Wisdom, My Most Valuable Gem

"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it."

Proverbs 8:10-11

Faceted ruby (12-carats) cut from corundum found in
vermiculite-schist at Palmer Canyon, Wyoming

The wisdom of Proverbs dwells deep into the human soul and such wisdom helps explain me to myself. All my life, I found value in good books, not in how much money someone made. Most people have a view that a person's value is based on wealth. But think about this! How much wisdom does it take to be born king or queen of England? 

You see, over the years working as a research geologist for the Wyoming Geological Survey at the University of Wyoming, as well as consultant for a variety of mining companies, one might think I became incredibly rich! I am, but not in materialism. I have no money to speak of, but I had great experiences. I discovered, or was part of a discovery team that found $billions in gold. Yes, this made people rich; but those who became rich, sat at the top of companies and didn't get out and get dirty. Personally, I'm just happy they chose me as a consultant on some great consulting projects - the experiences I had can not be bought.

Accepted for a team of geologists at the

PDAC in Toronto by Richard Garnett in 2009

for discovery of the Donlin Creek gold deposit

found in 1988-89 in the Kuskokwim Mountains

near Crooked Creek, Alaska. Richard went 

on and made another world-class discovery in 

Canada!

I  was just one of a team of seven geologists who found this giant gold deposit in 1988! Then there are the other mineral discoveries over the years while camping in an old, $100 tent, in ghost towns, wilderness, and on the top of mountains. I walked hundreds of miles, breathed clean air, was bit by a tick, surrounded by rattlesnakes and coyotes, and met many entertaining cowboys, prospectors and geologists in local pubs. So, I am rich in memories.  

When I entered college a long time ago, my parents taught me to value what a person did with their life, rather than how much they could buy with inherited or stolen bank accounts. How sad is it to see so many billionaires and multi-millionaires who steal, build phony foundations, and give nothing back to the world, and then brag about their contributions. Good luck with the eye of the needle.

 Those who know me realize I'm not all that bright, but I'm driven to discover.  I search for mineral deposits based on science, and as soon as I find what I'm looking for, I will study the deposit only long enough to gain more insight into structure, setting, chemistry, etc, and then I move on to the next treasure hunt and leave the last one to others. 

Vermiculite schist from Palmer Canyon with blue kyanite and pink-red corundum.

In the 1990s, I went looking for rubies that were misidentified as garnets. After I found the deposit in Palmer Canyon in the Laramie Mountains west of Wheatland, Wyoming, I recognized other potential gemstones including sapphire, kyanite and possibly similar alumina-silicates. Looking, nearby; I discovered some incredibly, beautiful, iolite, another aluminum-rich gems. I don't think iolite and ruby are genetically linked, but they do have similarities in their geological (metamorphic) settings and rock chemistry. So, if I find another metamorphic ruby deposit, I don't believe I will always find another iolite deposit nearby, but because of these aluminum-rich rocks (meta-pelites) being formed under similar metamorphic grades (pressure and temperature), there is a chance of finding iolite and other alumina gems in the area. Some rubies and sapphires (i.e. corundum) appear to have a connection to a particular host rock known as vermiculite schist (the host for ruby, sapphire, and kyanite at Palmer Canyon), iolite does not. This association is important, and after I recognized this characteristic, I searched the literature for information on vermiculite deposits, visited them, and all of a sudden, I had another 6 discoveries. And I found some other iolite deposits based on the reported presences of a mineral geologists know as cordierite. So, yes, there is a link between geology, chemistry, setting, and even wisdom. 

RUBY & SAPPHIRE IN WYOMING

Faceted (transparent red) and cabochon (opaque cab) rubies sitting on specimen of corundum
vermiculite schist collected in Palmer Canyon (photo by the author. Gems weigh a little more
than 1-carat each.

CORUNDUM (Al2O3)  Characteristics & Habit. Corundum (H=9) is the second hardest naturally occurring mineral: only diamond is harder. As a result, gemstones made from corundum are durable. Raw corundum occurs as barrel-shaped hexagonal prisms with rough, rounded surfaces often exhibiting distinct parting. Because of good rhombohedral and basal parting corundum prisms often terminate at basal pinicoids & display striations due to repeated twinning.

Corundum exhibits a variety of colors including gray, grayish green, blue, pink, brown, red & purple. Some corundum is used to produce extraordinary gemstones. Ruby is the deep pigeon’s-blood red translucent to transparent variety of corundum with adamantine luster and sapphire includes all other colors.

It will display a striking adamantine to vitreous luster noticeable in faceted gemstones. High specific gravity (4 to 4.1) is favorable for its concentration in black sand concentrates in streams. During sampling in the central Laramie Range, we recovered tiny rubies and sapphires in several sample concentrates in that region, suggesting that several corundum deposits remain to be discovered.

Palmer Canyon ruby mounted in necklace (photo courtesy of Chuck Mabarak) & showing parting (right - note the distinct lines in the gemstone).





