COLLECTING BANDED AGATE, CHERT, & DRUSY QUARTZ
SUMMERVILLE, GA
July 14, 2009

by Ray Hill

NOTE: This article is not complete. The complete article will be published in Ray's new book on rock collecting. Among other places, the book will be offered through our Great South Gems & Minerals site.

Just south of Summerville, GA in Chattooga County is an active chert quarry owned by the William D. Patty Construction Company. Here you can find banded agate, chert, and chert with drusy quartz crystals formed as cavity filler and as a “crust” on host chert rock.

The above two photos are of material from this location. The shot on the left is of a large chunk of banded agate. Notice the banding and swirls.

This material is excellent for lapidary work and for tumbling. The photo on the right is a piece of the drusy quarts on chert. The photo doesn’t do justice to this specimen. It sparkles nicely in the sun.

The banded agate here is a flow-banding material much like the “crazy lace agate” coming out of Mexico. The material has the same banding and swirls as the Mexican material but is not quite as colorful. It is very plentiful however. The chert and drusy quartz is not hard to find but you might take a squirt bottle with you to find the really nice banded agate.

About six months ago one of my rock buddies and I visited this quarry on a Saturday afternoon. When we got there it has just finished raining. Everything was wet. There were three huge piles of soft-ball size rocks that the heavy machinery had broken up. The agate was wet and easy to spot. We could have carried away buckets of this material, but, I only collected a couple of nice display specimens that day. Those two are on display in my office.

Happy rock hunting.

NOTE: Ray will be adding 15 more articles on the rock collecting hobby, including many rock collecting locations, between now and the end of 2009. Those new articles, and those shown below, will be published in Ray's new book on rock collecting. Among other places, the book will be offered through our Great South Gems & Minerals site.

Ray Hill
Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc.
www.greatsouth.net
888-933-GEMS

Note: Only rock clubs have permission to print this article but must give credit to the author, Ray Hill, and Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc. For everyone else, please email us for permission.

Great South Gems & Minerals, Inc. www.greatsouth.net 38 Bond Drive Ellenwood, Georgia 30294 USA 1-888-933-GEMS (4367) FAX: 770-389-8095