The Spectrum Mine was many, many miles off the beaten path along some roguh dirt road. We beat the hell out of my car (next time: we'll rent). Deena dug in the "free" area and found some little stuff; we went back a second day and we paid for her to dig in the pit, to sift through a high-yield pile, and to work a conveyor. Meanwhile, i walked around with the dog and a cigar and picked up stuff off the ground. I definitely found the biggest stones without trying; Deena, however, loaded up on quantity and the best color (which = highest value, carat for carat) came from the conveyor.
I can tell you this, though - we came home with better than a kilo of stones, and hundreds of carats of valuable ones. We could definitely pay for our trip a few times over if we chose to sell what we found.
I don't have any pics of the mining - it was dusty as hell - but here are a few snaps we took along the way. Hmm.. I should get some pics of the pile of stones and some of the best specimens. Time to break out the light tent and get Deena going with the macro.
