Gem hunter Louie Kappa knows the thrill of plucking 350-million-year-old quartz crystals from hidden rock cavities with his bear hands—especially if that sparkly stone is worth thousands. It’s all in a day’s work for Kappa, who specializes in mining Herkimer diamonds.
A recent video shared on social media showed his friend Lara produce one of the valuable rocks from a pocket within the earth, and the clip garnered nearly 9 million views.
The 33-year-old owner of Raw Specimen mines full time in Middleville, New York, from April to October, using hand tools to extract the precious minerals. Named after the Herkimer region, these diamonds are a beautiful, unusually clear variety of crystal, and highly sought after.
“They are not actual diamonds,” Kappa told The Epoch Times. “People have said to me, ‘but isn’t it just quartz?’ Yes, but they are some of the finest specimens of quartz from anywhere on Earth.”
Originally from Portland, Maine, the keen geologist has crafted an exciting, profitable career out of crystal mining—but it’s also hard work. In order to potentially expose a void containing hidden treasure, first the heavy wall of rock must be broken apart and levered away. Voids, or pockets, are cavities in solid rock that had the correct conditions for crystals to form hundreds of millions of years ago.
Louie avoids using heavier machines or power tools to drill. But the extra work is worth it.
“When a pocket is discovered, you can just reach your hand inside and pull crystals out one after the other,” he said. “It’s very exciting!”
The day Lara was captured striking pay dirt was the culmination of several days’ work. Having initially discovered a pocket, Kappa had already extracted a five-gallon bucket full of crystals, many of them large and exceptionally clear.
“I thought I had removed all of the crystals,” he said, “but Lara was visiting the mine so I decided to show her the pocket. I invited her to reach her hand inside to feel the strange structure of the floor and walls of the pocket and see if she could find any crystals that I may have missed.
“Lara’s arms are longer and thinner than mine, and her exploration and digging revealed that there was a chamber in the back of the pocket that was hidden by a piece of rock that had broken free from the ceiling.”
After about a minute of feeling around, she announced that she could feel crystals, Kappa added; “Not small ones, either, but huge ones!”
The very first one she pulled free was enormous.
“It was truly an incredible experience,“ Kappa said. ”Lara had never seen anything like that in person, so she was especially blown away.”
During the off-season, Kappa gets to work preparing the specimens for sale. After re-piecing together many of the crystals found that day back into the huge clusters they originally comprised, they were worth somewhere in the region of $20,000–30,000.
“This was one of the best discoveries of the year,” he said.
The value of gems varies greatly and depends on factors including size, clarity, and shape. Single crystals range in price from less than a dollar each to several thousand. Truly rare specimens can fetch astronomical prices.
“The most valuable single crystal that I personally know of was only 1.75 inches long but was completely flawless and it sold in the parking lot of the mine for $10,000,” said Kappa.
Most of his clients are mineral collectors, but the crystals are also in demand among jewelers and new-age healers.
One of Kappa’s most precious finds was a pocket filled with spectacularly clear Herkimer diamonds, almost all perfect and undamaged. After careful reconstruction of the crystals, the discovery yielded over five pounds, with a value of approximately $40,000.
“The finished piece measures 14 inches across,“ he said. ”This is likely one of the finest Herkimer diamond clusters in existence and I hope it ends up in a museum.”
Last spring, Kappa started a TikTok channel to share his mining exploits.
“I always love blowing people’s minds with the things I find,“ he said, ”so it’s been fun to be able to reach a wider audience. There are a lot of skeptics who comment on my videos and accuse me of faking my finds, but all I can do is roll my eyes at them.”
Finding pockets of crystal takes tremendous dedication and is not for the work shy, or those adverse to getting their hands dirty.
Though he enjoys bringing Lara or his girlfriend, Sophia, along to celebrate a discovery, Kappa runs Raw Specimen on his own.
“You could say I’m a one-man army,“ he said. ”The host rock is some of the hardest stuff on the planet, so mining through it takes a great deal of patience and mental fortitude.”
