Sheffield Mine
GPS: 35.27236, -83.3939
Land type:
Private
Digging fee:
$10 per person for the day, +$5 for each bucket of native dirt.
The mine also offers enriched buckets with stones added from around the world if you have members of your group that prefer something lighter.
Summary from my visit:
The Sheffield Mine was well-developed and comfortable, without losing its authenticity. When I first visited, I was somewhat worried when I learned that we wouldn’t be digging the dirt that we’d later sift ourselves. (I went on a group trip and didn’t have background information about the mine beforehand.)
However, it makes sense in practice. The stones are being dug from clay layers in steep hillsides, then driven down to a large pile by a tractor. It’s then placed in buckets that you can buy to sift. You can see the hillside the material is coming from and the tractor made some refill runs throughout the day, which was pretty cool.
The $5 buckets are deceptively time consuming to clean. They held around 1 gallon of material each and the clay packs itself densely among the stones - essentially forming very hard mud balls that can be easily mistaken for rocks. I found that a pair of work gloves helped to scrub those against the bottom screen and break them down into gravel.
I had exceptional luck digging here and the owners were really attentive to make sure everyone was situated with the large group I was with. The ruby is a strange, beautiful shade between red and purple. Two of my best finds ended up being pretty large (photos and weights below)
Finds at the Sheffield Mine aren’t just limited to ruby and sapphire. I also came across a fair amount of garnets, moonstone, sillimanite, and a few pieces of kyanite. Some of the highest grade rubies that have come from the Sheffield mine and other mines in the Cowee Valley area have ‘asterism’ - a strange trait that gives a star-patterned shine when turned at a specific angle. A small, bright flashlight can help to see asterism. It can be tricky to see in the sun.
The Sheffield Mine ended up exceeding expectations and everyone in our group seemed to have left with a find they were excited about.
Seasonality:
Everyday: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (must arrive by 3PM to dig)
April 1st - October 31st
Road condition notes:
The mine is reachable by any standard car.
Additional information:
Website: sheffieldmine.com
The gravel road to the Sheffield Mine.
Overlooking the flume. There is a wood staircase leading from the upper parking area where I took this photo down to the mine. They also can accomodate those with mobility troubles and pick you up in the tractor to get you down there.
A classifier screen on the flume. There are 2 flumes here. The majority of both have a sun-shade overhead to keep you cool.
This is about 1/3 of a $5 bucket worth of dirt. Each bucket took me about 30 minutes to run. The large clumps all have gravel in them, they just take some work to break down.
An example of what I mean by scrubbing the stones against the screen with the garden glove. You can use your bare hands just fine, but rubberized work gloves will help.
Here are the concentrates I was left with. The biggest takeaway I had was to not toss anything aside until checking it with an ultraviolet light first. Large rubies and sapphires will be easy to see, but many smaller ones may still have mud on them making them difficult to spot in regular light.
I was able to visit with a club and we searched through some piles of dirt the mine brought out for us. This one was one of two large rubies I found.
This is the other. It’s still got plenty of mud packed into the nooks and crannies here…
I ran all of these in a rock tumbler for 24 hours with the barrel partially filled with water (no tumbling grit). It helped clean a lot of the mud off to get a better look at them. Some of the non-fluorescent large black/brown pieces on the right were mainly host rock (junk) so I tossed them aside.
Here is the first of the two large stones from above, weighing in at 19.5 carats.
Here is the second of them, this one sitting at 29 carats. At this point in time, I am unsure what to do with them. I would like to have them faceted in the future but I don’t have expertise on their quality or clarity. If you have any recommendations on faceting in North Carolina, please send me an email! - griffincoledigs@gmail.com
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