravel pack, so we have no way of knowing what might be in each bag. Due to this reason, it is not possible for us to remove all the granite like rock that is present in this ore. Please understand that all types of mining is a gamble. Some may find nice facet grade material or nice mineral specimens, and some may not find much at all. But with this ore, there are so many different types of minerals found in this region, that you are bound to find something nice!
Here is some information about tourmaline and on the mine. This is information from the mines website......
The Mine, known for its abundance of gem grade tourmaline, is located in Mesa Grande in San Diego County, California. The mine is an underground five mile labyrinth of steep passageways that were dug, drilled, and blasted over the past 100 years.
There are several gem-grade tourmaline mines in San Diego County, but this mine is the most prominent tourmaline mine in the world! Opened in 1898, the mine is known for producing tons of beautiful gem quality pink and green tourmalines. An estimated 250 thousand pounds of tourmaline and mineral specimens have been extracted from the mine. The mine produced more tourmaline than any other tourmaline mine in the world, for 15 years, including an amazing 5.5 tons in 1904 (the most tourmaline ever produced in one year). But, that’s not hard considering some of the largest pockets have produced over a ton of tourmaline. Tourmaline is found in pegmatite veins that are formed at nearly a 45 degree angle deep into the the earth. There are several pegmatite dykes containing tourmaline on Mesa Grande. The mine is located on the largest one. The tourmalines found here are pink, green, bicolored, tri-colored, seven layers of color, blue cap, reverse watermelon, or watermelon. Only about 5 percent of the tourmalines produced are gem-grade. Many tourmaline specimens have been found at the mine, some of which can be seen at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Tourmaline is a complex mineral, a hexagon boron-aluminum-silicate structure, that can occur in any color. The most common colors found at the mine are pink and green in varying shades and intensity. On occasion, though extremely rare, blue tourmaline (indicolite) has been found. Tourmaline is the only mineral with three sides, like a prism. This crystal structure happens because the crystals grow in a trigonal system, which can be seen when viewing the cross sections of a nicer tourmaline crystals. Tourmalines also have an electrical charge that changes when heated, becoming polarized, acting like a magnet attracting light objects such as ashes. Some of the other minerals found at the mine are quartz, apatite, morganite, aquamarine, kunzite, clevelandite, calcite, lepidolite, feldspar, stibiotantalite, topaz, and spressartine garnet, just to name a few.
This is a small sampling of what can be found.
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HOW DO I FIND IT?
There are 2 ways to search your gravel.
1. ( Good ) Dry search it. Sift out the dirt. Spread it out carefully and look.
2. ( Best ) Wash it. After sifting out the dirt, rinse off your gravel in small amounts then look thru carefully.
All you need to start your home mining treasure hunt.....
A fine wire strainer or screen, and something like a kitchen cutting board to search on (white works best). Tweezers are helpful for the small pieces but not necessary, since most piece are large, and something to put your smaller pieces into. Also, have some paper towel on hand to wrap any crystals or specimens you may find so they do not get damaged. (Be careful during your search, as sometimes small pieces of glass have been found in these tailings left behind from previous miners).
First empty a small amount of gravel into your strainer (about 1/2 cup) and rinse it well with water to get off all of the dirt. Some of the ore can be very large and these piece you will want to wash one at a time. You should pull out the large pieces before you wash.
  
Now dump your cleaned gravel onto your search surface and look thru it slowly looking for color, pink, green, blue and any needles or pencil pieces of tourmaline. Make sure to look at every piece of quartz, especially the large chunks for tourmaline crystals. Don't mistake purple for pink, the many pieces of purple you will see is a type of mica, nice for collecting but not worth much. Also be on the look out for quartz, apatite, morganite, aquamarine, kunzite, clevelandite, calcite, lepidolite, feldspar, stibiotantalite, topaz, and spressartine garnet, just to name a few.
Have patience and save your gravel to go thru a second time, even experienced people can miss some now and then.
  
We hope that all this information is enough to get you started on your way to finding your tourmaline treasure. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to email us! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please look at the photos and ask any questions prior to the end of the auction.
Look at our feedback, We always stand behind the items we sell.
Our Guarantee to the Purchaser: Due to the nature of this material and the eyes of the searcher, we cannot guarantee your find. We can guarantee that you will find many great minerals and you will have a lot of fun on your hunt. We cannot guarantee the quality of the specimens you may find, but if what we found was any indication, your eyes may pop.
Return Policy: Due to the nature of this material, we cannot except returns.
Sorry, No International Shipping.
I will email the winning bidder within 24 hrs. from the sales end, and expect a return email from the winner with 24 hrs.
Winning bidder must pay by Paypal only within 3 days, Ebay now requires it.
Winning bidder will pay for shipping by Priority mail flat rate. Win more than one item and combine shipping. We can combine up to 2 Tourmaline Mine Gravel Packs # 10, in one medium flat rate box.
CA residents must pay Sales Tax of 8.75%.
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