earthdog Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) Last Saturday My girlfriend and I were fortunate to have been on a field trip with our fossil club, to a phosphate mine in the Bone Valley region of Florida. Really, going with a fossil club is probably the only way one is going to get to hunt in these mines. Even then, the clubs are limited to once a year trips, which is very generous on the part of the mine. All of the material we were looking through had already been shot through miles of iron pipes. The fossils were all banged up as a result, but it is very enjoyable to be able to hunt in bone valley at all. Our best finds were one small shark vertebrae each, and megalodon teeth of varying degrees of preservation. It was a very fun afternoon. Join your local fossil club. It's cheap and it's only going to broaden your fossil hunting horizons. * I don't have a ruler in any of the pics, but each of our finds are laid out on a paper towel. Edited February 8, 2012 by earthdog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xonenine Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 very nice, and great to be allowed in. I imagine they were really awesome before the pipes "Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthdog Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Yup, some were probably very nice. It was still a joy to hunt in a bone valley mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeDOTB Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Another big haul from those phosphate mines, congrats! DO, or do not. There is no try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taxman56 Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Nice finds. Instead of a ruler use a coin for reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jocky Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Can I ask a dumb question. I have seen many posts about these phosphate mines. Do the pipes come from underground or some sort of strip mining on the surface? CHEERS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Posted February 9, 2012 Share Posted February 9, 2012 Can I ask a dumb question. I have seen many posts about these phosphate mines. Do the pipes come from underground or some sort of strip mining on the surface? CHEERS Not a dumb question at all since you don't live here... In Florida the mines are all Strip Mines. Florida sits right at sea level so, with the exception of the ancient sand dunes that make up the Central Florida Sand Ridge, you hit water pretty quickly when you dig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthdog Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Can I ask a dumb question. I have seen many posts about these phosphate mines. Do the pipes come from underground or some sort of strip mining on the surface? CHEERS From what I heard, they dredge the material with a huge bucket, and the first stage of separating out the phosphate is to pipe the material over to another large area of the mine and it gets laid out in large piles and fields. I'm not that versed in the mine operations, but as I understand it all of the material does go through the iron pipes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lloyd Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 In the "old days" they would pipe the overburden right into any convenient water source. That's why the well known "walk in" area by Crews Park in Wauchulla has so much material despite being hit hard for decades now. That entire cow pasture to the East as you walk south down the river from the bridge is a reclaimed strip mine, and that's the section of the Peace River where the overburden and other sludge was pumped. The downside to that is that the ratio of broken to complete shark teeth in that area is much higher then any other location I have hunted the Peace at... so the abundance of material and ease of access comes with the price of relatively few good specimen. There is also the above mentioned "hit hard for decades" aspect in that the material found there now tends to be small in comparison with other less well traveled areas of the river. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megalodon_hunter Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Thanks for the comment about Crews park.. I wondered about that. I wonder if this is one of the reasons in Brownsville there is a HUGE deposit of Large Gravel. That over the period of several decades that material has built up down there. I've pulled a few interesting finds out of Browsnville but haven't had much luck there in recent years... I'd rather dive as the Shovel is heck on the back. "One of these day's I'm going to find a tooth over 3inches." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coral daddy Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I pass these thiings everyday and do have a few sneak in spots if wanted but DONT WANT TO,lol for some reason Mosaic doesnt play. They are no fun. We used to go in all the time growing up here. There is some killer stuff being found still but the workers. Alot of people from my church work there at different parts of the mines and they all pick up stuff faith is a journey not a destination www.rockhobbies.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paleoc Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) The overburden is dug up by huge drag lines (note the size of the trucks parked next to it and the bus to the right). The ore is dug up and dumped in a big pile. Then fire hoses are turned on the piles of ore which is sucked through huge pipes about a meter in diameter a few miles back to the processing plant. Waste material including fossils are screened out at the plant and piped back to the mine to help fill in the holes. Aurora North Carolina Phosphate Mine Florida Phosphate Mine Edited February 22, 2012 by Paleoc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellseeker Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Very nice -- Great Photos and great explanation.. The greedy one amongst us always dream about being allowed access to that overburden BEFORE it get blown through the pipes. But I do understand the Mine Owners concerns and the reasons they restrict access. The lawyers and Insurance Companies can always point out the latest instances where idiot fossil seekers decide to sue after being allowed access and hurting themselves. It is the rare company officers, trying to run a business that decides to take additional risks. The White Queen ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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