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Post by melhill1659 on Jan 28, 2017 8:53:29 GMT -5
If you knew how scarce and expensive natural rubies are that don't require diffusion or glass-filling treatment, you might change your mind. Agates and jaspers are my first love too -- but there's a lot of "prospector" left over from my younger days too. Just out of curiosity can you say what kind of environment the rock in question was found it? Was it a tumbled beach rock or was it found in the island's interior? It looks like it's traveled quite a way from the original source due to alluvial rounding in water. I think it's significant that the red crystalline inclusions are less worn than the host rock. That means they're harder but how hard depends on the hardness of the host materials. I won't be heading for the islands to do any prospecting. Even if I found something, hassling with the French or Dutch regulations would probably be a nightmare. But I'm fascinated by the geology of the region, especially its gem potential. Since you like green there's a possibility jadeite can be found on some of the islands as well if memory serves. There's a mineralogist at the NYC Museum of Natural History who's done a lot of research into Caribbean jadeite locations but I can't recall if St. Martin was on the list. Gemfeller, To answer your question that one was found along the beach heading out to my fav two little dead coral reefs. It's actually just a pull off spot you can walk up a platform and see a beautiful view. Nothing is mentioned about walking over to the little places anywhere!!! I saw locals doing it to reach the large surf out past them. So I convinced my husband to be adventurous an on we went.
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