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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Gemstones and Minerals
❓Your Mineral Identification Questions answered here
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<blockquote data-quote="user 4386" data-source="post: 403569" data-attributes="member: 4386"><p>In summary, horses for courses. If you want red stones and chromium makes them red they need to form in a chromium rich rock (so Burma has these and has lots of red rubies and coloured spinel). But if the rock they form in is iron-rich (as in eastern Australia), you will get blue sapphires (which like rubies are the same mineral corundum, just blue not red), and will mostly get unattractive and dark iron-rich spinels, not coloured ones. </p><p></p><p>Some of the guys here know lots about mineralogy and chemistry, others are newcomers, but I can pitch at whatever level is wanted. It is a rather specialist field after all.</p><p></p><p>I checked and coloured spinel appears almost absent from NSW as well as Victoria and Tasmania .</p><p></p><p>What does it mean? In eastern Australia it is more productive to look for the best sapphires you can find (we used to produce 70% of the world's best blue sapphires only a few decades ago). And not spend too much time looking for rubies or gem spinel.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="user 4386, post: 403569, member: 4386"] In summary, horses for courses. If you want red stones and chromium makes them red they need to form in a chromium rich rock (so Burma has these and has lots of red rubies and coloured spinel). But if the rock they form in is iron-rich (as in eastern Australia), you will get blue sapphires (which like rubies are the same mineral corundum, just blue not red), and will mostly get unattractive and dark iron-rich spinels, not coloured ones. Some of the guys here know lots about mineralogy and chemistry, others are newcomers, but I can pitch at whatever level is wanted. It is a rather specialist field after all. I checked and coloured spinel appears almost absent from NSW as well as Victoria and Tasmania . What does it mean? In eastern Australia it is more productive to look for the best sapphires you can find (we used to produce 70% of the world's best blue sapphires only a few decades ago). And not spend too much time looking for rubies or gem spinel. [/QUOTE]
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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Gemstones and Minerals
❓Your Mineral Identification Questions answered here
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