New Zealand Ruby Rock

Gidday chaps, Here are some photos of something truly special- New Zealand's' very own gemstone / rock. Its known as goodletite by the Geologists and Ruby Rock by most other folk. It is comprised of ruby, sapphire, a green mica along with minor tourmaline and chromite. Goodletite is found only in New Zealand in a small area near Hokitika. The photos are of what are known as doublets made from a thin slice of ruby rock with a glass cover glued on. The slices are thin to allow light to pass through the rock and reveal the colours of the minerals. The glass provides strength and allows you to see the stone better. Doublets are commonly also made from opal.

Awesome

Wow 8) that stuff looks unreal

Cheers

Col

Wow! Stunning colors through those specimens! I don't think I've seen it before, lovely

Very nice!!!

On a visit across the ditch, I was surprised to hear that there seems to be very little in the way of gemmy stuff in NZ. This struck me as strange since most things gemmy have igneous origins and NZ is pretty heavily vulcanized. I would have thought there would be plenty of stuff for rockhounds to chase. Can you tell me any more about this 1864hatter?

Beautiful cabbing material there anyway. I can imagine that set in a nice pendant or ring. Wouldn't it be nice if among the spot that produces that material, there were some loose rubies and sapphires of facetable size and quality?

Thanks for all the relies guys. This is a link to a site where you can download two articles about ruby rock. This should explain a few things. They are the third and fourth articles down the list.

Ok I cant post links, google it yourselves.

http://www.nzrubyrock.com/hopsite/history/

Science fiction :O

The Goodletite form of Ruby Rock, named after Mr William Goodlet, who brought the stone to the attention of professors at Otago University, is New Zealands only precious stone

Click to expand...

The owners of the Back Creek claim were directly informed of the nature and value of their discovery and of the probability that rubies that may be of some value in jewellery could be obtained during the gold washing process. However, no ruby finds were subsequently reported. Ulrich optimistically concluded that "....it does not lie outside the bounds of probability that a hardy prospector may some day in these ranges [the Southern Alps] discover the place of derivation of the ruby boulder, where really valuable stones are likely to be hidden".

To date, no such discovery has been made.

Click to expand...

I find this to be really, really weird. New Zealand has seen it's fair share of volcanic activity and continues to. I would have imagined the place to be a potential treasure trove of gemmy things :/ .

depends on the type of activity

It does, but when a place has seen so much activity it's still a bit surprising. All volcanoes draw up and spew out a chemical cocktail in the magma.