Just finished watching this video from 2004.  Yeah, better late than never!  This is a great video that I got on loan from the Jefferson County library system because Douglas County didn’t have it.  The DVD shows the mining for Rhodochrosite crystals in an old Silver mine near Alma in Park County. 

I’ve read about mining before but I didn’t really “get it”.  This video definitely filled in the gaps.  They showed what the veins looked like, how they mined and all the terminology associated with mining.  They showed extraction of the Rhodochrosite crystals.  They showed where the probability of vugs was the greatest.  One of my favorite parts was how they showed some of the chemistry to vector into the highest probability sections of the mine.  Pretty neat how they learned about the Geology and put the puzzle pieces together in the 13 years that they mined the Sweet Alma mine. 

Anyone into minerals or mining should defnintely check this video out, it is great!

Here’s one of the pieces shown in the movie (and the current price direct from the miner)!  If you haven’t seen the Rhodochrosite exhibit in the Denver Mueseum of Nature and Science, that was also featured in this movie and it is simply spectacular!  Rhodochrosite is the Colorado state mineral.  Oh, and the movie was narrated by Karl Mecklenberg too!