Last updated – Jan 8, 2021
Colorado is not known for world-class Amethyst when compared to the deposits found in Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, and Mexico. In fact, Amethyst from Colorado is not nearly as famous as some of the locations within the United States! But hidden in the remote, mountainous terrain of Colorado, lie some of the most amazing Amethyst deposits NEVER seen by man. We hope to change that! If you have a site or active LEGAL mine or mining operation, please let us know and we will add it!
Known Deposits:
Canon City – Located outside of Canon City, Colorado; this large deposit has only 1 legal / bonded claim, The New Hope, that is held by the Canon City Geology Club. The area surrounding it is private property.
Crystal Hill mine, near La Garita, Colorado, is a fairly small deposit with pale lavender Amethyst crystals that are generally less than 3 inches in length. The deposit was worked as early as the 1800’s as a gold mine and also contains abundant manganese oxides.
Creede District, West Willow Creek, Mineral County, Colorado – Amethyst, associated with argentiferous galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite, occurs in the Amethyst Gold Mine. The specimens here consist of small pale pinkish-purple crystals interlayered with milky quartz, some as banded forms “sowbelly agate” and as geode-like pockets.
Nancy Hanks Gulch District – Unaweep Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado – Located outside of Grand Junction, this very large deposit with multiple metals and minerals has been mined since the 1890s. There are several patented claims (private property) that encase most of this deposit. However, there is one legal / bonded operation at the edge of the Nancy Hanks Gulch District, the Humming Bird Mine, that has tapped into an extremely rare Hematite-included, Siberian Amethyst formation. More on this below…
Red Feather Lakes District – Larimer County – Located just outside of the town of Red Feather Lakes, in northern Colorado; this large deposit varies most of all. There are several claims located within the district but are not aware of any legal / bonded claims at the present time. If you know of a legal operation in this district, please let us know!
Amethyst has been found in nearly EVERY county of Colorado. So don’t be surprised if you find a piece of purple! Here are some OTHER places Amethyst has been found in Colorado.
https://www.mindat.org/locentries.php?p=3585&m=198
Legal Sources for Colorado Amethyst and Colorado Amethyst Mines
Purchasing from a legit and legal source is particularly important! As mentioned above, Amethyst is found all over Colorado. However, many of the “finds” are either not documented or the person who discovered it fails to file a claim, and / or file for a reclamation bond (both a necessity to be able to SELL material from public land in Colorado). This assures that the mining operation is LEGAL.
It is our understanding that the bond for the Canon City Club claim does not cover sales of the material – it is for club-members personal use only. Not for resale.
Crystal Hill is now part of a large Superfund project. Status of the site is unclear at the present time, but we were told that the cleanup project is still underway.
We are trying to contact a couple of the mines in Creede to see if there is a source for Colorado Amethyst from that district.
We have not found a bonded claim within the Red Feather Lakes District. Hopefully, that will be corrected this year.
That leaves us with the Humming Bird Mine in Mesa County, Colorado. Here is more info:
The Humming Bird Mine is a 3.14 acre claim located in Unaweep Canyon, just south of Grand Junction, Colorado. It is owned by Dennis Schneider & Tammey Holbrook, who discovered the site in 2015. They have a very informative website that goes into great detail all of the things they have found and are still discovering at this amazing site. We will provide a link below but wanted to mention a few things about this location…
The deposit that is under the claim is different than the rest of the Nancy Hanks Gulch District. There are several more mineral solution deposits located in the fault that makes up the mine, than the rest of this historic district. So it is obvious they are finding different minerals (and combinations of minerals) than what has been known to come from that mining area. The fact that they are mining a vertical fault for 15+ different minerals is beyond belief. Another interesting thing about their mine is that many of the crystals are Hematite-Included, of which there are few mines in the world that have that type of rare Amethyst!
Last we talked to them, Dennis and his crew (Bud Meeks and Kristi Fennelly) had just documented over 110 vertical feet of Amethyst VEINS (as in hundreds) within the fault and were expanding their permits and bonds to become a multi-year, multi-phase underground something, as the deposit is larger than he could ever dig in a lifetime! This developing site shows lots of promise, as we noticed they just started posting photos and videos of faceted, gem-grade Amethyst.
You can keep up with Dennis and his crew at:
Website: https://hummingbirdmine.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/HummingBirdMine/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hummingbirdmine/
(although he is not on Instagram much…)
We will update this page as information comes in.