THE CORUNDUM GEMSTONES include a variety of colors including:
Red Ruby
Cornflower Blue Sapphire
Colorless Leuco-sapphire
Light bluish-green Oriental Aquamarine
Green Oriental Emerald
Yellow-Green Oriental Chrysolite
Yellow Oriental Topaz
Aurora Red Oriental Hyacinth
Violet Oriental Amethyst

Occurrence. Corundum, a high-pressure aluminum oxide, is found with silica-poor, aluminum-rich metamorphic rocks in often referred to as metapelite, mica schist and hornfels.



Ruby with parting from undisclosed location in WY

Metapelite may contain a variety of alumino-silicate porphyroblasts such as mica, kyanite, sillimanite, andalusite, vermiculite & cordierite. The corundum itself is typically found in vermiculite schist and aluminum-rich serpentinites. Vermiculite schist is considered an alteration product of a former metapelite in which metapelite was desilicated leaving mica-rich rock known as vermiculite schist or glimmerite schist. After noting the close association of vermiculite & ruby, I discovered several more ruby deposits in Wyoming. This was also true of iolite and pelitic schist. Using geology proved to be extremely valuable.

Localities. Corundum has been found at a number of places in Wyoming. Wyoming could easily develop a major ruby and sapphire industry along with many other commodities - such as diamond, gold, palladium, rare earths, iolite, labradorite, copper, zinc and silver - but its political regime with the US Forest Service have worked for more than 30 years to withdraw nearly all non-energy mineral resources from public lands - something that should be considered illegal. Over the years, we provided evidence for major and world-class mineral deposits and several companies found significant base metal deposits, only to find government interference at every level.

Large ruby-zoisite porphyroblast from Red Dwarf deposit found by J. David Love of the US Geological Survey. Much of this giant ruby was replaced by zoisite, but excellent pigeon’s blood
red ruby remains untouched. Prior to replacement, this specimen would have been one of the
largest rubies in the world. It suggests that large rubies remain to be found at the Red Dwarf.

One interesting locality lies northwest of Jeffrey City, known as the Red Dwarf deposit (sections 13 and 24, T30N, R93W), was investigated by me several years ago. The deposit consists of corundum gneiss & schist with a 5,000 foot strike length with widths of 20 to 50 feet. The rock has 1 to 10% corundum porphyroblasts encased in zoisite-fuchsite reaction rims and considerable fuchsite and zoisite pseudomorphs after corundum. Where found, some of corundum is translucent with good color.

The corundum may be light purplish-pink, lavender, to reddish-purple, and range from millimeter size to more than two inches across. Some gem-quality corundum was found in the past and partially replaced specimens provide evidence for rubies of five inches (or more) in length and more than 2 inches in diameter. 

Beautiful specimen of reddish-purple corundum (variety - ruby) collected by Eric Hausel from the
Red Dwarf deposit, Granite Mountains, Wyoming (photo by Robert Odell).

A nearby serpentinite discovered west of the ruby schist contains tiny (millimeter size), light-blue, translucent to opaque corundum. Locally, the serpentinite has 20 to 40% corundum.

Palmer Canyon corundum schist showing some pink corundum (var. sapphire) enclosed within blue
kyanite in the vermiculite schist (photo by the author).

At another deposit known as the Abernathy deposit (section 26, T30N, R96W) near Sweetwater Station, pale-blue and white corundum is found in mica schist. The corundum is abundant and occurs as one-inch diameter nodules in the schist.

Corundum is also associated with vermiculite schist (glimmerite) west of Wheatland in Palmer Canyon. This deposit (N/2 Section 18, T24N, R70W) is associated with kyanite, cordierite, and sillimanite schist and gneiss. The corundum forms small, hexagonal, pink, red and white grains from about 0.1 to 0.3 inch across. Many grains have well-developed parting which limits the size of facetable material. Even so, significant percentages have excellent color, and are transparent to translucent (Personal field notes, 1997). Locally, the schist may contain >20% corundum. Small amounts of corundum have also been identified at the Grizzly Creek iolite (cordierite) deposit to the south and other localities to the north.

Some corundum was identified in vermiculite schist in the Platte River Valley between the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Mountains. Another notable corundum locality is in the Big Sandy opening along the southern margin of the Wind River Mountains, where hundreds of corundum crystals weighing up to 90 carats have been collected from Squaw Creek by prospectors (Russ and Joe Sims, personal communication). The source of this corundum remains undiscovered. Some nearby ruby schist float was found (B.F. Frost, Personal communication) indicating the presence of ruby deposit. According to Dr. Frost, this ruby deposit is widespread within the southern core of the Wind River Mountains. Location, however, could not be verified and may be erroneous.

 

Below - Raw translucent pink sapphire from Palmer Canyon. Below right -  faceted pink sapphires & blue iolites from Palmer Canyon, & Below far right - large raw ruby from the Rattlesnake Hills, Wyoming. In addition to these stones, the author was following rubies near the Big Sandy opening in the Wind River Mountains, the Rattlesnake Hills, Barlow Gap, the Sierra Madre, the central Laramie Range & the Saratoga valley.