Gemstone mining "eperience" in Europe

[SimoneSpeaksSoftly]

My 10yo's short birthday wishlist includes a "gemstone mining experience." Now I definitely set myself up for this because I have been encouraging them towards experiences as gifts since they have so much stuff. But I was expecting he'd ask for tickets for a football game or something. lol. We've been to a couple places where kids can "pan" for minerals in a pre-seeded water chute but I think he's looking for something a little more genuine and where he can use a pickaxe or other tools. Has anyone done anything like this? We're in the early stages of planning a trip to Austria this summer so I'm digging into a couple options there that we could potentially add on but curious about other options in Europe. Lots of salt mines and some silver but not getting a ton of hits for gemstones.

You can do gold panning in Austria!

Its in a river so you might not find any but we found a few bits.

I think you can do gold panning in Wales

But also to expand the criteria of 'gemstone' what about a sort of quarrying experience, slate mines or coal, limestone, things like that, be easier to find in the UK

ooh nice do you remember where you went?

Yeah I'm working on that.... 😜

I took Dd at 13 on a gold panning weekend on the Scottish borders.

It had a little gold panning museum and we needed to buy a gold panning license.

Didn't find much but it was good fun and we learnt loads.

Dd 26 recently went fossicking for sapphires and emeralds in Australia which she loved.

Still not adverse to a little holiday in Whitby with Mum looking for jet and fossils.

This website gives some suggestions. The valley of the emeralds might be worth looking at https://www.farmholidays.com/en/magazine/Treasure-hunt-on-Austria-s-alpine-pastures_bba_46860

Maybe get hold of a stone polisher, makes ‘gems’ out of almost anything

You could try Europe's only Amythyst mine in Lapland. You can take home any pieces that you can fit in your closed fist! www.amethystmine.fi/?fbclid=IwVERDUAPx4PZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR5cGmJJVTnFr4OBFKEyKViwfJdRmDb3FnKmVo6iNJfU77r7FEiSMZpZwGb3Kg_aem_bZzvlDLbNarljSg146S4GQ

There is an Amethyst mine in Luosto, Lapland. Nearest airport is Rovaniemi. Flights direct are usually only until March. However you can also go for a more summer based trip, either changing in Helsinki or flying to Helsinki and taking a sleeper train up (I highly recommend this and have done it twice)

@2CheeseSandwiches, now I’m imagining going with Hagrid 😄

There are Moldavite digging experiences held in Český Krumlov in Czechia.

www.vltaviny.cz/en/museum/moldavite-mining-tour

I'm going to check all these out- thank you all!!

Look at Blue John mines in Wales - it’s the rarest mineral in the UK & can be polished & made into jewellery etc.