Does anyone know anything about the worth of rough from the Crabtree mines in North Carolina?
The Crabtree deposit is about played out and abandoned, AFAIK. I think I have a small piece of very nice color around here somewhere. You’d probably have some trouble proving provenance (some people would probably be interested solely because of where it came from), so I would value a Crabtree stone just like any other emerald…depending on size, transparency/translucence,
color, etc. A 1 ct stone would value anywhere between $30 and $5000, depending on the above.
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Thank you.
Interesting! I have some very impressive stones from there that I have researched, extracted from the rough by following procedures I found here and on other reliable sources. I have an emerald cluster that I’ve been very careful with that I am totally smitten with. Thanks for the info!
I have held a 6x45mm natural terminated and root from the Crabtree Mine, and it was valued at 3.2 million .
The reason nothing is coming out of the mine is, the owner was killed in a cave-in at the Hiddenite mine.
The specimen I have is a chunk of matrix about 2.5" X 2.5" X 2.5" dotted with smallish emeralds. The person I got my specimen from is a VERY VERY trusted source. He said these specimens came out of the Crabtree mine around mid1980’s.
I do not plan on extracting the emeralds out of the matrix, but plan ok keeping it as is in my collection. Some of the certified stones I have, I will sell. But this emerald in matrix is staying with me till I pass it on in my will.
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I have held in my hand a Crabtree Emerald of 91 cts. about 3” long by 1/2 in in diameter, with a Sotheby’s auction estimate of $3.2 million, totally clean with natural root and natural termination.
WOW….it was scary, but it was also beautiful.
That’s cool. I have heard that there were some very good stones that came out of that mine. The mountains of North Carolina are very old. There is no telling what secrets they STILL hold. I used to live in NC. and went to Blowing Rock and Boone 2 to 3 times a year. Hopefully Doc will keep me informed, seeing as I’m now located in Florida, and can’t travel like I used to.