Mining for sapphires in QLD
A day at the mine

Lou is in a new hole about 7 foot deep to the floor, we have had good stone from here, Lou is fairly excited as he is getting closer to an old tunnel dug before the flood cave in.

This area produced around 100-200 carats of sapphire per day for a couple of months and we were looking forward to getting back to this area eventually.

Now the dirt is looking very good, heavy black broken ironstone with white bits of clay and green rocks. The old timers say you are on the sapphire when your wash has salt pepper and chives – the black broken ironstone - white ash / clay - green floor/arsenic rocks (don’t put these in your mouth).

So Lou has been jack hammering this morning to loosen the dirt, he shovels it into buckets and then winches them to the surface.

Since we are working away from the machine and open cutting this hole, it is easier to winch to the surface. The buckets are lined up, ready to be put through the machine.

Read the entire day at the mine article.
Where to look for sapphires