Garnets?

I found these while panning, I'm pretty sure they're Garnets but their colour is making me unsure, most of the Garnets I've found in the area are a browny/red but these are a real Ruby red.

Sorry about the photo quality, I couldn't get the camera to focus close enough...

Mate got no idea what they are but they look kewl, most of the garnets I've found have a purple tinge to them.

Cheers

C&L

The biggest in the photo is about 3mm which is a fair bit smaller than the normal ones and they look a weird colour in the photo. What kind of sizes do you normally find?

Mate, the ones I get are about the same size some a little bigger



Cheers

C&L

DD will know , but makes it easier if you tell which area they came from

They were the very next things I was going to say headbut

I found them just south of Bullumwaal.

Nope definitely not mine

Bit hard to identify from the pic , but the biggest difference between garnet and ruby is the hardness. Try scratching them with something that's tungsten carbide ( grinding bit etc ) garnets will scratch, ruby won't. The difference between zircon and garnet is a bit harder without studying the crystal structure. The local geology will give you a good idea though. Garnets are a product of metamorphism, therefor associated with metamorphic rocks. Zircon are usually associated with felsic igneous rocks ( light granites ). Checkout a geo map of the area.

DD

I gave the scratch test a go, but they're too small for me to be able to tell of I've scratched them. There's a fair bit of Granite in the area, it was mined at one stage, but that's to the east of the creek I prospect on.

Get yourself a little 10 or 20x hand lens mate, they go for about $20. Something like this one.

http://www.pilbarageology.com.au/products/Twin-20x-&-10x-Hand-Lens{47}Loupe.html

An essential for all fossickers I reckon. Makes it easier to study the crystal structure etc also.

DD

I've been meaning to get something like that for a while now, cheaper than a polariscope.

Picked one up locally today (only a 10x though), tried the scratch test again but ended up breaking one instead of scratching it, so not sure what that means. This probably isn't sound logic but is it possible that moving upstream could yield bigger stones? Due to them travelling a smaller distance from their source resulting in them being less fragmented, if that makes sense .

hello. they look like the garnets i get around jindy..pretty much the exact colour as well. im not much of an expert on gemstones but ive been told by an expert down here that they are definately garnets.. as in mine are garnets. the colour is exactly the same as im getting from the moonbah river near jindy.. i also only seem to get them from the more wild part of the river that is steep and has waterfalls, up river a bit i dont get any in the slower flowing river, so i think mine are coming from the hill next to the river as its very steep and the river goes from about 4m wide up river in the slower water to about 1 meter and hard flowing over big rocks so i recon its eroding the bank more and thats exposing the garnets, but then the water flow is also breaking them up as i find plenty about 3mm in size and not much bigger..cheers pete

I took the photo with my old phone and it distorted the colour a bit (crappy auto colour enhance), in person they have a purple tinge to them. I've noticed the similar with Bullumwaal, I've started moving around more and can only find them in a relatively small section of the creek. Mine are around the same size, It'd be great to locate the source!

I have a cinnamon coloured stone with a purple/blue opalescence that a gem guy told me was a zircon, so possibly zircon?

I'm still fairly new to gemstones but I haven't heard of opalescent zircon, do you have a photo? Some of the more experienced people on here might be able to help. The first thing I think of reading that description is fire opal.