We Found Gems in One of the Rarest Agate Mines on Earth

In this video we go back to Las Morenitas, an agate mine we walked away from seven years ago because it stopped producing. Las Morenitas is one of the hardest agate deposits in the world. The rock is solid, almost no fractures, and it does not want to break for anything. Hand tools are useless here. You need excavators, hydraulic hammers and specialized equipment just to move a little forward, and even then the hill fights you for every meter. Then you finally locate a pocket. And 90% of the time it is hollow, or packed with calcite and quartz, or holding a colorless agate that nobody wants. You break through all of that rock for nothing, over and over. But every so often you hit a good one, and that is why this deposit is legendary. After many years of digging we pulled out less than a ton of agate total, and only a small percentage of that had the colors that make Las Morenitas one of the best deposits in the world. Getting those pieces out is a skill in itself. The rock grips the nodules so tight that they break during extraction, so you need real experience breaking hard rock and the right tools to take them out safely. Do it wrong and you carry the pieces out knowing exactly what you lost. Eventually the good zone ran out. We moved the machines and left the hill alone. This time we came back with nothing but a pick and a hammer, and we worked the tailings, going spot to spot through rock we had already handled once. We recovered incredible pieces we had walked right past years ago, took them back to the taller, and cut every one of them on camera. If you are looking for agates for your collection, come check out what we have on our website: https://agatesfrommexico.com