Minerals of the Himalaya Mine

The Himalaya Mine is located a few miles northwest of Mesa Grande, San Diego County, California. The Himalaya Mine is a world famous locality but was notopen to collectors. The current "owners" used to let collectors up for a fee or investment. The current status of the mine is that there are no on-site tours or collecting due to road access problems. They had a small screening operation setup offsite at the Lake Henshaw campgrounds but they had some issues with the BLM. This information is current as of November 2008.

The Himalaya Mine is famous for the beautiful elbaite, rubellite and verdelite tourmaline gemstones and associated combinations which have been mined there for many years. Other minerals found at the mine include spessartite garnet, bladed albite clusters, etched feldspar crystals, stibiotantalite,topaz, morganite beryl, smoky quartz, clear quartz, lepidolite balls and clusters, and combinations of these minerals. 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.