View of the main workings at the Maynard Topaz Mine. In the back ground you can see our large, but, very necessary track mounted backhoe. The trucks serve as an overall size scale.>
Ed Mc Goldrick drilling several 4' holes in preparation to blast into a promising area.
Mike Unruh prepares the blast by carfully loading dynamite into the holes. Rather him than me.
The calm before the storm. The fuse is lite and all we can do now is wait and hope.......
BOOOOOM! A perfect blast. It looks like we blew up all of the topaz, however, when done properly, very few of the topaz crystals are damaged.
John Holfert examining the newly blasted area. The red P represents the location of a large pocket that we blasted to gain accesss to.
Ed Mc Goldrick uses a small gas powered drill to drill holes for using feather wedges to carefully remove rock so that we can have better access to our treasure hole.
Ed's work has paid off. The pocket is wide open, so we can begin to remove the topaz treasure that is hidden in that deep dark hole (we hope).
Ed examines a few small crystals that were at the front part of the pocket.
Ah Ha!! Ed sees something big and shiny. Looks promising!!!
Whats this! A topaz crystal cluster, but it is all covered with mud.
AAAH! That's better. A magnificent topaz cluster. Hopefully the first of many.
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