Some finds from Lowmead

[ktmman]

Hi Bundyboy, next time I head up to Lowmead I will let you know and I'll show you where to have a dig.
Have you thought about joining the Bundaberg gem club? http://www.bundaberg.lapidaryclub.com.au/

Saturday morning there are plenty of kids learning to cut cabs and make jewelry.
Good fun for the whole family.

Richard

 

[Bundyboy]

KTMMAN that sounds great mate, I am away for work this weekend but I wouldn't mind organizing something during the school holidays in a few weeks. Yes she has been bugging me about going to the gem club. Cheers Mick

 

[Bundy Ben]

I will be heading up there again over the next few weeks, always welcome to come along. This weekend I am sampling some creeks both closer & further. I will let you know the week prior through here when I am heading up.
I had a look at the club page and trying to juggle some time maybe next week to drop over & say g'day one nite.

How did you go last Sunday KTMan? Any wins?

Cheers...Ben

 

[ktmman]

Hey Ben, I found a few bits of colour.
Was trying in the well dug area hoping to find a missed pocket. My mate found 2 nice pieces, one was a thumb sized smokey with an amethyst crystal growing on the side and the other a nice dark amy crystal.
My bro found a few nice bits as well and got stung by one of the many centipedes that you see up there.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Good to hear you found a few pieces. Thought about you up there while I was mowing lawns at Appletree creek. Saw a few centrepieces up there, made me jump quick. I work the next 2 sturdays but after that I will be keen to get another day or 2 up there.

 

[ktmman]

Might see you there one day, we are fishing this weekend and going to Windera the next so a trip up to Lowmead the following fortnight will be in order.
Plenty more areas to sample, not enough time

 

[Lefty]

You gotta watch those centipedes, they are in every hole there!

 

[Bundy Ben]

Chasing some agate at Windera? Has anyone been up on the range SW of Gaeta to the head of the Burnett and had a look for the agate that was reported up there?
I have been to Byrnestown a few times and found some nice orange pieces, mainly small but the kids loved the day chasing.

 

[Lefty]

I won't be at Lowmead for a while, sitting here typing one-handed with my arm in a sling Positioning a tractor bucket to re-attach it today when one of the legs holding it up buckled and bent suddenly. I was holding the bucket arm, my left arm almost straight. The sudden drop of a 200kg object hyperextended my arm, it made a horrid popping and cracking sound. Radiologist says it ain't broken but doctor thinks there's probably some tendon damage, hopefully not too severe.

I was considering going for a dig this weekend, won't be happening now nor for about a month at least. I need to rest it so hopefully it recovers enough for me to dig up at Mount Gibson in about 4 weeks.

Could have been worse I guess - had the thing fallen further it could easily have broken my leg.

But I console myself with the fact that I have discovered that I can still facet, will probably go through a bit of material over the next month while I can't dig.

 

[silver]

Make sure that resting that arm is what is your primary concern though lefty,... you want it to heal properly foremost(above all else),.. felt that happen when I read your post,.. argghhh.

 

[Bundy Ben]

That's no good at all Lefty. Here's hoping you heal fast & get back out there soon. If you need a hand to do anything at all just yell mate.

 

[ktmman]

That really sucks Jason, hope your a quick healer.
My brother has our stash of garnets.
I need to go through it and get some nice ones to send up to you so you are not too bored.

 

[Lefty]

Cheers guys. It does suck a bit - it's only when one arm goes out of commission that you realize just how many things we use two hands for. Just dropped the bottle of coffee in the sink full of water, trying to make myself a cuppa one-handed Lucky there's a spare in the pantry.

I'll try to send that little stone down Wednesday Richard - I have a few that I'm sending off including one to the US and I want to post them all together and send everyone their stone via registered mail so you'll have to go into you local PO with your drivers license or some other ID. I'd be worried that they might get pinched if they were just sent straight to a letterbox on the street.

