When mining "stone" blocks, like iron ore, stone, etc., particles do appear, but they have a slight and slightly bright blue hue. The screenshot will do most of the explaining.
To reproduce:
1. Get into Survival.
2. Mine "stone" blocks.
3. Observe the breaking particles!
(As a side note, this world was created in 1.8.2-pre4.)
Fixed for a future version. MC-77018