Gemstone Identification Please

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Snakeman1

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Hi all

First time poster, long time lurker...

A big thank you to everyone for all the useful advice and information I have found on this forum over the years.

I recently returned from a 9 day adventure to the Inverell and Glen Innes area with these 5 gemstones in the haul. They appear purple to the naked eye but under torchlight display a fluorescent pink.

Im not sure if they are pink/purple sapphires, rubys or garnet. Would love to hear some more experienced fossickers thoughts...

Thanks in advance :cool:
1598153518_be143793-37b7-47cf-b165-4f38e0acdf38.jpg
 
Might need some more info to identify them, mate. And welcome to PA too!

If you check out Goldierocks' thread called 'Series on Identifying Minerals' and do a couple of tests, you should find your answer.

Cheers,
Megsy.
 
Did you Find them or were they found in a bought "Bag a beauty" ? Reason I ask is, as those bought bags have lots of 'Not from Australia' stones in them... :rolleyes:

If not then My guess is Pink Sapphires. They look purple, but show up pink under light.. Mainly found on the Eastern side of Glen Innes but can be found in other areas around Glen Innes... Rare and small but they are there...

http://johnsnewenglandminerals.blogspot.com/2013/06/pink-sapphires-in-new-england-district.html

LW...
 
If you have a commercial hardness testing kit this can distinguish (corundum 9, garnet 7.5 or less). Topaz will scratch garnet but not corundum (ruby).

Easy to distinguish under a polarising microscope (possibly even with polarising glasses but I have never tried). An approximate method is to "Pick up the stone you wish to test and hold it very close to your eye, toward a source of light, such as a light bulb or lamp. Never look at the sun. Look through the stone. You will see reflections from the light source. Tilt the stone at different angles and slowly roll it around. Watch the reflections in the stone as you do this. Continue to move the stone around until the reflections appear as a spectrum or rainbow. Note the number of rainbows that you see reflected in the stone. If you see two rainbows, or spectrums, that do not contain yellow or green bands, the stone most likely is a ruby. Rubies absorb colors in the green and yellow bands of the spectrum and so do not reflect these colors. If you see only one rainbow and it contains all the colors, the stone probably is a garnet. Garnets reflect only very thin bands of yellow and green".
 
Hmmm, I used to sit in the office with my Geo at the end of the week and he would play these games on me, like lick this stone, if it tastes like pork then it is not a ferric oxide, etc. The best part was the beer.
 
Wow thanks guys for all the responses and great ideas. There are several suggestions there I can follow up to firm up the ID.

Lonewolf - thanks for the vote of confidence there mate! I guess I gotta cop that as a first time poster, so fair call. Because of all the stories about how bag a beauty (and similar) salt their wash bags with tumbled, polished and foreign gems I would never buy them. I did indeed locate all 5 of those pinks at a location south east of GI.

I am considering posting more details of my recent adventure to Inverell and GI to demonstrate that despite certain areas being thoroughly worked over there is still plenty of colour to be had in well known and public fossicking areas if people put in the time on the tools :Y:

I can confirm that no beer stones were harmed or drop bears encountered, during the duration of the trip.
 
I meant no ill to your post, I just don't like seeing people getting done by those bags...BTW, I always bring home a bag myself... I like finding stuff that is not suppose to be there... :lol:

Yes they are Pink Sapphires for sure, now you mention SE Glen... Found only 1 in the Mt Mitchell area, but seen quite a few of what you have... I went on a few of 'John's' trips(every Wednesday) around Glen and He always found them on the trips I didn't go on tho :/ ...
Wish He was still down there, great fella but he moved to the Blue Mountains several years ago... 8.(

Drop Bears Migrate to Glen every Summer. Seen plenty hanging around the main street of Glen.. Its too cold for them during winter... Plus with the Covid thing, its hard for them to move around unless they do the 14 day thingo... ;)

Oh and Welcome to PA... :Y:

LW...
 
Could be, but SE of Glen Innes is also known for producing raisins - garnets that have the shape of a dried sultana or raisin.

The 3 in the middle are similar to the shape of my raisin garnets. This is not to say that yours are garnet, the spread of different coloured sapphires change depending on where you go in the district. As colour is a result of the trace elements captured during the creation of the stones, you could have very well stumbled upon a patch of ruby.

Scratch testing and UV would be my go-to, but a stone cutter very familiar with sapphire could also tell if it wasnt ruby by the feel of the cutting speed/hardness.

Good luck and enjoy the journey of discovery.
 
Oh Wow, I didn't know that Wally... :eek: Well there you go :Y:

Do you have any info on them? Would love to find a few for the Collection...

LW....
 
LoneWolf said:
Oh Wow, I didn't know that Wally... :eek: Well there you go :Y:

Do you have any info on them? Would love to find a few for the Collection...

LW....
Click to expand...

The ones my family have found were in Oban and Sarah in tin mine tailings when looking for topaz. Size is similar to the stones in the photo, but my brother did find a bigger one at around 4ct, from memory, that cut a good looking stone.

The mine reports show garnets present in most streams South of Mount Mitchell down to Glencoe and then a little west to Ben Lomond but all reports indicate minor occurrences of garnet. There are some reports of blue sapphire with purple cross table colours but I haven't come across a definite Ruby source......yet. Keen to see how these ones test up.

To get a handful would indicate to me that they were extracted closer to the source Than the spots I have been, or in a tailings screen cleanout location that concentrated the stones.
 
Curious to know why ruby would cut differently to sapphire if they are both hardness 9 and both are Al2O3.
 
Whisp said:
Curious to know why ruby would cut differently to sapphire if they are both hardness 9 and both are Al2O3.
Click to expand...

Agreed, will cut the same. A cutter will tell garnet v,s sapphire/ruby by the feel. Ie. could dismiss the stones as ruby/sapphire by the feel during cutting.
 

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