Well just when I thought the new location of the Wayne/Lee pit road was set it changed. The plan was to move the road from the pit side to the wall side of the W/L pit and then drop the pit side rim down to the water. We started that effort and hit some very good pegmatite.
This year was Connecticut Mineral Club’s 5th outing to the Tripp Mine. Each year the outing gets better and Lee & Wayne put more work into it. For me it is just a great party.
When a club comes to the Tripp Mine, I prep one of the (new blast material) pits just for their outing. The dumps and other dormant pits are also open for collecting. This year the Santospago pit was prepped for the CVM and the shovel-winning specimen came from this pit.
2009 Connecticut Valley Mineral Club members getting together to enter the Tripp Mine
The CVM club uses this outing to reward the members that work at their yearly mineral show. The outing consists of mineral collecting, silent auction (Toveco sponsored), judging the best-collected specimen, award presentation and eating pies at the end of the day. Read the rest of this entry »
The Gilsum rock show held in Gilsum NH next door to Alstead NH and just down the street from the Toveco Mines, so to speak. I have been attending this event for many years and this year’s show is one of the best ever for attendance and fun. The attendance was also a big surprise because of the predicted rain that did not show up until the show closed on Saturday evening and ended early Sunday morning making for a dry show. Read the rest of this entry »
1.25" X 1.88" tall Heliodor crystal, 2009, Tripp Mine
A miner must learn to eat a lot of humble pie. As posted in the last blog we were into a lot of very poor quality feldspar and there was a good large pod of good quartz with feldspar crystals. To date when we hit these pods we have found good beryl crystals. This time the quartz, microcline, feldspar crystal pod (one of the largest found to date) produced no beryl. The area that was pushing out the poor quality feldspar (pit rim) changed into a rusty chowder peg (hematite stained blocky quartz with feldspar). This type of peg has produced light heliodor to date. It is also the area were Wayne is documenting the tree stump beryl crystal on you-tube. Read the rest of this entry »
Beryl crystal that cracked out of the quartz matrix nicely.
We finished the mine clean up at the end of May. It’s surprising how much waste rock we stored in the mine working area. In retrospect last year’s fuel cost made us very creative in storing the waste rock. The plan is to move the road to the south wall from the present pit side location. Then we will bring the pit sidewall down to the pit water level. Before we move the road, we are now dropping the wall side area down and storing the waste rock for the new road. Read the rest of this entry »
55 Pleasant St. Grafton, Vt. 05146
One person walking the talk is Sue Hadden, which started her third year as owner and promoter of the Vermont Museum of Mining and Minerals in Grafton VT. I just put a mineral & lapidary display in the museum. This display consisted of items from the Wise Mine project (1994 to 2003) and the Tripp Mine (2004 to now). This museum and ones like it are needed more than ever. They awaken there local communities populace and its visitors to the area’s past and present mining heritage which is being forgotten and ignored. Read the rest of this entry »
Spring 2009, Tripp Mine looking south
The mining hat gets put on and the gem cutting hat is almost on the hook. This past week and half we have been getting the Tripp mine ready for production. Every year is different depending on what the winter weather left and how well the equipment stood up during it’s dormant period. This year was not too bad (as per now). Read the rest of this entry »
2009 Connecticut Valley Mineral Club show, Toveco booth.
My favorite shows to work are the club shows. It gives me a great opportunity to talk rock and catch up on what is happening rock wise in the particular shows area. The event becomes a weekend party for me.
My last show was the Connecticut valley mineral club show that has been changing its venue location the past few years. They have hit a home run with their new location at the Holiday inn in Holyoke Mass. It’s a show that one should check out in 2010. 2 other shows to check out for 2009 are the Maine symposium in Augusta Maine & the Gilsum rock swap in Gilsum NH. Read the rest of this entry »
14 carat x 16.3mm octagon star, combination cut natural New Hampshire Aquamarine
When I started the Clark / Tripp project, I did not expect to be so evolved and like the lapidary sciences. The Clark / Tripp project is now moving me into jewelry fabrication. Just as I have pointed out before, when you work a pegmatite, you are getting into the gemstone market. The gemstone market has now moved Toveco into the jewelry market. I started having Toveco designed jewelry made about 2 years ago. It has now grown to the point where I knew I needed some formal training. I am now taking a first level jewelry course at the NH institute of art. The course has already paid off. I highly recommend taking a jewelry fabrication class. Read the rest of this entry »