Rules/regs regarding GPA in Sapphire area.

Hi
Just wondering the rules and regulations in the Sapphire/Anake areas. There is a lot of people leave equipment laying all over the place but there is noone there using it. Is it fair game to go and prospect in that area? Or is it an offence to go into that area?

Obviously it's not 1 person if there is 4 trommels and 20 buckets and spades and picks laying around...... Commercial operation maybe?

Just wondering before I ever tread on anyone's ground.

Cheers.

This Qld Government site has info on the GPA's
https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/a...ities/fossicking/central-qld/rubyvale-saphire
It would appear there are a lot of claims/tenements in the area.

To be 100% sure you'd need to check on the boundaries of them to ensure your not in the wrong place.
I think you can use Globe in Qld to do this but I can't give you any tips for using it.
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/run...istance/mapping-data-imagery/queensland-globe

There are mining claims all over the place, most are 30 x 30 but there are also larger claims. Here's an example of a small area on the very edge of Rubyvale, satellite and leases:





Many of these are not fenced so you have to hunt for the pegs.

Other areas the claims are almost falling over each other so you need to make absolutely sure where you are. If there's machinery it's highly likely to be a claim, so no go.

The 'rule of thumb' here on the gemfields is quite simple - keep off someone else's patch and that applies to machinery leases, mining claims and fossicking diggings. Just because you don't see somebody working the dirt doesn't mean it's not being worked.

If you know that you have entered a machinery lease, walk away from it.
If you are in a hand mining area and there is gear laying about regardless of whether you can see claim posts, walk away from it.
If you are in a fossicking area and there is a stick in a fresh looking hole with a plastic bottle hanging off it, walk away from it.

Somebody was helping themselves to other people's active diggings at Divide many years ago and also stealing a bit of gear. I hung a sign on a tree where a few of us were digging and whoever it was that was 'ratting' the holes avoided my area.