⭐ Gemstone & Mineral Show n Tell

Prospecting Australia

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Macinverts said:
Nice, Lefty!

Cheers Macinverts. Going down again on Saturday, hopefully get something either facetable or a good specimen. Only had a couple of serious digs there, first one turned up zilch, last one showed a bit of colour at least.
 
Good luck. Not sure when I'm heading out next but that i find something a bit bigger than what I've found so far. Even so, there is a thrill in just looking!
 
Some small stuff from the last outing

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Rod
 
Hi varts mate, indeed the wee little stones are pretty, but more importantly , they tell us whats about at that spot, and lead us to their bigger brethren in the future hopefully :) .
We have been prospecting in the truest sence of the word lol, sampling loads of different areas at our local fossicking region, no digging in ernest yet, just test sample the spot for a day and hit the next spot to sample. No gratification yet but plenty of good info that hopefully leads to it in the warmer months when we go back to the best sampled spots and dig properly.
Unfourtunately alot of our best leads end up at the national parks or sca boundries, and hence we can chase it no further.
Rod
 
Lovely looking wee ones varts mate, the clears look really nice, have you checked em out under uv yet?
Rod
 
My first show and tell post.
Went out to Tomahawk Crk again this winter and had worst trip ever as far as size of stone goes. However did learn more than any other trip combined when one of the old timers out there invited me to join him for an afternoon in his hole (I know, this just does not happen). Spent a few hours an chipping away and getting schooled on river beds and volcanic plugs, pick technique etc.
Anyway, I got back home and decided to send a bunch of chips too small to bother cutting to Lamberts. Sent 50 stones. they cut 3 zircon and 28 odd sapphires. I obviously only sent my little stones i wasn't worried about losing. the biggest only cut down to about 6mm across nice specimens anyway to add to my display case I'm building. Anyways, happy with results and think i'll be sending a heap more smalls.
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The three at top of image are the zircons.
 
Macinverts said:
Good luck. Not sure when I'm heading out next but that i find something a bit bigger than what I've found so far. Even so, there is a thrill in just looking!

Still waiting for my first decent find. I know the good bits are there because I've seen them in the collections of other people who dig there. This bit was about the best bit and it's too shattered to be a cutter - maybe a very small stone could be cut from it, dunno.

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No real shortage of the stuff there, just finding a good bit is the trick.

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But I have a feeling that every hole I have dug is ground that has already been dug over - the place is so heavily dug it's hard to tell where hasn't been dug. Next time I'll start a new hole out on the edge of the diggings and see how I go. A throw sieve is definately the go in this loose, sandy stuff.

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It would actually be a nice spot to camp down beside the creek there. Not sure if you're allowed to though. Ti-tres in flower along the creek..

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Some great photo's lefty,always good to see where the gems are found.
I'm heading up to Lowmead on Sunday with my brother.
Hope to find a few nice pieces like yours.
 
ktmman said:
Some great photo's lefty,always good to see where the gems are found.
I'm heading up to Lowmead on Sunday with my brother.
Hope to find a few nice pieces like yours.

I like this!!
Good luck, mate!
 
Some great photo's lefty,always good to see where the gems are found.
I'm heading up to Lowmead on Sunday with my brother.
Hope to find a few nice pieces like yours.

Good on you mate, hope you do well. The only advice I can give is probably to start a hole where the diggings appear to run out - it's so dug over that you don't know if you're digging pre-dug stuff otherwise. I kept digging up fine amber-coloured specimens of fourexite :) so I'm pretty sure it wasn't virgin ground. The diggings are on both sides of the road, the little track that goes down to the creek comes off the northern edge of the road. I'll be heading down the Gold Coast for a week on Monday, then out to the gemfields the week after that.

I like this!!
Good luck, mate!

Hi Joao. I believe you guys get some of the best amethyst over there in South America. I saw a huge, 3 metre high geode from Uraguay in a mineral museum here, the cavity was lined with thousands of large amethyst crystals - it was magnificent! :)
 
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