Divining rods for sapphire hunting

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Worked on and off for my father in law who was a water driller.
Many farmers employed him to drill for water after they had paid for a diviner to find a spot to drill.
The diviners were often wrong or involved the farmer in more expense with deeper drilling than would have been the case if they had followed my FILs advice.
On one occasion a farmer took him to court for not finding water where the diviner said it would be despite my FIL's suggesting a better place as a result of his drilling experience and knowledge of the water tables in the area. He was a very good driller and was once called in by ESSO to fix a water bore at their gas plant in Longford to the embarrassment of their own oil and gas drillers.
Have also seen gold diviners in the Vic goldfields getting ripped off with expensive dousing devices and fail miserably walking past amused onlookers many of whom were wearing significant gold nugget jewellery around their necks.
I am sorry but I am firmly on the side that divining, dousing or whatever it is called has no underlying physical basis. It is noted that James Gandi's million dollar prize for anyone who can demonstrate, under basic control conditions, that it works for water, gold or anything else, is still there for the taking after 20 or 30 years.
 
Bit like the water divining test by SA Geological Survey using a water diviner, a geologist and a farmer. The farmer had most success, the diviner the least - but given there is some water in most ground it is all relative :) Unfortunately noone sets up true statistical tests for this - without evidence it is belief.

Whereas to me it is more likely that local knowledge increases the chance of success the most, knowing where to look geologically improves the odds....I can't buy divining but why not do a test? Not difficult.
Many "true" tests were set up with all failing. One organisation offering a million dollar reward for anyone who could do it. Amazingly no one was able to divine water when properly observed or tested and the million dollars was never claimed. Not sure if it is still available, but if anyone thinks divining is real it is a quicker way to make a million than chasing sapphires or gold.
 
I just watched a couple youtube videos of guys using divining rods, or more to the point one divining rod.
One was Tim's Adventures and he uses one underground to show him which direction to dig. He was either pretty sure of himself, or was taking the mickey.
But I'm going to test it out in the Gem Fields, and win or lose I'll let everyone know how I do.
My luck, I'll strike water.

Cheers.
Badge.
 
Ask Aussie Sapphires how they found their Sapphires when they were mining ????

Answer, Divining....:D😊

LW....
I thought by mining on their own farm according to them "Aussie Sapphire started out as an online outlet for Sapphire and other gems from the Reddestone Creek Mine located on our farm". "Open pit mining is used to extract the corundum ore from the gravels" at this locality (AGSO). Seems to have come out of some small pits on their farm, 100-300 m across - I assume they used standard sapphire bulk mining techniques.


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They actually have posted a video of their mining - not much divining shown in the process, considering it all comes out of just a couple of pits.

 
Yes they did at that location.. They also had another 'Farm' where the stones were surprisingly shallow... The sapphires were very shallow and the surface just needed a scrape and they were there... They stopped mining in the 90's when the market for stones crashed... More $$ in selling Lapidary gear and cattle now... I will see if i can find a video of Andrew Divining... I know one is out there .... Thats an old vid... The Little Boy is now a 20yo...:)

LW...
 
This is a Video that was produced about 10-15yrsrs ago on the New England areas Sapphires... A bit corny in places but interesting none the less... I know a few of the 'Actors' and they are Clowns in the real world... Sid is a classic and has made a Fortune Sapphire Mining In the Glen Innes area... It shows Andrew Divining somewhere in the video... Also a member of the Production crew stole the 'Episode' and fled the Country to the USA... There is a warrant out for his Arrest and as far as i know he hasn't returned...


Also here is a link to a Topic about it... Interesting... In the Topic Andrews Wife, LEAH mentions about her Farther using the Rods as well...
https://aussielapidaryforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=498.0
I was also there the day when Sid actually did fall into the creek Al pulled him in......🤣 And, Please Dont ask about the Fluorite... I will Not say where...

LW....
 
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That aussielapidary read was enlightening LONEWOLF.
There are many believers who have used the rods with some success, but as I mentioned before not everyone can do it and a real sceptic wouldn't bother with the concentration etc needed to have success, so can never be convinced.
I noted the use of aluminium rods on that forum because sapphires is aluminum oxide. My rods are brass so no wonder they were going crazy in my yard with all the metal under the ground there. Hopefully using them with a sapphire in my hand will produce some hits. I can always make another set. Can't wait until we arrive at the Wilows.

Cheers.
Badge.
 
James Randi offered one million dollars for anyone who could demonstrate that dowsing worked. Nobody had claimed it by the time Randi died at age 92....



Why waste time spending sapphires when there is a fortune to be made!

I remember an Australian exploaration company who employed spoon-bender Yuri Geller (later discredited by Randi) to find ore deposits for them. They rapidly faded into oblivion.....
 
I remember an exploration company that I worked for and the Supervising Geo thought that he was Uri Geller and was going to find the the big strike. He faded into oblivion as well. A bit like that Foster bloke, the con artist.
 
Well I finally arrived at the Gemfields. Instead of the Willows I ended up in Rubyvale and had a little look around for places to see. We did try a bag of dirt from Armfest and ended up with some very nice sapphires including a few stars, and some zircons. Counting the small ones we managed around 80 to 100 stones but many were either bombs or not worth cutting.
Those that were worth cutting are pretty good though.
Today we decided to try Middle Range Fossicking Area and went directly to the creek. The sapphires from the first day were left in the car and I tried out the divining rods. Straight away they reacted to me, and when I asked "where are the sapphires" they pointed at the car which was behind me. I took the sapphires from the day before and put them in my pocket and asked again, this time the rods pointed down the creek so I followed and after only about 20 mtrs the rods crossed. I backed up and they opened, I stepped forward and they crossed again. I will add they would not work while traffic went past, maybe because I lost concentration I don't know.
We dug only about 6 inches down into concrete like dirt which held heaps of small stones. At the end of 2 hours we had about 30 stones but only 10 looked worth while or close to that. Three were stars.
I tuckered out pretty quick with the reflection of heat off the creek bed dehydrating us and left the spot after checking with the rods to see if there were any in that spot, and the rods did not cross.
Pot luck maybe. Tomorrow we will try somewhere different and try the rods again. Now I'm confident they will work so could be in for a disappointment or a surprise.
We shall see.

Cheers.
Badge.


Stars at the top.
Nice blue on the bottom.
3 zircons in the middle.
2 very pale green stones at 3 o'clock.
A bomb at 8 o'clock.
 

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The caravans are on the move! Great to see more people about with the weather finally starting to cool. Keep at it Badge, the more you dig, the more you will find. Unfortunately, none of those stones in the photo are either corundum, sapphires or zircons. But they are about!
 
The caravans are on the move! Great to see more people about with the weather finally starting to cool. Keep at it Badge, the more you dig, the more you will find. Unfortunately, none of those stones in the photo are either corundum, sapphires or zircons. But they are about!
That's what I thought about the stones, but then I have never found any myself!
 
I took all of the stones from yesterday to a local and the stars(or what I thought were stars were rubbish, a the rest weren’t worth his time looking at. From the entire dig Iended up with one very small sapphire too small for me to cut. I’ve been told the wash is deeper than I went.
Today we ended up in the Sapphire area and ended up with some small stones I’ll get checked out but I’m pretty sure these are closer to the mark but not quality stones. I used the rods again so I’m still convinced of their effectiveness more than my own ability.
Pic 2 is yesterday’s result. Pic 1 is todays with just the ones I’m sure of.
The rest i can screen while were camped on the Barcoo for a few nights.
An improvement but not ideal as yet.
 

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