Our Sapphire Safari

Great haul

Hope you didn't suffer from tweezer cramp, lots and lots of finger licking stone picking going on there. :inlove:

Hello Chiron52,

Sounds like you had a great time!!

My family and I, from Canada are heading to Glenn Innes and Inverell on the 5th of Nov, we will be in the area to fossick. My two boys (10 & 12) and wife are pretty excited to head out there after reading your post. We have a partial day planned to stop in at Ewingar for some smokie quartz and then to Inverell for the night we have a day booked at BillyBong Blue and then another day of tourmaline hunting with some nice people we met at a gem show here in the Gold Coast this weekend. Might you have any suggestions to go to, as we have no idea as to this area? We have a few days open before we head down to Newcastle for the lapidary Gem Fair.

Thanks

CanFam

CanFam said:

Hello Chiron52,

Sounds like you had a great time!!

My family and I, from Canada are heading to Glenn Innes and Inverell on the 5th of Nov, we will be in the area to fossick. My two boys (10 & 12) and wife are pretty excited to head out there after reading your post. We have a partial day planned to stop in at Ewingar for some smokie quartz and then to Inverell for the night we have a day booked at BillyBong Blue and then another day of tourmaline hunting with some nice people we met at a gem show here in the Gold Coast this weekend. Might you have any suggestions to go to, as we have no idea as to this area? We have a few days open before we head down to Newcastle for the lapidary Gem Fair.

Thanks

CanFam

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Hi CanFam,
I hope you and the family have a great stay in Australia. (I can never understand why Canadians would leave their beautiful country to visit us .... must be because we are such friendly people ).
You can't go wrong at Billabong Blue, we only had 2 days there and you can see what we found in the photos above. Everything you need for fossicking is provided, including expert advice on how to go about finding the "goodies". Along with food, be sure to take plenty of drinks as it can get hot and dusty.


We also went to Stannifer - just south of Inverell - and collected Jelly Bean quartz crystals - they include clear, smokey and citrine quartz - that have been tumbled around for millions of years - I guess - until their edges are rounded off and the stones now have an opaque finish - they come up nice in a tumbler.


Wallangra - about 65 kms north of Inverell - is a good place to find black Tourmaline, Quartz and Smokey Quartz crystals. If you are lucky you might find clear quartz crystals with toumaline inclusions. You will see lots of "whitish" quartz with tourmaline inclusions all over the area.


I had maps and was given the locations of emerald mines around Emmaville and Torrington (both just north of Glen Innes). When we got to the "Torro" mine a big sign said "PRIVATE PROPERTY. TRESSPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED" so we didn't dig ........ I later found out that it was an old sign that now has no bearing on the fossicking ..... damn!
Next day we went to the Emmaville mine but we were unable to contact the owner Steve, so we didn't dig here either .... damn again.
At both these mines one might find beryl, emerald, aquamarine, topaz, smokeys, plus a few other minor minerals.

There are many locations around Inverell and Glen Innes to fossick for gemstones.
I hope your family finds lots of gems and have heaps of fun doing it.
Cheers,
Chiron.

On this trip I found a total of 591cts of sapphires and 93cts of zircons. The biggest sapphire (a parti colour) weighed 49cts.
Here are all the sapphires I found that weighed over 10cts -


The largest sapphire ... 49cts -


Nice blue colour -


I love little crystals -


My jelly beans plus a few ring-ins, all destined for the tumbler -


We met a grey nomad couple who were traveling to gem fields all over Australia. They gave me 2 garnets from the Harts Range (NT).

Hi Chiron, is that what they call rutilated quartz?

Cheers

Doug

Rockhunter62 said:

Hi Chiron, is that what they call rutilated quartz?

Cheers

Doug

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hi doug, rutilated quartz is different,
titanium dioxide are the needles in the quartz.
also called grass stone.
Tourmalated quartz has needles of tourmaline
inside the crystal. black tourmaline is also called schorl.
grass stone bottom pic.

Looks like a very productive trip. Lots of blue :Y:

Thanks RockRat.

Cheers

Doug

Looks like you had a great trip Chiron52. Well done :Y:

jimnyjerry said:

Looks like you had a great trip Chiron52. Well done :Y:

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Thanks JJ.
Was a good trip except for missing out on the emerald mines. Still, I might get back up that way again one day.
All up, we drove about 2000km in a Nissan ute with very stiff suspension. I felt every pebble we ran over. :awful:
I now need to get the dentist to check my teeth. I think most of them were shaken loose. :argh:
Cheers.