Located in the remote, high Great Basin desert within Pershing County,
sits the Bottomley Prospect.  Elusive and very beautiful examples of
stibnite-included quartz crystals have been found in this deposit.  There
are few other localities in the world, outside Pershing County, where
these metallic inclusions have been found in clear quartz crystals.  

    In late 2004, I went on the hunt for these crystals and made a successful discovery after much labor.  Enjoy these pictures of an
adventure to my Bottomley Claims! 

This is the trench that I dug to find the stibnite-included quartz crystals.  It measures 5 meters long, 0.7 meter wide, and about 2 meters deep.  It was dug entirely by hand, with pick and shovel, over the course of several days work.

A classic view of the 5cm-wide stibnite-included quartz crystal vein we mined along.  The crystals occurred on a fault, which mixed and ground the vein contents up.  Many clear, UN-included quartz crystals were found.  In fact, these dominated the majority of what I recovered.  Only about 1 in 30 crystals showed any of the inclusions we were looking for.  These are mostly gem clear, mirror lustrous single crystals from 2cm to 3cm long.  With the rarity and beauty of these inclusions, we accepted the odds, worked hard, and recovered several dozen beautifully-included quartz crystals!

A Bottomley Sunset

Once home, the specimens are now being cleaned and prepared!

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