My wife and I were visiting North Carolina to do some rock hunting. We had spent some time at Emerald Hollow Mine which is basically a tourist trap with a salted creek. I wanted to look for some native stuff. I had read about various places in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are many mines there. Some charge, some are free. We decided to try Ray Mica Mine. It was free and from pictures I found online, had some interesting looking rocks. We park at the end of the Ray Mine Road (GPS coordinates: N 35 53.240 W 82 16.732). We grabbed a couple rock hammers and started walking up the trail. The trail crosses the creek. I left my wife to explore the creek. She was probably not in shape to climb up the hill. Digging is not allowed in the creek anymore, but I was told you are allowed to search for rocks already exposed.
I saw a guy up in the hill digging. I climbed up. The trail continues around and up the hill, but I took the direct route. There were two guys up there digging under tree roots. The one guy suggested digging down and in. I didn’t feel like going back to the car for a shovel just yet. I headed up the hill a little ways and started digging under a tree root with my rock hammer. The dirt was loose and easy to dig. I found lots of rocks, but no beryl. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for. I had seen pictures though. I heard a whoop from down below and I made my way down to see what they had. The one guy had found a rock with a two, or three beryl crystals in it. The other guy showed me a nice beryl crystal that was free from any rock. I got some pictures of their beryl. They said I want to look for rocks with quartz and feldspar in them. If they had just one or the other, they won’t have beryl in them.
So I went back up to my spot and dug some more. After a while I was getting hungry and wondering how my wife was doing. I went back down to the creek. My wife had walked the creek as far as she could go and not found any beryl either. I said I was going to go down to the car to get a sandwich and something to drink. I was planning on grabbing the shovel. But my wife was tired and wasn’t up for anymore here. So we made our way back to the car and left.
I would have loved to have had more time here. Knowing what I know now, I would have brought a shovel, and a bucket filled with water from the creek to rinse off rocks. I would have planned to spend more time there. The two guys I spoke too had found beryl, but they said they had also had days where they dug all day, and found nothing. So be aware, it is not guaranteed you will find beryl here. I did find some interesting specimens of mica.

Ray Mica Mine Hill

Ray Mica Mine Bank

Ray Mica Mine Beryl

Posted by Rob in Rockhounding on April 23rd, 2011 | No Comments