Big Blue.

Smoogle · Aug 20, 2011

Just over 31cts, not gem quality

but displays the most beautiful zones of pattern / colour and has a great crystal shape). Found this a while back from the New England Gem fields in NSW. Although it is far from my most valuable finds ...it is by far my favourite.

Eu_citzen · Aug 22, 2011

Might be Sapphire?

Smoogle · Aug 23, 2011

Yes it is a sapphire - or some would say it's cabachon grade corundum. Either way I posted it because it is large for the fields it was found in, I like it and thought some may find it interesting.

mamabear · Aug 24, 2011

are you going to cab it, or leave it raw? I prefer raw myself, but I bet the blue would really come out in a cab. nice find

Smoogle · Aug 26, 2011

I'm going to keep it as a rough - the size combined with colour and natural crystal shape make it special as is ... it may interest people to know that much of Australia's best VVS material is sold to the Thai's who relabel it as being from Ceylon or Burma and then sell it to the rest of the world. I may be bias but I believe we have stones equal to the best in the world here.... check out the website www.aussiesapphire.com.au they have ceased production because the cost of running the mine is way more than current market returns on stones that are rarer than diamonds :dontknow:

mamabear · Aug 26, 2011

I would prefer saphires or emeralds to diamonds any day! but give me an uncut stone, & I'm a happy girl. glad you are leaving yours as is. thanx for the link, I really didn't know Australia had saphires. of course I think of opals from Aussie. the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Eu_citzen · Aug 27, 2011

Oh, Australia is quite well known for Sapphire - often greenish-blue which where in trend a couple of years ago. :thumbsup:

But basically all Australian sapphire is heat treated to get any gem quality.

Smoogle · Aug 31, 2011

Eu_citzen said:
Oh, Australia is quite well known for Sapphire - often greenish-blue which where in trend a couple of years ago.
But basically all Australian sapphire is heat treated to get any gem quality.

Australian fields due produce absolute vvs++ stones and they are few compared to the massive amount of material sent to the Thai's who heat treat + add other colur changing nasties.
The greenish blues are from the Central QLD fields mostly, the NSW fields produce rich blues - occasionally up there with the best in the world. :icon_thumright:

Eu_citzen · Aug 31, 2011

Well the Thai's get stones to treat from many places.

Oh, not only colour changing stuff (beryllium), they are known for glass treating ruby (i.e filling fissures etc with glass), flux treating ruby (healing fissures with flux i.e. borax) and other stuff to. >:(

If your unlucky the ruby content is only 10%, the rest is glass.

I personally have a weakness for the Indian sapphires - Kashmir Sapphire, some of the cleanest blue I've seen.
It's sad when you realize your taste is rather expensive. lol

I haven't seen so many of the Australian blues, but those I've seen often tend to be very saturated - sometimes almost to much.
I think that can be changed with a simple heat treatment though.