January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:03 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:29 pm
Posts: 214
I look forward to more of your collecting reports!

We hope to return to mine the amethyst veins of the Canadian Shield in NW Ontario early this summer.

Sadly, our crystals are well-protected by solid granite, none of this walking along and picking them up, or doing a bit of light shovel-work, lol.


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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 7:03 pm 
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Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm
Posts: 1131
Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Back to the river crossing yesterday, to discover that the floods have changed the spot - and not for the better as far as collecting goes. What was once all gravel banks has now been buried under about a metre of sand, meaning all of the larger sized gravel rocks where the larger bits of material lie are now buried. Some gravel was still exposed but it was covered in a fine layer of silt, making spotting things different from all the other rocks a bit difficult.

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Still, I picked up a few bits of material. There was heaps of petrified wood as usual but since I now have so much of that I didn't bother picking it up. The only exception was this piece of wood with agate-filled cavities and bands through it.

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This small piece of chalcedony probably has the colour right through and should make a nice small cab if it does.

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This larger piece probably does not. I suspect only a small bit on the end is coloured right through.

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A small agate nodule.

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Probably coloured right through but full of "dirty-looking" inclusions.

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A "woodcast" I guess. It has the exact same shape and grain impression as many of the smaller bits of pet wood lying around but is made entirely of chalcedony.

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It was a good day out anyway.


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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Wed May 10, 2017 8:29 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm
Posts: 576
Location: N Dakota
Always an interesting post Lefty, pictures and explanations. What a novel concept!

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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2017 4:04 pm 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Dan&Sally wrote:
Always an interesting post Lefty, pictures and explanations. What a novel concept!


Always happy to share experiences Dan :D


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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2017 4:05 pm 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Have you managed to get out collecting again since your last kayak trip down the river?


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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:10 am 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Finally hit a pocket with a few facetable crystals in it. Two are Rose-de-France with a slight smoky tint but the biggest one is a nice royal purple. Should facet a really nice stone.

Still not finding enough good material, will try to get on to the place next door - thousands of acres of granite outcrop and I believe there's even a small volcanic core there.


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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:10 pm 
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Left, I tried something different on this trip that surprised me with the results. I was in a gravel bench that was a result of washing along a cliff side. It was a prolific producer of almandine/pyrope garnet. I treated it the same as a river flow moving the large boulders that would trap heavies and looking in the trapped gravel. The results were good finding many thumbnail sized garnets. The kicker was I did it at night with a flashlight. The garnet jumped out of the gravels when the light hit it. Too easy!

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 Post subject: Re: Weekend fossicking
PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:21 pm 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Cool! Yeah, I guess much garnet has a pretty decent RI and so are very highly reflective. That's something I might try if we camp at that garnet spot overnight again. I know some people fossick the old mine dumps for opal at night using UV lights, the opal apparently fluoresces.

I'v also heard that the particular form of fire opal that comes from Western Australia was discovered at night as the guy sat by the campfire and noticed here and there on the ground were little objects brightly reflecting the campfire light.


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