Audrey Lynn Pegmatite, Anza, Riverside County, California

About: This mining claim is in the general Anza area like the Fano, Williamson, etc. Mines can all be generally reached by parking near the trailhead on the Allessandro Trail which is reached by passing Lake Riverside to the USFS Station and following the road up to Juan Diego Flats. This claim lies west of the Fano Mine on the Red Mountain Road along with some other claims. This mining claim produces apatite, quartz, beryl, tourmaline (schorl and multicolored), spodumene, mica, schorl, spessartite garnet, monazite, manganocolumbite, mangantantalite, fluorapatite and microlite. One thing for sure is that this claim produces some of the best single and cathedral crystals of schorl crystals. There have been schorl the size of toilet paper rolls extracted with quarter size spessartite garnets attached/intergrown. These usually end up in some of the high end mineral dealer collections pretty quickly after they are mined.

This is an active claim owned by Phil Osborn, an expert pegmatite miner, gem cutter and true wealth of information on pegmatite and other mining lore and also a long time fixture in local pegmatite mining. His claims are still in development but some very interesting minerals have been found there. The best minerals found are blue aquamarine crystals, superbly terminated schorl crystals, schorl with spessartite inclusions, quartz crystals, spessartite garnets, feldspar crystals, axinite, and more. Most of the work so far has been development to quantify the location of the footwall of the pegmatite which gives a better idea of the extent of the pegmatite. The largest pocket measurd 12' by 50' and was stuffed full of optical grade citrine, aquamarines to 4" long, garnet, schorl and dravite tourmaline.

Phil has faceted several of the seemingly rough spessartites and come out with some beautiful stones. Here too you find the typical pinch and swell pocket systems where once you have found a few small pockets they typically trend towards a larger pocket zone. Phil believes based on his experience that there will be several small pockets a few feet apart and eventually a car sized pocket that he will be able to dig for a long, long time. To find out more specifics about what was found in these areas to start a collection or to possibly collect you might want to sign up for the Minerals of California Online Database. Click here to sign up.