Gemstones
Gemstones are the prettier, more expensive stones which are usually faceted and mounted into different types of jewelry or displayed on a piece of cotton or felt.
The main gemstones are: diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst, agate, tiger’s eye, jade, lapis lazuli, opal and turquoise. Of all these stones, the agate is just about the only one found in Missouri though several of the others are found in other places in the United States, such as, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz quartz, amethyst, opals, and turquoise.
Diamonds are the hardest and most precious of all stones with a hardness point of 10, the highest on the scale. The colors of diamonds range from colorless to yellow, brown, light red, blue, green and violet. Africa produces more than one-half of the world’s diamonds.
The ruby, from the Corundum group, has a hardness point of 9 and is a red color. Rubies and sapphires are the same stone except for color. The sapphire has several colors such as blue, purple, yellow, orange, green and colorless. A blue ruby is a sapphire and a red sapphire is really a ruby.
The different kinds of Missouri gemstones including flint, jasper and Drusey quartz.
Geodes are hollow while the thunder eggs have solid centers.
This close-up of Lake Superior agate shows the tiny lines in the stone.
The emerald from the Beryl group has a hardness point of 7.5 to 8 and is an intense green color. The emerald is one of the three semi-precious stones.
Topaz has a hardness point of 8 and is brown, yellow, blue, light red or colorless, while topaz quartz or citrine is a very pretty yellow to brown stone with a hardness of 7.
Amethyst is also a form of quartz with a hardness point of 7. Amethyst is found on Mt. Antero in Colorado, a 14,000 foot peak, second highest peak in the world where gemstones are found.
The agate, a type of quartz with a hardness point of 7, comes in various colors. The one that might be found in Missouri is the Lake Superior agate which is washed down onto the gravel bars on the Mississippi River from Lake Superior.
Tiger’s eye, a type or quartz with a hardness of 7, is brown with a silky luster or is sometimes dyed other colors.
There are two groups of jade jadeite and nephrite. The jadeite is in the 6.5 hardness group and the nephrite is from 6 to 6.5. The jadeite is green, yellow, white, violet and brown, while the nephrite has all the above colors plus gray and black. In the United States jade is found mostly in Florida.
Lapis lazuli of the lazurite group has a hardness of 6 to 6.5 with an intense dark blue with flecks of yellow pyrite color to it. Lapis lazuli is a pretty stone from Afghanistan that was first brought to Europe by Marco Polo.
Another very pretty rock, the opal is softer than a lot of the other rocks with a 5 to 6.5 hardness point. Opals range from white or dark gray to black background with vivid flashes of color in patches. The black opal is from Australia and Mexico and looks almost green rather than black. In the United States Nevada is first in production and Idaho and Arizona are probably next. Most opals have a matrix around them which is as hard as the rock itself. The matrix looks like clay that has hardened around the opal and is sometimes left around the stone to prove it is genuine.
Turquoise is a light blue stone, with a hardness point of 5 to 6. Turquoise was used by the American Indians of the Southwest to make jewelry. There continues to be a profitable market for turquoise jewelry.
Perhaps the most important of all precious minerals is gold. Perhaps no other element has had as much influence historically than the search for and acquisition of gold.. Nor has its importance decreased. On the contrary its value today is greater than ever before. Because of its value, everyone would like to find gold, and panning for gold is still a profitable venture if there is enough gold to pan. Mr. Ezard explained how to pan for gold using some gold ore he brought back from Canada.
First you need a gold pan which has baffles in it–little ridges along one side of the pan. Then put some of the ore in the pan and add enough water to wash the ore around in the pan. Swish the ore around, slowly washing out the pebbles and dirt. The baffles will help keep most of the gold from falling out of the pan but not all of it. Just keep washing out the dirt ore until you can’t get much more out without losing all of the gold.
To separate the gold from the remaining impurities, use mercury because mercury has a specific gravity, or weight per cubic measure, so that everything but gold will float. The gold will be absorbed. Then after pouring off the particles that are floating, all that is left is the gold and mercury. The next step is to evaporate the mercury. But since evaporated mercury lets off a deadly gas, it must be done safely. There is a homemade way to do it. Hollow out a cavity in an average potato, pour the mercury and gold mixture in, put the other half of the potato on, and tie it together very tightly with wire. Then heat it in an oven that is well ventilated. Be sure to get away to not breathe any of the fumes, After a time the mercury will evaporate, leaving the gold.