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A recent article by the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society, Inc. about their trip to the Oceanview Mine:
On Sunday, April 9, SDMG Juniors, parents and chaperones gathered in the Pala Casino parking lot, signed waivers, oohed and aahed over the sample specimens mine owner Lisa Koonce had on display, then caravaned up to the mine site through orange groves. (Well, mistly caravaned, some got lost and had to be rounded up!) After a hot-to demonstration by mine owner Jeff Swanger, Juniors and parents alike dug nto the rock pile with abandon, and shook screens all day long to reveal beautiful or fascinating specimens of doubly terminated quartz, chunks of aquamarine, pieces of pink kunzite and tourmaline tooo. One Junior was mostly skunked, while his mom kept finding gemstone after gemstone. Everyone took a short break for lunch and miner safety briefing by Steve Koonce. All whi wished took the mine tour, and got a better appreciation of just how much work it is to recover gemstones! Thhen it was back to the tailings pille until closing time at 4PM. The Juniors are ready to go back any time, and the parents actually enjoyed themselves, too - this was the first experience many of the parents had with rocks and field trips and mines. Congratulations!
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