Searching a Mine for Autunite & Beryl

This was a lot of fun and a learning experience for us. I certainly will be going back more geared up to explore the rest of the mine.

Also, once again, please excuse any audio and visual issues in this video, I learned my lesson about trying new camera gear out untested, and I learned a bit about filming in these conditions.

Thanks for watching!

[patriciamckean]

Mines are neat, would be great to explore.

[hilario]

Awesome video ! Can't wait for the follow-up.

[tysonh]

Just past that mine up the mountain a bit there are a few good places to find blue beryl. You are hounding up in my neck of the woods, there are some spots for agate and opal out of Fruitland and lots of old mines out on timber land.

[RockHoundingAdventures]

Great video bro. Caves are always a little freaky so it’s always good to have someone go with you. I was planning on doing so explorations back when I was in AZ and found some old Abandoned mines but could never find anyone willing to go with me. Thanks for the video.

[michaelstrong]

Enjoyed the video. My grandmother lives in Virginia and I go in mines near her rock hounding. Make sure u have a bad air monitor with you when there is water in the mine. I carry mine low so I know bad air before it gets to my head

[OnTheRiver]

I enjoyed this! I just found your site and you have so many videos on rockhounding! I just subscribed.

[WorldofRockhounds]

I'm glad you posted this. I'm in the middle of uploading over 7k photos and need something to watch while I'm in the process of doing so (for my normal job)

[danababcock]

That looked really tight at first. I was surprised when you said it was about 9 ft tall!

[GeoForge]

Its funny seeing you digging in our pile we left behind. Its a fun mine to collect some good rocks. The mine was a beryllium mine which was being worked I think during the 1950's. The beryl was the source of the beryllium. During the cold war, beryllium was in high demand all over the world so, I think this mine may have come to be because of this demand. Nice video, I like your black light.

[dennissorensen]

Great video. Caves freak me out. I guess I watched too many movies with cave-ins... lol

[manisteerocks]

Pretty neat!..I'd like to go into some of the abandoned copper and garnet mines in the U.P Michigan here.

[edwardlochbihler]

looks like a lot of fun would love see this with my own eyes but i wont ask for info on this site. love the videos you make

[petah]

Whoa. I read the title really wrong. I though you were going in a mine to look for Auntie Beryl...🤷‍♀️🙋‍♀️😁 Still loving the video, though!!!

[hullinstruments]

I’ve seen some comments about UV lights, emerging technology, and DIY solutions for powerful UV search lights. I’ve written a few articles and given a bit of my experience and advice on the subject… And I’m going to copy and paste that below for anyone who is interested in UV light.


Here’s the copied miss Mash of info… Hope this helps someone.

A single or triple convoy host with UVC LEDs inside would be extremely useful! But would take several minutes to have any sanitizing effects.
It would need to be a large array of UVC LEDs to reach the optical power needed for sanitizing. If you look up a video on Adafruit‘s YouTube channel a few months ago they tested UVC LEDs and they had a really large array. I think it was 5 x 5 or maybe 10 x 10 UVC chips chips. Probably a $1000 array.... And they show how much optical output it gives. Super short and interesting video I highly recommend.


Right now the cheap Chinese chips only offer 3-5mw optical output on average and the nicer Chinese chips maybe up to 20 mW. But at that point you’re better off buying the high output 30-50mw nichia Chips.

I remember a few years ago my 1.2Watt output green laser filled up a small 10 x 10‘ room with electronics and optical equipment. Costing upwards of $5000. But Now.... i’ve built several 1.5 WATT OPTICAL OUTPUT green lasers that fit into a small handheld laser pointer and run on a single 18650 battery. Costing under $100 to build. It’s the golden age of electronics… What a Time to be alive!

Until UVC leds reach 500 mW per LED chip… it won’t be viable for large manufacturing and sanitization like used in water treatment plants and sterilization processes in industry. Which are actually pretty common in all types of industry. Tons of different industries and factories have UVC light used for treating or curing or some other use.


And when UVC LEDs become powerful enough to replace the standard bulbs in tubes… That will save shit tons of energy!

The only good thing about coronavirus… The coronavirus is solely responsible for the fast evolving UVCLED technology. Before the coronavirus… Even January of last year… You couldn’t even buy a UVCLED online. The only place I could find wanted me to send all types of business and licensing documents with my tax ID number and everything. Now there are real UVC leds that are as cheap as one dollar each. Of course these aren’t the good ones but still…and high output brand name leds are only $20.
That’s freaking insane considering they were completely unattainable before six months ago.

