October 2009 New England fossicking trip

[andrewb]

Results from Torrington emerald mine on Saturday:


Billabong Blue on Sunday (two purchased bags as well as going through the main dirt.)


Throw sieve in action:



Good fun - I almost want to do it again this weekend

[Wwoofa]

Hi Andrew,
Great pics ! Did you wet seive at the Emerald Mine ?  Also, where are you using the throw seive and what are you looking for there ?
Regards, Paul

[andrewb]

Hi Andrew,
Great pics ! Did you wet seive at the Emerald Mine ?  Also, where are you using the throw seive and what are you looking for there ?
Regards, Paul

Hi, yes, we brought 70L with us to the mine which was enough for 3 water changes in our smallish washing container although we did a fair amount of specking and found a bunch of small stuff on the opposite side of the main heap from the mine entrance... closeish to the road. The throw sieve pics were taken at Billabong Blue, going through the reclaimed pile away from the main pile. It has two grades of mesh, 12mm and 6.5mm so I didn't want to use it on the main pile everyone was using.. you'd lose all the small stuff and go through it about 10 times faster than everyone else... ie find the 3-4 decent sized chunks in the pile and leave half the pile for the other 10 people . The 12mm+ bucket is tipped over in one of the pics, I didn't care about that, only getting the 5.8mm-12mm stuff to go through to the other bucket... Didn't get to put much through it though because it started storming and we decided to leave on a high note by going through the $20 bags before we went, so I only got two large sieves worth and didn't find anything (wouldn't expect to be finding many top sieve sapphires in ten minutes). Great just shovelling it on and letting gravity do the work.. basically sorting it as fast as you can shovel.. need to tweak it though.. the rails that guide the stuff into the buckets need to be on a greater angle so there was less build up.

[mehoose]

I was at Billabong Blue on Sunday and an ALFer turned up around 1pm and said they went to Tingha as per the plan but the gates were locked.

Oh WHAT!!! Hope someone jumped the fence and banged on their door.  Will have to wait till everyone gets back to see if anyone got in. I promise when I rang they were expectin  a bunch of you, even to the extent of being told the Sunday's price.
On a brighter note, you got yourself a nice bunch of pretties. 

[soccermum]

It was great to meet some ALF'ers over last week. We are safely home now and keep looking at our treasures from the trip!

Thanks especially goes to Andrew and Leah for all their work in organising the Inaugural dinner - it was a delicious meal and your generosity was amazing. I loved hearing people's stories and marvelled how a bunch of people who have no other connection (other than a hobby) can come together and gel so well.
Andrew and Leah, you said the forum wouldn't exist if it wasn't for us but it was your idea and impetus that got it going. Thank you for making us all so welcome and for all the work you do in managing the fourm. You are very special people. It is a great thing to be a part of. We are looking forward to planning our next trip to Glen Innes and popping in to see the mine...sorry we missed it on Monday.

We had a ball fossicking and coming up with some goodies...we(hubbie and 2 kids) came home with a nice little stash of jellybean crystals from Stannifer...didn't manage to catch any scorpians Jonothan...phew! We then moved on to Tinga Sands for the afternoon. I had rung on Thursday to see if the shaker was working on the Friday and they said yes but when we turned up it wasn't working and they said it wouldn't be working again till Monday...the man kindly let us dig around in the waste pile and we came home with some beautiful crystals...I'll photograph the big one and put it on the forum soon. We had a nice little collection of smokey and clear. Spent an hour or two digging to the bottom of the pile!

Went to Billabong Blue on Sat and got some decent (we were happy with them, may not be super valuable ) sapphires and lots of small stuff. We bought two bags to take home as well. Wondering if anyone had any luck at Seven Oaks? We bought a bag from there but came up with absolutely nothing. Met a lovely man there who taught us how to centre the dirt which made life so much easier! Really enjoyed the dinner with all of you on Sat night.

Sunday took us to Emmaville - spent quite some time chatting with Ron who works in the museum and is a fountain of knowledge. He had so many interesting stories. We then found some petrified wood and then headed up tp Torrington. IT had turned rainy by the time we got there and the mist was setting in so looking for emeralds was particularly hard. Tried some sifting and specking...my son was elated as he only wanted to take one thing home from our trip and that was an emerald..he found one just lying on a dump seconds after we got out of the car. Mission accomplished. We found a few other bits around but when it hit 5 degrees we headed back to the caravan park.

Can't wait to do it all again! Thanks for the stories and the memories. We had a ball at Lightning Ridge as well but I think the only way you'll find some decent stuff out there would be to get to know some one who will let you go down their mine. We are contemplating a trip to White Cliffs one day.

[mehoose]

What a great family hol that was soccermum. Congrats to your son for finding green. 

[dom105]

Congrats soccermum.
I told Lesley that we had probably parked the car over some nice specimens. It's always good to gop after or during rain as it tends to wash the dirt off everything. Lesley found a couple of small bits and she was happy.
Claude