"Hi Everyone! My name is Riley, aka u/The_Behaviour. I stumbled across this sub a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with it. I am an Australian gem lover and fossicker selling some rough and specimens on instagram when I am not hoarding it all! The aim is to possibly have a rough of the month sale with a percentage of the sale going back into the sub so the amazing mod team can keep supplying us with giveaways! Hopefully over the coming months we will get to see a few more Aussie stones within the sub and see what our amazing lapidaries come up with!
Today u/earlysong thought it would be a good idea to share a little bit more about my fossicking and some more information on some Australian stones. In Australia, we are fortunate enough to have a wide range of different stones available to fossick including sapphires (my favourite), emeralds, aquamarine, topaz, amethyst, garnets and quartz just to name a few. Because a lot of you have just ridden the amazing wave of fossicking for sapphires in your wash bags I won’t touch on that today, but thought we could have a look at topaz and quartz/ amethyst! (and emerald if you’re in the NSW area).
If you’re looking at fossicking for topaz you will use a lot of the same methods as if you were fossicking for sapphires. Depending on your location you may need to dry or wet sieve to yield the best results! For instance, I try to fossick after a lot of rain has come through this washes the topaz towards the creek/river and downstream allowing it to be more concentrated. Additionally, it is best to dig for your wash in creek bends or close to large rocks shifting them if possible as the topaz can become stuck in these areas giving you a better chance of finding some goodies. It is best to collect your material in a bucket and then pour it into your sieve. You are then able to use the same technique as previously mentioned in the sapphire thread before flipping your material out onto the ground (a potato sack is also very handy) and going through it! I have attached a picture of some wash I have flipped out on a previous trip! https://imgur.com/a/Qgr9zWq
From here you get to have the thrill of hopefully finding some stones! Remember to try and use a pair of tweezers so those pesky buggers don’t get away from you in the wash! Don’t get too disheartened if you don’t find anything on your first trip it takes some practice and research to nail down a good spot! I have also linked this website which has some great information. http://gemfossicking.com.au/topaz_info.html
Next up is quartz/Amethyst! This one might be more for the collector but I think any rock is a good rock to find! Quartz is one of the most common things to find but can come in some pretty cool shapes and sizes but it can also cut a nice stone! When searching for quartz it is best to ‘spec’ the area you’re interested in looking for possible crystals or signs there may be a vein nearby. If you do find crystals on the surface you’re then able to do a few test digs and dry sieve the material to see if you have any luck! Much like this https://imgur.com/a/urk5oN0 it is a bit of digging but if you’re finding stones then you won’t mind! When fossicking for quartz and amethyst you’re also able to look for possible signs of a vein this will take quite a bit of time and a lot of digging without success sometimes but if you do find one it will be your lucky day! When specing you’re hoping to find some sort of quartz crystals on top which may lead you to some sort of a pegmatite which can give you an indication of where to dig. When digging you need to keep your eyes peeled because it may not look like a lot at the start but can eventuate into a vein like this https://imgur.com/a/gD2P45o This is easily the biggest vein I have stumbled across and was extremely lucky. Here is a picture of what they looked like cleaned up! https://imgur.com/a/1wgpBPb
I tried to not write an essay for you all today and its important to remember fossicking isn’t an exact art but hopefully it gives you a bit of an idea of where to start. If you have any questions I will try my best to answer them in the comments! I look forward to seeing you all around the sub and in the discord chat.
Submitted November 21, 2019 at 01:25AM by earlysong https://ift.tt/37q6dxh
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