Hi my name is Craig Wiita, and this is my first blog. I did an episode of Gold Fever with Tom a couple years ago at the Hauser Geode Beds, and the Opal Hill Mine, GF105.
So for my first blog I would like to talk about the Opal Hill Mine, located in Palo Verde, CA.
The Opal Hill Mine is the only fire agate mine open to the public in the United States. For a fee of $25.00 a day, per person you can mine right at the source, not in the tailings, or in a bucket of dirt that someone else chose for you. You can keep everything you find, no matter what it's value, and with a little hard work, you will find some really beautiful stuff. The Opal Hill Mine is open from Oct. thru the end of April. From May thru Sept. this area is very dangerous, the day time temperature can reach 125 degrees, or more. Every summer this desert takes a couple lives of people thinking they can beat the elements. There is not anything in this desert worth giving your life for, and it will all still be here in the fall when our weather is beautiful. Mining at the Opal Hill Mine is hard rock gem mining, and let me tell you, this stuff doesn't just jump into your bucket. There is an art to following the agate seams, and an even finer art to removing your finds in tact. Some of the finer points of hard rock fire agate mining, and also cleaning pointers are shown on a video following this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdBaiGJpOnM
They have been pulling out gem quality fire agate at the Opal Hill Mine since the 1940's. Prospectors looking for the next great geode beds ran across this vein of fire agate in the early 1940's, and the Opal Hill Mine was born. It has been in continuous operation ever since.
The fire agate is only one of the treasures to be found at the Opal Hill Mine. There are museum quality matrix pieces of fire agate, quartz, and calcite that are all one of a kinds.
If you would like to see some of the museum quality pieces that I've found at the Opal Hill Mine check out www.wiitaminingandexploration.com
I also helped out on the Cash, and Treasures crew on their fire agate show airing on the Travel Channel
If you have any questions please contact me at wiitas@aol.com
My next blog will be on the Hauser Geode Beds
