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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Gemstones and Minerals
Sapphire Bend, Oberon NSW
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<blockquote data-quote="Lefty" data-source="post: 434470" data-attributes="member: 2976"><p>Oh ok - a couple of people have told me they don't get them there.</p><p></p><p>Are we talking about the same thing? What we refer to as "billy boulders" up here are a very specific rock - they are hard and composed of quartzite and more often than not posses an unusual shape and smooth, almost polished surface appearance that has previously been described as "water-worn" but having seen countless numbers of them, I have to agree with Jim Elliot's argument that they are in fact <em>heat-glazed.</em> At least the surface looks that way.</p><p></p><p>They vary in size from small things the size of a fist, through to basketball size, through drum size and occasionally as big as a car bonnet or bigger. I had a 44-gallon drum sized one in my hole on our ill-fated claim at Reward, was a real pain to get out of the hole!</p><p></p><p>They are often taken as a sign of the potential of sapphire-bearing wash as they often seem to accompany the stones, many believe this is a sign that they were ejected from the volcanic vents along with the sapphires, black spinel etc.</p><p></p><p>They actually make a handy bush building material and there are plenty of miners huts and houses on the field that use them as such. The Rubyvale gem gallery was originally built from them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lefty, post: 434470, member: 2976"] Oh ok - a couple of people have told me they don't get them there. Are we talking about the same thing? What we refer to as "billy boulders" up here are a very specific rock - they are hard and composed of quartzite and more often than not posses an unusual shape and smooth, almost polished surface appearance that has previously been described as "water-worn" but having seen countless numbers of them, I have to agree with Jim Elliot's argument that they are in fact [i]heat-glazed.[/i] At least the surface looks that way. They vary in size from small things the size of a fist, through to basketball size, through drum size and occasionally as big as a car bonnet or bigger. I had a 44-gallon drum sized one in my hole on our ill-fated claim at Reward, was a real pain to get out of the hole! They are often taken as a sign of the potential of sapphire-bearing wash as they often seem to accompany the stones, many believe this is a sign that they were ejected from the volcanic vents along with the sapphires, black spinel etc. They actually make a handy bush building material and there are plenty of miners huts and houses on the field that use them as such. The Rubyvale gem gallery was originally built from them. [/QUOTE]
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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Gemstones and Minerals
Sapphire Bend, Oberon NSW
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