One of them is going to my mate in South Australia who comes up here each year to go to Rubyvale with us. You can find amethyst in most countries in the world of course but this one is a little piece of central Queensland - a Lowmead amethyst is about to make it as far as Adelaide This one has colour zoning which I think makes it look interesting. Very light, almost colourless on one side shading through to a deeper purple on the other (though it's not as dramatic veiwed through the table as I was hoping).

I've faceted four bits of Lowmead amethyst so far and each one is different from the others - yours is a pale mauve, another is the colour-zoned one, a third is a bright mid-purple and the fourth is a smokeyish purple with dark rose tints. They all look good and all polished up to a nice, brilliant finish. The stuff from our only local fossicking area really does facet nicely and there are other shades I haven't faceted yet, including different shades of smokey. I would really love to find a facetable bit of citrine in that intense orange colour!

 

[ktmman]

Don't forget to get some pic's of all your hard work before you send them away.
I'll keep looking for a nice orange stone for you to cut, there has to be one in there somewhere.

 

[Lefty]

Getting decent picture can often be challenging! I just finished that piece of unknown material from Hartz range in the square "Lighthouse" and it's a pearler! On any background darker than it, the stone does not look colourless but brilliant silver. I reckon that some of the paler-coloured Lowmead stones would look fantastic done in that style. Would look great as a matched pair of earrings and I think that's what the bloke designed the cut for.

But I've just tried to take a photo from every angle and in every combination of sunlight, shade, incandescent and fluroescent light and the camera simply refuses to see it even remotely as the eye sees it - it just sees an unremarkable square piece of glass. Not much point posting a photo of that one. Some pics do come out really well but a lot of the time the camera just can't seem to show the stone as it really is.

 

[ktmman]

Oh well, next time we are both at Lowmead maybe you can bring your treasures down so we can take a look.

 

[Lefty]

Arm is sore but seems to be recovering pretty quick - looks like it might have been just badly strained. I probably shouldn't do it but I'm getting digging withdrawl If arm isn't too bad on Friday I might head down to Lowmead on Saturday. Digging through sand isn't hard but if it starts to hurt I'll stop.

Just finished off a bit of light amethyst in a Lighthouse cut - but I don't reckon the style does it justice. The cut seems fantastic for colourless material that finishes in a stone 10mm or bigger, giving it a brilliant silver appearence but I think that even the very light-coloured amethyst seems to look better in a brilliant cut. I think it might be that the greater depth of the brilliant cut vs lighthouse enhances even very light colour at least a little bit while the shallow lighthouse doesn't do that.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Good to hear Lefty... But take it easy.
I have ro work till 1 next Saturday or else I would join you.
Spent 10 hours today checking out accessibility to the 3 thunder egg deposits of watalgan & Waterloo. Nailed down only one. Then we poked off NW & checked out some old gold prospects up diamond hill rd. Spent all arvo scrub walking the native dog mines, lot bigger area than what I expected. Found some interesting pieces on the mullock heaps but needs another day or 2 ro check it all out properly.

This is some form of conglomerate that is made up of Quartz crystals, some nearly clear but just not quite.

 

[k man]

Not sure if that's conglomerate or a bit of a decomposing reef.?my guess would be of the latter but hard to tell without seeing where it came from.I would crush it up and see how many Goody's end up in the corner of your pan when u pan it out.either way that's a real promising sign what your holding there in your hand.

 

[Bundy Ben]

Not sure if that's conglomerate or a bit of a decomposing reef.?my guess would be of the latter but hard to tell without seeing where it came from.I would crush it up and see how many Goody's end up in the corner of your pan when u pan it out.either way that's a real promising sign what your holding there in your hand.

Your probably right k man,
It was fairly tough the break and it seemed to be the common ore amongst some solid Quartz veins. The area recovered no...or very little gold, copper or silver, from memory it was mine for molybdenum & tungsten. This was our 1st reccy in there and I know within 5km there is supposed to a copper & zinc in opposite directions... Interesting area.