Ruby Hill , Upper Bingara

I popped out to Ruby Hill while I left the family at the caravan park to scoop up a few bags of dirt to have a look at back home..

8 bags later ( bout 5 liters in a bag )...

Got home and we washed through just one bag to take a look and we were quite happy

There was a few good bits in there and lots of smaler ones. Just nice to see lots of them in the pan.

Cant wait to get thru the rest of them... eventually..

Nice, I didn't think there would be that many Sapphires there, looks like some Zircons in with those Garnets also. Will be stopping into Bingara on my next trip to Inverell.

I noticed if your heading north you might find it hard to find the hill. The sign for it is only facing the southbound traffic.

From the turn off to upper bingara it is pretty much exactly 5klm

Wow, looks like I might need to go for a drive!

I thought it was just all Garnets ? Just different colors?

Im not real sure but be happy if it is other gems in there..

Hard to tell Farmeroz, the whiter ones could be Zircons. Pretty sure the Blues and Greens are Sapphires too, you usually can find them all in the same deposits.

Ben78 said:

Wow, looks like I might need to go for a drive!

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Ben, if I lived in Tamworth I'd be out there very often, Inverell too every 2nd week.

Cheers Heatho , some of the white ones have a light blue tinge to them and some the slightest orange tinge...

But yeah still 7 bags to wash yet... so who knows what else is in there. Ill be sure to show the end results tho...

I need one of those new 'klever sharp' bag sealers.. im sure there is a few garnets in the carpet of the car also..

Really hard to tell with some stones, maybe try to do a few close ups if you get the chance, anything even very light blue is probably a Sapphire. Very interested to see the final haul. Hope there's plenty in those other bags.

Great idea on the bag sealer.

I never thought that in my life that I would picking up these babies out of the pan. Ruby Hill is a gem of a spot (no pun intended) and Three Creeks Gold Mine was well worth a look too. Joy and Paul are the most fantastic hosts and will see to it that you get the most out of stay. Being a novice to panning, the $25 was well worth it

The green stones are most likely peridot/olivine. I was up there today - looks exactly like the peridot I got from Hanging Rock.

Garnets, garnets everywhere!

Ruby Hill will be a definite stop on my next trip up that, which will hopefully be soon.

I was thinking peridot too! But yes so many garnets, beautiful aren't they?

Hehe, can't wait for Farmeroz and I to move up Tamworth/Barraba way, you all can't have all the fun!

Ok, here's the proceeds of my 'bucket' full (10L bucket of surface gravel) classified at 'kitchen sieve' and above. There is many more in the smaller grade but I don't have the patience to pull them out lol

When did you go grab the bucket full ben?

Ill pm you some other info in a minute, havnt forgotten

Ok, a few more pics

This is the western face of Ruby Hill which is the better side to get garnet from. See the exposed area - that is a area of breccia which appears to be the host of the garnet bearing rock - Breccia is a rock made up of cemented gravels.



If you crawl over the breccia you'll see free garnets sitting in crevices.



And if you look really carefully you'll be able to find garnet and peridot still attached to the host basalt.

farmeroz said:

When did you go grab the bucket full ben?

Ill pm you some other info in a minute, havnt forgotten

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Took the family up yesterday. Also checked out a possible diamond location. Panned a crevice there and got two fine grains of sand that absolutely lit up in the pan - brighter than anything I have seen in a pan before. I also brought home a bucket of wash from there but I intend on being a LOT more careful in my processing of that so it will take me a while before I have anything to show.

Good stuff Ben, thanks for the great pics and info.

Goin to ruby hill on saturday hopefully find some nice pieces there is the ground hard(need pick) or is shovels suffice ?? New comer to this so any help would be greatly appreciated