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Prospecting Australia

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congrats mate good choice for name nice stone I bought my kids a gold nugget when they where born I call it there birth nugget better then money in the bank :)
 
Thanks Richo

That's a good idea ,with the nugget where did you buy the nugget
 
Couple of Rubies I bought at a Lap club demo yesterday. About 6.5ct, heat treated, glass filled cracks, not Australian but who cares at $7 a Ct. Just wanted to add them to the collection, may get them cut.

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Nice Heatho, almost the same as from "Game of Stones" now what is the secret applying the temperature to get them nice and clear?
 
Hey joe on the heat treatment ,I read in a gem book that they heat treat zircons in a sand filled clay pot over about a day on the coals of an open fire,I think it was in India .
It turns brown zircons blue,and if you heat the same stone again after cooling slow it is supposed to turn yellow,(ancient times)
I mite give it a go with a couple of small saphs and zircs
I don't know how true it is but it may be worth a try
Who knows may turn a bomb into a gem :)
 
Had a chat to a gemologist which does heat treating, about 1600 deg c for a certain amount of time then let them cool. Usually done in a gas kiln. I'll hopefully have a better chat next time there and start looking at stones which will benefit from it so I can select my own to send.

Highly silky Sapphires will benefit but there are some others too which will benefit. Dark Sapphires containing too much Iron will maybe benefit also. The Iron travels to the outside of the crystal under heat and evaporates off.

Some of the Inverell Light Blues are very silky. I actually like the look of them, the reflected light looks much more diffuse, like a little blue fluoro light. After heating these will be clear.

It is actually quite cheap to do also as they do them in batches every few weeks. I'll find out more next time up there, if you guys want to get some done later this year we could just take a batch up and have it done. Or I can give you the blokes details.
 

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