Oceanview and Pala Chief Mine Field Trip

Item Description

OCEANVIEW MINE COLLECTING DAY: The current Oceanview Mine includes the older workings where, literally, both kunzite and morganite were named as species; and goes back over 100 years. This is HISTORY, folks!
Experience an underground tunnel tour (normally inaccessible except to employees and industry scientists) at the only working Gem Mine in California (run by Jeff Swanger). Kunz took out the first Kunzites and Morganites here to be named by Tiffany’s in NYC, circa the late 1890s! Your tour will take you into the original mine entry and an actual pocket that Kunz wrote about finding the first morganites in! The modernized tunnel has been dug for over 15 years by Jeff and his hardworking team, and you will see the origin of famous pockets as reported in numerous articles in Lapis, Mineralogical record, and Rocks & Minerals magazines. You get to see not only the old workings famous from the history books (you will go inside the same pocket that George Kunz went into circa 1900, and collected the first identified in situ morganites from), but the newer modern-era shafts elsewhere on the mountain to access the same deposit. They are seeing SIGNS of new minerals and tourmalines now, with rich pink beryllium in the veins and some schorl crystals in the walls. You might get lucky and be there when they hit a pocket! This trip is good for 2 to 4 people, during 2022-23. Jeff will allow the finders to keep specimens up to $1000 value, and to purchase anything above that which they may find at half of the fair retail value. Generously Donated by Jeff Swanger, Oceanview Mining LLC. 

This trip is part of the 2022 Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium benefit auction, with proceeds benefiting Mineralogical Record, Rocks & Minerals, Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, and mindat.org. Thanks to all of our participants!

Billing for this auction will occur on Monday, August 22, for payment using PayPal or a credit card. Shipping will be billed at cost.