What would these guys have been searching for? Adelaide hills

[nuggetino]

The other day I was mountain biking in a forest reserve adjacent to an alluvial goldfield in the adelaide hills when I noticed two rugged looking blokes digging up a rise of a dry creek. From a distance I couldn't tell what they were looking for because they were clearly making an effort to remain obscure. Basically they'd built a wall around their workings with scrub and branches. I went along my way but returned another day and in their absence took a look at what they'd been doing. Looks like they'd been digging into a sandstone like loam. Quite extensive diggings of about a 4x4 meter area and aabout a meter deep. I could see thin line of crystal they'd been digging along. They had left behind a bunch of quartz crystal specimens on a tree stump. Some were very big clear quartz crystals 3 inches long and others were small bundles or crystal rock. Any idea what they were searcing for? Are there any gemstones around the jupiter creek, chapel hill area?

 

[ktmman]

I think you have answered both your questions,they were most likely looking for crystals, and as they found some,there are crystals in the area.

 

[Zorgs]

I've heard they can fetch some good money, I believe there was a disused quarry in the Adelaide Hills that was a good source as well.

 

[nuggetino]

I think you have answered both your questions,they were most likely looking for crystals, and as they found some,there are crystals in the area.

Thanks, there's crystals lying around everywhere on the surface so I assumed they didn't hold any value. I'll have to do some googling on crystals and post up some pics here.

 

[LONEWOLF]

You won't make a fortune out of crystals and rocks unless you find something unique.... or Gold

Lonewolf.....

 

[kawman]

they would have only carried away the very best and left the rough stuff... have dig and see...

 

[nuggetino]

From my googling I read there's been diamonds found in the area but I think the specimens they left behind suggest that's not what they were digging for. I'll definitely have a looksee and share anything of interest

 

[Zorgs]

Be interested to hear what you found. Got a pic of the area, be keen to see the ground type they were digging through?

It's not gold, but large (as in a bag of cement!) pieces of quartz with some good clear crystals fetch over $1000.