Features:

  • Discover crystal treasures and give your child the thrill of digging in a real gem Mine
  • Find 15 amazing gemstones including pyrite, amethyst, tiger's eye, fluorite, quartz, obsidian, Aventurine and more
  • Everything you need including a dig brick, chisel, brush and magnifying glass to keep kids digging for hours
  • 16-Page, full-color learning guide illustrates how gemstones are formed and mined and helps young scientists identify each specimen as it's discovered
  • 100% satisfaction guaranteed - for 129 years, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC has provided fascinating and fun educational opportunities to aspiring Scientists around the world.
Wonderful Educational Toy for Kids Who Love Rocks

My four-year-old absolutely loved digging for gems and minerals in this National Geographic gemstone mine kit. With the oversight of his big and little brothers, who were just as enthralled (ages 2 and 6), he filled buckets with clean water and went to town on our outside deck using water, the digging tools, and anything else he could find to dissolve and break apart the rocks. It comes as one solid mass about the diameter of a salad plate, and it was surprising to see the quantity and quality of rocks that it contained. Most of the minerals were polished, except a couple that were fascinating in their natural state, and the kit contains a color guidebook so that we could all sit down together after the mess had subsided and match the gems to their names and descriptions. Perfect gift for birthdays or science/nature days. Your budding geologist will love it!

Awesome - waiting on our second kit!

My 8 year old had a blast and wants another and asked for something with different gems. I searched and this seems like the best kits. I told him that even though a new kit will have the same stones, they will look different and not exactly like what he currently has. We are both excited to receive the second kit and compare the same stones from each kit. It's messy so you'll want to put something down to make it an easier cleanup. Some of our stones have deep crevices where the compound was really hard to get out. We soaked them in warm water and gently brushed with the included brush while under water and that did a great job of removing the excess. A very soft toothbrush would probably work the same. Key is be gentle.

Better Gems than the 4M Crystal Mining Kit

Got this for my 10 year old son for Christmas and he thought he was the richest guy in the world after digging out his 15 gems. We almost thought we got jipped one but we didn't give up and eventually found the 15th stone which ended up being a piece of geode, that I accidentally broke so I told him it was a bonus now he has 16. The block came already broken as you can see in the first picture, not a big deal. This kit would have been even better if it included a pouch. I happened to have one handy that I gave my son to put the gems in. There were also some stones that were not listed in the Gemstone Learning Guide. I couldn't identify them any way. One that was all black (guessing it was onyx) and another that was a polished purple (maybe amethyst). I also bought him the 4M Crystal Mining kit which comes with 8 gems and was less expensive. We haven't dug into that one yet but I got one for my niece also and the gems from the 4M kit were very boring. The National Geographic ones are a lot nicer. This was a fun kit but on the pricey side.

This was such a great purchase. We’ve dug out 5 stones so far

This was such a great purchase. We’ve dug out 5 stones so far, all are a great size. This was a birthday present for my 5 year old. It’s a little tough for him to do by himself so he works to rinse them and I do the “heavy lifting” and then he washes them and identifies what they are. This was his favorite gift and his other gifts included a bike!!

Definitely worth it

I ordered this for my son’s 9th birthday. When we took it out of the package and sat it down to start it broke into 4 pieces, which turned out to be really helpful. The whole family was excited as he dug more and more, and the dirt is soft enough that once most of it is out you can just break it out and brush it off. I thought we had gotten them all but decided to break all the dirt up and found one more that was lightweight so make sure you check everything. We ended up with 15 that are pretty neat and decent sized. I took them inside and washed them off using a soft toothbrush. You will definitely need something to get into all the little books and get the molding out. I am impressed and feel like it is definitely worth the money which I was a little concerned about. The ONLY negative I have about this is the purple stuff they have on the top of the dirt. I assume it’s a molding of some sort to keep the dirt together in shipment. But I found tiny pieces on some of the gems that were on top and can’t get it off. Kid doesn’t seem to even notice but it’s annoying to me!

An Amazing Gem Hunting Kit

I cannot praise this item enough. We previously used a gem mining kit and it was terrible. This one that I put in my son's Easter basket was wonderful. The clay was so easy to dig through with the included tools, even to the point where you could just break the clay into pieces. The design on the clay was so pretty - looked like a big crystal. The gemstones are gorgeous - big, great variety, plentiful. It comes with a handbook too that shows the various gems and what they are used for. I would purchase this item again as a gift or even for a classroom project. I had my 5-year-old son do this in a big bowl and the mess wasn't too bad, but it's impossible not to get a little messy. The only drawback was that a little of the dust got in his eye, but if you wanted to prevent that then you could probably just wet the clay a little. Really an awesome product that exceeded all my expectations. So glad I went with this kit!

My girls had a blast!

My oldest daughter (7 years old) used her own money and bought this kit. She had a blast and was nice enough to let her little sister find some gems too. There are 15 gemstones inside the block so they had a lot of fun and loved all the different gemstones. We ended up using a flathead screwdriver and hammer along with the included tools to break it up easier. Great kit and a lot of gemstones for the kids to discover. It also came with a booklet describing each gemstone. Happy kids!

Lots of fun and discovery!

My son loved the gemstone dig kit! It was slow going at first but once he found the first gem he zoomed through the whole brick in no time. It doesn't come with a small wooden hammer, like other kits, so we used our own from my sons play work bench. The help of the hammer was huge. The only complaint (from my son) is that it didn't have an Agate stone. But he found one of everything else and 2 geodes. Over all this was a great purchase and will be getting the fossil kit in the near future. P.S. Just a tip, I put his brick in a disposable 9×13 pan for easier clean up!

great stones

Although a bit expensive, the stones included were by far the prettiest of all the mining kits I have tried. I found that a spray bottle comes in handy to apply a mist to reduce the dust while you chisel away at this.

Great activity for a rock/gem lover!

My 5-year-old son spent most of Christmas Day pouring over this. It was hard work - and he ended up getting tired of digging and ended up throwing some of the chunks on the driveway to get it to break up (they don’t really recommend this method...). I am still not sure if he has found all the gems yet. He has a few chunks that he has saved to break up later. Some of the gems are fairly small and almost got thrown away with what we thought were empty chunks of dirt. The purple gem design imprinted on the front of the dirt piece is a little hokey. Makes it feel a little less genuine of a gem-digging search. Although they are digging for mostly polished gems, so it’s obviously not genuine. All in all, my son loved it. He loves showing people his gems. It was a messy activity but putting some paper down under his workspace make for easy cleanup.

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