Not sure if you knew this already but here’s Something to look out for… this is an easy way to identify genuine UVC LEDs that actually put out UVC light. -
Real UVC LEDs will always have a purple/gray ceramic housing, with heavy gold plating covering any metal, and a quartz or sapphire window. Because UVC is blocked by glass or other therefore it has to be quartz or sapphire. If you look up real UVC LEDs then you’ll see what I mean. They all look the same and They all have that gold plating everywhere with the nice purplish gray ceramic body. Very similar look to Vintage IC chips that had beautiful purple ceramic bodies and gold plated pins and caps.
If you’ve never seen what I’m talking about… then please take a second to check out these 4 links. Hell its like electronics porn. Just Beautiful…! Sex on a stick!









A plastic body UVC LED would be degraded and disintegrate by UVC light! therefore they have to be ceramic bodies, and sapphire windows. Even UVA and UVB light is really bad for any type of plastic or polymer. Therefore good quality 365nm LEDs will usually be ceramic and glass with gold plating. None of that plastic rubbish. Sure you can find 365 nm LEDs that have plastic bodies and the standard polymer coating over the top… But they will degrade quickly.

The Chinese UVC leds that are a few dollars each and sold in most of the products on Banggood and elsewhere are between 2-5mw light output each. Maximum I’ve seen is 20mw but they’re a little bit more expensive and I wouldn’t trust them. Like I said the nice brand name UVC LEDs with over 20mW optical output aren’t cheap but totally worth it! Ranging from $20 to upwards of $350 per LED. Highest output I’ve seen so far 70mW but it’s changing weekly. And they’re hard to find because everyone selling out of them quickly because of coronavirus. But once the pandemic ends, high-quality high power UVC LEDs will be cheap and readily available when demand goes down. And as bad as this virus is, I’m glad that it’s helping adVance the UVC technology.


The reason UVA, UVB, and UVC light is so useful and valuable is because it is absolutely one of the most important things used in all types of manufacturing, engineering, The medical field, and all types of science and study of biology and other important areas..

From curing finishes to doing spectroscopy and Gene therapy in the biology and medical community… UV light is so important. We wouldn’t be where we are today without it.


I got into UV light for completely other reasons. I build and restore guitars and antique violins… as well as the other half of my business which is industrial circuit electronics repair and calibration work on process control equipment for assembly lines and electronics and stuff like that…
So UVA, UVB, and UVC light are all very useful in spotting flaws on circuit boards, cracks in traces and solder pads, and most extremely useful in the woodworking and guitar industry for spotting repairs or flaws in the woodwork and finish. Each wavelength is useful and I utilize as many wavelengths as possible.

You can’t imagine the usefulness of having UVA, UVB, and UVC lighting available to you. Whether you like to work on cars and motors, electronics, or do fine art restoration, science, biology, electronics, optics and laser…

whatever your hobby or business…UV light in all wavelengths is extremely valuable and you will find a million uses for it.


I’m also big into the laser and optics Hobby. Started with laser pointers and graduated to high end lab and Medical laser stuff which is available for pennies on the dollar out of retired military and health care uses on eBay. dirt cheap incredible stuff.

I have lasers that easily surpass 100 Watts of optical output and fit in the palm of your hand. That’s crazy insane power levels by the way. Like blasting right through steel sheet.

Laser modules that would’ve cost $20, 000 when new that can be purchased on eBay for under 100 bucks! One hell of a time to be alive that’s for sure. It’s the golden age for everything!

[rockguyblue]

Yayzzzz totally have wanted to do that sweeettt

[NewZealandRocksDownunder]

Love the fluorescent rocks
I've been collecting a few for my display from the USA.
I assume that you are using a longwave UV light to see the fluorescence.

[adampryor]

The pink-ish fluorescence is likely apatite if the rock also hosts autunite. Both are phosphates commonly found in granite pegmatite with beryl and muscovite. Got some here in my neck of the woods in the Blue Ridge Mtns. Great finds and cool mine!

[PAPAGUYJ]

I know exactly who left all that stuff on the floor hahaha. Neat little mine for sure.

[EDLaw-woit]

Man i don't like mines lol. I had to lay some cable in a mine in Colorado and it was 60 feet from another mine that had caved in and killed 6 people 2 years earlier. Too spooky for me. I enjoyed your vid my friend. You and Sarah havagudun.