Diamond Hill Mine
South Carolina
Find: Quartz clusters including hematite & manganese coated varieties, amethyst, green beryl, garnets
GPS: 34.27042, -82.57471
Nearest city: Anderson, SC
Recommended Vehicle: Any
Season: Open year round except select holidays(?) - Website doesn’t specify.
Summary:
Diamond Hill is one of the most popular pay to dig rockhounding sites in the Southeast. It has been dug extensively for many years. It is in the same general region as Graves Mountain, making them a couple good spots to pair together in a long weekend.
While you’re digging through tailings piles for quartz here, the finds can be very surprising. They are ‘unsalted’ meaning it is only the native rock in the ground, nothing added. Bright orange iridescence can be found on high grade skeletal quartz clusters due to hematite layers on their surfaces. Additionally, a deep black color can scale over quartz crystals due to oxidized manganese.
Amethyst is also often found here. Some of the larger crystals that get posted on the mine’s Facebook page have been amethyst.
This is a site that many people have differing opinions on. Based on my own experience, the quartz clusters were distributed somewhat randomly. Diamond Hill has been operated for many, many years and you are digging through tailings here. There is still plenty to be found.
We moved to a few different holes throughout the day and ended up finding nice pieces almost everywhere I tried. It seemed like our best pieces all came from a couple “hotspots” within 4 or 5 feet of each other.
As of writing this in early 2026, Diamond Hill carries a $20/day dig fee. A link to their website can be found here.
Video
Check out the video for a better look at what can be found when exploring this spot.
3 Helpful Tools
D Handle Shovel
A short, D handle shovel was the most useful tool for us out there.
Pick
The Geo Paleo from Estwing is the one that many people, including myself use.
Hose Spray Nozzle
A garden hose spray nozzle was awesome for quickly cleaning these up without blasting off parts of the colorful hematite.
An example of how I dug most of the day.
These photos are some of our better ones, some clean and some dirty.
A 2-pointed crystal with a slight purple to it.
The scaling was unexpectedly good on these after getting them cleaned off with a garden hose sprayer.
The intensity of the color on some of these was awesome. We didn't use iron out or oxalic acid for any cleaning, since it will react with the hematite.
This is the manganese oxide scaling.
Here they are together in one piece, along with clear quartz. Others called this combination "Halloween Quartz" at the mine.
Others had no scaling but crazy shapes.