Are Australian sapphires really worth anything?

[Explorer385]

Hi all,

I actually met Kyle at Grabben Gullen a few weeks ago and he showed me the stone in pic 1 & 2 above.

I held it toward the sun and it was not transparent that I could discern. It is a lovely deep blue and in my view would not cut as a gem quality stone but would cut into a nice pendant stone or a cabochon.

I found Kyle to be a nice young bloke, eager to learn and I think that he will make a great addition to this forum.

The stone is not "valuable" as in gem quality but would make a nice stone for a collection and should have some sentimental value as one of his first finds.

I encourage him to make contact with the Lapidary club as invited to do by FossickerACT.

Terry

 

[Heatho]

A couple of pictures from two trips to this location with pale sapphires. There is also zircon and estatite in the picture. This area is currently under exploration licence for gemstones, so you need permision. The shallow alluvial is also very worked out, but the licence holder is exploring larger targets of deeper alluvials. The largest sapphire we found is about 17 carats:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1769/1438642661_mlm2014_pa.jpg

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1769/1438642661_mlm2014_pa3.jpg

They look similar to the colour of Montana Sapphires to me mfdes, would be keen to see some more Tassie stones.

Although the ones in the pic below are quite dark they are my favouite sapph colour, Inverell Royal Blue........ They are only about 4ct each but they should hopefully cut very nicely. Barney has another one of mine the same colour, hopefully he cuts it soon and I'll post a pic of it.

Another of my fav colours is the almost electric Blue at the bottom of this pic, it's only small but a real stunner.

 

[Heatho]

Here's a really light one from Inverell, pity about the Iron staining on it though.

Love this too.....

 

[user 1769]

They look similar to the colour of Montana Sapphires to me mfdes, would be keen to see some more Tassie stones.

Not that I normally like to blow my own trumpet too much, but here you go: http://www.appleisleprospector.com/gallery/sapphires/

All from NE Tasmania

 

[user 1769]

Hi Kyle,

In summary after all the discussion: don't get discouraged, some Australian sapphire is world class. But like anything else, killer ones are few and far between. I find I enjoy the fun of fossicking more than what they might be worth, but everyone is different.

Best of luck!

 

[Heatho]

They look similar to the colour of Montana Sapphires to me mfdes, would be keen to see some more Tassie stones.

Not that I normally like to blow my own trumpet too much, but here you go: http://www.appleisleprospector.com/gallery/sapphires/

All from NE Tasmania

Very nice mate, lovely Blues. Excellent photos too, I don't see it as blowing your own.

 

[user 1769]

Thanks!

I'll eventually get around to photographing most of my stones... some day... if I have time

 

[Heatho]

Thanks!

I'll eventually get around to photographing most of my stones... some day... if I have time

Would be awesome to see them. Man I'm itching to get back up to Inverell, as soon as Winter is over I'm there. Extremely keen to get to Tassie as well sometime.

 

[Heatho]

Cool website too mfdes. Ever thought about detecting for some Osmiridium and doing a write up on it? Would be interesting.

That clear Blue Sapph with the flat table is to die for...... Oh yeah.

 

[user 1769]

Thanks Heatho, yes, it's been talked about I'd love to spend a few days in Nineteen Mile Creek with the detector. There was gold there as well. It's just a long way from home (6 hour drive) and a long way to walk in.
Ossie nuggets are rare as hens teeth, they should be worth a bit. A few were found in Adamsfield as well, but not nearly as many or as big as at the Bald Hill / Nineteen Mile Creek area.
Yes, I'll get that sapphire cut one of these days. None of them are huge, but they'll make nice stones. They do have a similar colour to Montana sapphire. I reckon Australia produces a lot of bright blue and pale blue stones that get exported as rough and end up in the market as Ceylon stones. Ceylon sapphires would have to be like Kopi Luwak... way more being sold that actual production.

 

[Heatho]

Glad it's on the to do list but yeah a 6 hour drive is a long drive, would be great to detect a nug of it regardless.

