Be a Gem Hunter At Gems of Pala

The Gem Hunters Destination

1. Visit Gems of Pala on Saturdays or Sundays from 10 to.3 See Map and Directions.
2. Gems of Pala provides all necessary tools for you - screens, bins, water, tables etc and on-site instruction.
   
3. Wear clothing that you don’t mind getting dirty.
4. Try to arrive before 1:30 PM so you have time to screen your bucket before we close at 3 PM.
5. Gem Buckets that you dig from our pile are $30.00 each. Pre-Dug Gem Bags are $50.00 each. All Cash Only Please.
6. Gems of Pala continues to be the real deal. Our genuine stockpile is scraped fresh from the 2 miles of tunnel in the Stewart Lithia Mine, then trucked to Gems of Pala for YOU to Mine. 
7. Gems of Pala is a rustic “Mine Camp” site with piles of rocks, bins of minerals, antique machinery, and a world class Gem and Mineral shop. Come sit on the porch and take in the natural beauty of California. Nearby we have wonderful attractions and unbeatable accommodations as well as the best buffet in California for our tired and hungry Bucketeers. Toilet facilities are limited to a Porta Potty type restroom, and we ask that you not bring your pets. The gravel parking lot is often full but extra parking is located just outside the entrance gate.
8. Bring your “Miner’s Intuition” and your good luck, the experience is all about fun, and about You becoming part of the 175-year prospecting legacy of California, mining real gravels from a real Mine. Here we see that Gut Feeling and Luck are more helpful than anything…that’s why Kids seem to do better than Grown-ups at claiming their bucket zone.
9. In the 30 years that Gems of Pala has offered this true Gem Hunting experience we have seen many buckets screened… some worth very little, but many more that have produced profit. And then, there are the some that have made great discoveries, as well as a few fabulous finds. There are no guarantees. Like fishing, nature can be tough or it can be generous. That’s the fun of it! Its REAL! Its FUN! 
10. As Bucketeers screen their Gem Buckets at Gems of Pala they dry-sift small amounts of the small amounts of dry mine material and then wash it to expose the colors and crystal structures of certain valuable gems and minerals. Here are the types of gem minerals that we most often see here (Sorry folks—the geology here is for gemstones--- there ain’t no gold in these hills!) Gems can be worth many times the value of gold gram for gram, ounce for ounce. Here’s what to hope and pray for:  

         A. Quartz… from this Mine is prized for its Lithium inclusions.

         B. Lepidolite… is a lovely lavender colored rock, an ore of Lithium, that can often contain              beautiful sprays of pink tourmaline.

C. Kunzite… is a bright colorless to violet colored Lithium crystal of the Spodumene group.

D. Morganite… is as rare as the other types of Beryl (such as Aquamarine or Emerald) and is highly prized for its pink to peach color. 

E. Tourmaline… is one of the most popular gems in the world, prized by the Russian Czars, the Rajas of India and the Chinese empires, and now in the top 5 most desired gems of our modern world, The Stewart Lithia Mine is legendary for producing the very best Pink Tourmaline ever found. Tourmaline has no limit to the possible colors it can manifest, even the “Watermelon Tourmaline” that has concentric layers of different colors in the same gem crystal, so, we take great pleasure in sharing this remarkable Tourmaline Mining experience with those who come to unleash their Inner Gem Hunter here at Gems of Pala Inc. We look forward to your arrival. Have hopes but no expectations for finding gems, but come for the fun and the true grit adventure of Gem Hunting. You could be the Bucketeer that finds the next “Big One”!