Digging at Reward

Gday Lefty....DONT FORGET YOUR WINTER WOLIES ! :lol:

Bwahahaha! What a great idea! :lol: It will be brass monkey weather after all.

Some more budget fossicking equipment - a stand for the small sieves. There's going to be 3 of us there this week and the sieve table is really only big enough for two people to stand comfortably side-by-side. Made it from some stuff that was being thrown out - an old pole tennis set and some large L-brackets from some shelving. I cut the height of the pole down to about belly button height, bored out some of the screw holes in the brackets to take a long bolt then put them through the brackets and through the plug in the top of the pole.

I'll cut the brackets down a bit lower and also bring them in so that they're just big enough to allow our small sieves - which are 330mm in diameter - to sit fairly neatly in. I tried for a while to use the spring that came with it but eventually had to concede that although it was strong for what it was, it was still too soft to hold a sieve full of dirt. But it'll still work well enough just as a stand that I can push the dirt though with my hand or rock (gently) back and forth.

The ideal would have been a sprung one of course - they do sell them at Sapphire but this'll do. Another way to do it might be to have a convex bottom with a weight in the centre so it works like one of those old inflatable boxing clowns - you whack it and it goes over but springs straight back up because of the centred weight.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we can use the machines - but it always pays to have a collection of hand tools on standby for exploratory purposes or in case of mechanical failure.

Back home from our trip. After meeting one of my neighbours for the first time - who assured me that the area was very poor (yet he is still there almost a decade later) - I had this knee-jerk reaction to understate what I'd found when I posted on another forum. Everyone out there seems to deny that there is much worthwhile in the areas immediately adjacent to their claims. Understandable when it's your little patch of dirt I guess. Many people don't want other people pegging the ground beside them - often I think, just because they like their quiet and solitude more so than any worry about claim-jumpers.

So I posted of finding a single stone. I actually did do a little better than that. Not fantastic by any means but I was still happy. A bunch of little busted chips, small black spinels and a couple of small bombs came out of the ground. But we also got these....

A 7 carat zircon, orange in natural light, pinkish orange in artificial light.....





A 12 carat parti, predominately green with a smidgen of yellow on the end. Unfortunately, the bit of rubbish that is in it runs on an angle through the stone. This means the good crystal that is in it is a long wedge shape. Will still cut a small stone.



My mate found this 9 carat green. It looks pretty clean, it should cut a nice small stone. I really like the colour of both of these stones. The last green I found was a grass green but these are shading more towards aquamarine in colour.



He also got a jet black stone about 14 carats (no photo). It has a strong bronze sheen across the top, indicating a star - but there is a fair bit of shattering to the stone. Might be cuttable, might not be. He'll have to have a cutter examine it.

So we had a good time - found a few little stones, drank some beers, ate some good tucker.......life, the way it should be

What a life great looking stones Lefty, your patch is proving to have potential despite what the locals are saying. Thanks for sharing a good story

Cheers joe. Yep, the stones are definately there - and there is definately a lot of dirt in between them as well! My mate from Adelaide was getting a bit despondant, lots of hard digging and seiveing without a show but on the last day he jagged that nice little green and the star and was happy.

I just need to start finding ones like this 21 carat one that dad bought at the Sapphire markets on the morning we left....



A friend is cutting it, thinks it'll return a nice oval brilliant. Very nice shade of bright sky blue, unlike the very dark blues that the field has a reputation for producing. I think the place does produce quite a few of this shade but most of them end up going overseas I think - to then be sold on the world market as fine Thai or Ceylon stones, while the second grade stuff is sold as Australian

Anyway, I'm crossing fingers, toes and everything else that I'll be approved by the time I head out in September and will be able to use that jackhammer, trommel and pulsator that have been gathering dust in the shed for ages - then I'll be able to move some volumes of dirt!

Nice stones Lefty, hope you hit the mother load soon. Upsets me too our better stones are relabelled as Ceylon or Thai, not fair at all. That real Aqua Blue is just about my fav colour in a Sapphire. Good luck with getting the machinery set up.

Cheers Heatho. Yes, it really gets under my skin, the nerve of these people. It's just fraud, taking credit for something that isn't theirs. Tarnishing our reputation in order to maintain their own. It makes me angry but I guess the small digger out there would be mad not to take the best price if offered. Tourists can be relied upon to come and look but not necessarily relied upon to buy. If you're trying to make ends meet and need the money.....

Same friend is cutting that zircon, he remarked how difficult it often is to get Australian zircon.

Hmm - still only early days but the same situation continues....I'm yet to turn up a blue stone. Various shades of green/green with patches of yellow and zircons but I've not yet seen a blue. I still reckon Jim Elliot is on the money with his theory of sapphire formation and distribution.

lefty this is the blue/green that i found a couple months back on big bessie....still to decide on cutting etc but thatll be sorted when i come back to sapphire for Gemfest next month. might see ya round the traps....hoping to have a day or two digging also

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7309

Good-sized stone there blayke. Big Bessie is still productive by the looks.

Will probably be at the Gemfest on the Saturday, then shoot out to the claim for a quick scratch.

Cheers

Hi Lefty,

I work a couple of claims in the Rubyvale field (on the right of Goana Flats rd, at end of Rivergum) and it would be good to meet up next time you're digging in Reward. I currently live near Emerald, but hope to move to Rubyvale soon to be nearer the claims.

Bill Greenaway

Hi Bill.

I'll be out there for five or six days in the last week in September.

Are you working down a shaft? I've heard the wash is fairly deep at Goanna Flats. Dad used to work a couple of claims at Russian gully about 35 years ago but I've never actually been to Goanna Flats. I haven't heard of Rivergum - is it one of those wonderful local place names like Sleepy Hollow and Centrelink avenue?

HI Lefty,

That's fine - we can arrange a meeting nearer the time.

I'm lucky! The claims either side of me have to go down 20ft shafts to get to the wash. For me it's only 4-5 foot below the surface, I can work in the sunshine (when there is any - we have just had 2 days heavy rain and the digging pits are flooded). Either the wash humps up where I am or the surface wash has already eroded either side of me.

Unfortunately I doubt that "Rivergum" is that romantic, The first right turn down Goanna Flats is Desperado Road (lovely name). The second is Stonebridge place and Rivergum is the first left turn from Stonebridge. It may not be on the maps yet. It's a peaceful place with lots of wildlife and - with luck - lots of sapphires!

Regards Bill

You definately are lucky by the sounds! I've got a second wash that begins only about 18 inches - 2 feet down but so far it has proven totally unproductive. A neigbour I met in July told me that he was told by someone not far up the track who put down a shaft and came across the same stuff with the same result was told by a mines department official that the stones never made it through the surface stuff and that the second stuff clearly pre-dates the volcanic event. But I've found true billy - the glazed-looking quartzite type with the wierd shapes and holes through them - half the size of a 44 at around 5 feet. If the billy made it down that far perhaps the stones did as well? Perhaps they're all lying down on the floor? Time will tell.

You been out there long?