I GOT ONE!!!

[Spud]

Ok so I found one, YAY!!!
So hubby and I went out on Sunday in the FREEZING cold and started to sieve. We trekked up and down the banks for hours trying different spots with no luck. No matter what we did we couldnt find spinel. Then we saw where someone else had been and I noticed there rocks and gravel on the bank so we started to have a little go in that area. We started seeing spinel which was great but it got me thinking, was the spinel we were seeing just someone elses cast offs? I THINK IT WAS
I have decided that finding the different rock consistencys and sizes is the hardest thing, we were looking for spinel as an indicator we were in the correct spot but as I said only found it the once and I think that may have been someone elses.

Anyway at one stage it started raining quite heavily so I cracked a sad and sat down on a rock, I noticed someone had emptied there sieve there and I saw the elusive spinel circle so I studied it for a while as it was the first time I had seen it in real life. I was moving the spinels with my fingers and BAM I saw a hint of blue!!
Omg omg omg I found a sapphire. It is soooooooooo incredibly dark I can understand why someone would miss it.
Does it count that I found it in someone elses off casts? Lol
It is so dark its almost hard to make out the blue in it but when I put it to the torch it shines through as green?
Sorry about the crapy pics but it was all I could get.

 

[Spud]

Opps sorry for the giant pics, couldn't work out how to resize

 

[Heatho]

Yay! Well done, that totally counts as a find, they are hard to see sometimes, especially this time of year when the sun is low in the sky and cloudy is the worst. They are few and far between sometimes but they like to congregate together, sometimes you just have to keep digging.

Now you know what you're looking for. Also sometimes the best Blue stones can be the hardest to see, they can look like Spinel until you hold them up to light. I specked a nice 1 from about 10 feet at Inverell, was stuck to a White rock on a tailings pile, couldn't miss it.

So keep your Spinel also, it cuts great looking stones and sometimes a piece of Spinel looking stuff will be a Sapph.

 

[Twapster]

Awesome, you are on your way!

 

[HeadsUp]

well done . you have a win

put a notch in your lipstick case and start a collection ( of wins )

they will accumulate

If you have days when you cant find any , sit down on another friendly rock and look at the terrain , imagine the process of river action that carries all those things around

sapphires are heavy , along with a few other rock types , so look at the river features and think where heavy rocks might be caught and held while the other lighter stuff gets carried way downstream or out to sea eventually

check out this page , it might help a little with understanding stream dynamics , the rest is up to you to sit and look around , have a dig and see if the theories show up in the field.

http://earthsci.org/education/teacher/basicgeol/stream/stream.html#ChannelPatterns

 

[Colin&Lee]

Good on you spud your on your way, might see you out there after truffle season

Cheers

Col

 

[richo966]

good work keep them coming

 

[goldtruck59]

hi all
can anyone tell me roughly what that sort of find maybe worth ? Congrads Spud

 

[richo966]

not from photo hard to tell size clarity if there are flaws on and on but very nice find first of many they will come easy now first one is hard now you know what your looking for it makes it easy to say yes or no now it is a lot easy to spot them some are hard to find others will jump out and scream look at me

 

[DanielGOLD]

CONGRATS and take it as a win.
If you had not of looked it would not be sitting in your house right now.
Goes to show that you never give up.
Your on your way now, I remember my first one and now I am hooked.
See you out there one day.
Dan

 

[Heatho]

hi all
can anyone tell me roughly what that sort of find maybe worth ? Congrads Spud

Rough Sapphire is not really worth that much unless the colour and clarity are excellent, once cut though they can increase in value 5 or 10x or more. Fractures, inclusions, colour zoning, shape can all effect price.

A 1 or 2 ct cut Aussie stone can generally fetch anywhere between $100-$2000 per ct depending on the 4 C's and the dealer. Cut, clarity, colour, carat. Stones can increase exponentially in price the larger they get.

Hold on to your seat before looking at the price on this stone.... You'll most likely fall off it if you don't........ It's the 69ct one at the bottom of the page. The site in the link has some very expensive stones, un-realistic for most people to fetch such good prices, would like to try though.

http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/sapphires/c-5-blue-sapphires/?pagenum=13

 

[richo966]

love to find one of them 1. 4 mill wow

 

[Heatho]

Would you tell me if you did Richo, lol.

 

[Greg&Nat]

nice work......I still remember my first sapphire...lol

 

[richo966]

yes I could not help but scream it to the world mate I have a big mouth

 

[Spud]

Thanks everyone I was stupidly excited haha

Interesting though, I bought some online the which arrived today and they look NOTHING like mine. mine is such a dark blue its nearly black where as the ones I got online are very clear. Im guessing they do not have much value otherwise I wouldnt have been able to purchase them on ebay for $10.00 but could that change if I got them cut? Also, the seller says the following on the add
These are completely natural Blue Sapphires from Australia. They have not been treated in any way, are opaque to slightly translucent, so faceting potential is unknown.
Can someone please explain this in beginner terms for me please?
this is what i bought
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281339088565?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Thanks for the link heads up, might print it and keep it in the car with me lol

if any of you are out there and hear a high pitched girly scream followed by some swear words, it means i found another haha

 

[Heatho]

Not saying they are not but they don't look much like Aussie rough to me, I could be wrong. Little cutting potential I'd say, I could be wrong there too, but I would not send them for faceting, cabbing maybe. I'll post pics of the rejects from the batch I recently sent to Thailand when they get back, I'm sure there will be quite a few.... rejects.

 

[blayke]

unfortunately the dark ones are all i seem to find aswell good luck with it

 

[Colin&Lee]

hi all
can anyone tell me roughly what that sort of find maybe worth ? Congrads Spud

Rough Sapphire is not really worth that much unless the colour and clarity are excellent, once cut though they can increase in value 5 or 10x or more. Fractures, inclusions, colour zoning, shape can all effect price.

A 1 or 2 ct cut Aussie stone can generally fetch anywhere between $100-$2000 per ct depending on the 4 C's and the dealer. Cut, clarity, colour, carat. Stones can increase exponentially in price the larger they get.

Hold on to your seat before looking at the price on this stone.... You'll most likely fall off it if you don't........ It's the 69ct one at the bottom of the page. The site in the link has some very expensive stones, un-realistic for most people to fetch such good prices, would like to try though.

http://www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/sapphires/c-5-blue-sapphires/?pagenum=13

What he said