The Thais buy a lot of stones from one of the places Barney and myself go, you're totally right, plenty of Aussie stones are sold off as Ceylon, which is a real pity. I think we have the best coloured stones on the planet. Can't get a better Blue than those pics of yours and mine in my opinion. So yeah supply must outstrip production from Ceylon, lol.

Can feel the Sapphire fever building, only got one trip in last Summer, hoping for a few extra trips this season.

 

[user 1769]

Have you seen this one?

https://www.facebook.com/metalurges...1438689881./10153425393691358/?type=1&theater

 

[Lefty]

The Thai buyers are regularly on our central QLD field and buy our stone by the kilo. It was their standard practice to grade them and sell the finest to the world market as Thai or Ceylon stones and the seconds as Australian and I don't expect anything has changed. In the article I linked to, Jim Elliot has a bit of a spit about them and their decieptful ways.

I was looking in the window of a jewellers the other day and there were some loose sapphires - a nice green, a nice yellow and a rather overly dark blue. The yellow and the green were labeled as fine sapphires and priced accordingly. The too-dark blue was labeled "Australian sapphire" and offered at a reduced price. It's a reasonable chance that all three stones actually came from Australia but only the lesser-quality one was identified as such.

While Australia has a significant percentage of the world's best sapphire the Thais as I understand it have near total domination of the world marketing of sapphires and once they have the stone they can pretty much do what they like.

As the main historical source of the gemstone, they don't like the fact that since the 1970s, central QLD and New England together have produced more good sapphires than they ever produced in their very long history and will happily trash the reputation of others in order to preserve their own.

***** me no end.

 

[Heatho]

Have you seen this one?

https://www.facebook.com/metalurges...1438689881./10153425393691358/?type=1&theater

Wow!!! What a stone.

 

[Lefty]

Have you seen this one?

https://www.facebook.com/metalurges...1438689881./10153425393691358/?type=1&theater

Wow!!! What a stone.

Remarkable that you an see that colour shade without backlighting - beautiful stone!

 

[Varts]

Inverell is the go ,I have never seen a decent stone from GG :-/

 

[magoozil]

that has been happening for 50+ years and i agree its rubbish our stones are wicked and should be sold as australian but the ceylon nametag is like buying billabong over op shop.

 

[Lefty]

Yeah, it's enough to make ya spew! Be interesting to know exactly what sort of proportion of sapphires carrying the Ceylon label actually come from Australia, Madagascar or even other places that are not Ceylon.

Finished a stone from Sapphire on Friday night. Finished stone went 4.25 carat. It was blue on green so I was a bit concerned about it being dark. I would not set in a bezel where no light can reach the pavilion but in a claw setting it would look great, as it does held in the tongs. The light green cross-table has permeated the blue table and the stone - while still somewhat deep in colour toward the centre - returns beautiful teal-coloured reflections.

 

[magoozil]

Yeah, it's enough to make ya spew! Be interesting to know exactly what sort of proportion of sapphires carrying the Ceylon label actually come from Australia, Madagascar or even other places that are not Ceylon.

Finished a stone from Sapphire on Friday night. Finished stone went 4.25 carat. It was blue on green so I was a bit concerned about it being dark. I would not set in a bezel where no light can reach the pavilion but in a claw setting it would look great, as it does held in the tongs. The light green cross-table has permeated the blue table and the stone - while still somewhat deep in colour toward the centre - returns beautiful teal-coloured reflections.

sounds nice i have had stones like that too , depends on the cutter alot as i dont cut my own stones but a stone can definately be cut and set to make it appear lighter and to get the best out of the stone , my starries that i send to lamberts never come back right , dont know if its the artificial light they cut with or if they dont care , i have about 15 real nice starries biggest is 17 carat but want them cabbed by someone who knows what they are doing , it cant be that hard to put the star on top.... and the percentage of australian stones being sold on as other ones would not be that high when you think about how many stones actually come out of the rest of the world. would still be a bit i reckon.

 

[digginhard]

Good question but just devalued my bag of saphhires to a bag of rocks.Back to the creek tomorrow.Keep digging mate,they're out there somewhere.