What could this be?

[Smallbird]

Hi folks, I've been getting into the gem fossicking lately and plan on joining the local lapidary club soon as I can. In the mean time I've been keeping anything that grabs my eye and sometimes things that don't haha. I figured I'd do this for the purpose of learning. And recently I found a small stone that I thought I'd keep because it looked like a spinel and I was pretty sure I hadn't seen those yet except for on Liz's videos but then later that evening it caught the light and showed a small section that refracted like pictures of black sapphire that I've seen. Does anyone out there have some thoughts on what this could be?

Cheers all
SB

 

[Smallbird]

 

[Colin&Lee]

Welcome aboard SB,

Could be a Spinel or a Sapphire, have you put a torch light under it, to see if it's blue or green? also mate what area roughly did you find it?

Cheers

Col

 

[Smallbird]

Hi Col, it didn't seem to have any real clarity to it, just that one little section has clarity and refracts nicely as you can see. Unfortunately the pic won't show it but it has lines through it similar to a star sapphire. Also I found it up near Barrington so it is sapphire country.
Any other thoughts are welcomed

Cheers
SB

 

[Kingsolomon]

Looks like spinel to me... Too rounded / worn me thinks to be sapphire ....plus no light through it . A sapphire on white paper should show some colour ... At least...

 

[Smallbird]

Aaah! Very good! I sure didn't see many black rocks of any sort. There were however a lot of interesting coloured stones. I found it in a gravel bed but it was an area with a lot of surrounding bed rock. Think I'm going to have to invest in a proper set of sieves cause it's just taking too dam long to move any real volume of gravel! ...playing for the love of the game and to win hahaha

Cheers Kingsolomon

Smallbird