Sweet Surrender Crystal Mine
April 14, 2001 – I was expected to arrive to the
Sweet Surrender Mine tomorrow April 15th. But to be able to make a
fair report and assessment on the mine I showed up a day early to ensure there was
not salting or seeding of the mine for my visit.
The weather was cold and rainy, but I had a warm,
friendly and surprised welcome from Randy. Randy oversees the mines operations
and is half owner of the mine. He gave me the complete rundown of the mine and
showed me around. While walking around I started to pick up many nice little
clusters and points, I asked if this was normal and he said that they keep
hitting pockets and many crystals are overlooked not on purpose, but just due
to the amount of material in the pocket some of it gets buried and left behind.
I have heard that this mine was the
only one in the area producing very exceptional crystals that allowed diggers
in, and it looks to me like these reports were correct. When I went to see the
cleaning operation of the crystals. I was showen some of the newest crystals that
came out of the mine that were unclean and cleaned, I was very impressed by both.
I spent 3 hours just walking around, I mean walking
absolutely no digging. I filed a 5-gallon bucket with clusters and points, one
point was 5 inches long and about an inch thick with no chips or dings. I also
gave many away to other diggers that were there. As I walked around I also
talked to the other diggers, everyone seemed to be very happy with their finds
even in the rain they were all in good spirits and joking, a good sign of a
happy customer.
I my opinion this is one of the top
mines if not the top mine in the Mt. Ida area right now and probably will be
for many years to come. Randy and Stewart are very proud of there mine and it
shows.
To reserve yourself a place to dig at The Sweet Surrendar Crystal Mine. Visit there web site at
http://www.arcrystalmine.com/
Thomas
O’Brien