SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS AT BACK PLAIN NEAR GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS AT BACK PLAIN 

NEAR GLEN INNES NSW AUSTRALIA

Before you read this blog, I recommend that you read my blog entry “The Red Rock Sapphire Deposit” (here). It deals with gemstone deposits in the same general area as I am covering here.

A good starting point in understanding the sapphire deposits at Back Plain (not Back Plains, by the way) is the map at the back of “Records of the Geological Survey of NSW, 14 Part 1 (1971)”, DIGS reference R00050764. If you haven’t downloaded this document yet, you should do so. The map shows only that Wellingrove Creek (left) and the Wellingrove Fossicking Area (on the letters Pgw)) are sources of sapphire. Both are marked in green. The reddish area near the centre of the map (marked Ts) is apparently an area of Tertiary sediments associated with the basalt.

The next map is extracted from the “Quarterly Notes of the Geological Survey of NSW 103, April 1997” (page 13). The DIGS Reference is R00040935. My extract from the map shows the following sapphire bearing areas of interest to us here: Back Plain Creek in the centre, with a tributary to the west of it and the creek flowing down from the Wellingrove Fossicking Area into Wellingrove Creek.

The third map has been extracted from the Grafton-Maclean Metallogenic Map (DIGS reference R00056102).  To help you align it with the other maps, the Wellingrove Fossicking Area is approximately in the centre, shown as 1835. 1836 is identified in the accompanying notes as Pablos Mine and 1837 as the Back Plain Creek deposit, elsewhere called the Truro Mine. We can distinguish two types of sapphire deposits on this map. Firstly, the close cross hatched areas (Wellingrove Creek, the stream draining the Wellingrove Fossicking Area and Back Plain Creek, not named on the map) which are regular alluvial deposits, and secondly, the broad hatched areas (one around Pablos Mine and the other near the top of the map adjoining an area of Tertiary basalt labelled Tb. These are locations where spinel, sapphire and zircon are to be found in the soil, possibly derived from tuffaceous sediments intercalated with the earliest basalt flows. The Red Rock deposit (see above) is like that and the Wellingrove Fossicking Area deposit could be a contemporaneous alluvial concentration derived from such sediments.

There isn’t much information available about these deposits, except for one (Truro) and even that isn’t clear

Ruwenzorie Road turnoff (on right)

cut. Starting from the north, we have a site which has at least the potential to produce some gems. This is the area shown in broad hatching along Ruwenzorie Road, which branches off to the right (north) from the Strathbogie Road. This is before you come to the back road from Wellingrove (Polhill Road). This road crosses Back Plain Creek after 2.5km at a place where there are some rocky outcrops. I only went there once and found some colour easily enough (without getting wet or covered with leaches). It’s certainly worth a try, if it’s still accessible. Then there is the possibility of gems in the soil on the road side. You could try dry sieving and then take the concentrate to Back Plain Creek to see what’s in it.

Pablos Mine location (from Mindat)

Pablos Mine appears to be on a tributary of Back Plain Creek south of the Wellingrove Fossicking Area. All I can find from the metallogenic notes is that it was worked by Pablos Mining (1970-73) by shallow pits or scrapings. It’s described as a “modern placer (fluvial)”.

The problem starts with the Back Plain Mine. The metallogenic notes contain quite a bit of information – worked by SC Burgis (1971), Pablos Mining (1970-73) and Nunan Pty Ltd circa 1990. “This deposit comprises high grade sapphires and abundant zircon. The headwaters of the creek drain from a red soil 

Back Plain Mine location (from Mindat)

plateau where the deposits were quite rich. The abundant zircon contrasts strongly with Reddestone Creek immediately to the east where zircon is relatively minor. Alluvial placer”. The difficulty arises when you look at the Mindat information for the Back Plain Mine (here). It is clearly identified as the Back Plain Mine (Truro). This would be fine, except that we have a lot of information about the Truro Mine from the NSW Department of Minerals and Energy publication Minfo 27 (1990) which deals with the opening of the mine belonging to TJ and PV Nunan Pty Ltd. You can download the document from DIGS, reference number R00040997. The included map shows that the mine was on the right hand 

Truro Mine location (from Minfo 27)

side of the Strathbogie Road, past the Wellingrove turnoff. This is several kilometres from the indicated site of the Back Plain Mine. Perhaps the wash from the Back Plain Mine was trucked to Truro Mine for treatment. That there was a mine near Truro homestead is beyond doubt. You could see the activity from the Strathbogie Road, but when it closed down I can’t say.

My thanks go to the NSW Geological Survey, Mindat and Google Maps for information and illustrations used in this blog. Without these it would be difficult to make sense of this interesting area.

To explore the satellite images better, I suggest a Google search for "Mindat Pablos Mine NSW" and "Mindat Back Plain Mine NSW". You can then follow the "Maps" link, "Maps Pages" and select "satellite"to get to the images shown above.

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Shoalhaven District Geology.

SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS NEAR EBOR, NSW AUSTRALIA

SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS NEAR EBOR, NSW AUSTRALIA

Ebor is a small settlement on the eastern side of the New England Tableland. Its best known attractions are the Ebor Falls, where the river drops over a series of basalt flows, Cathedral Rocks National Park, Point Lookout (one of the most expansive views in Australia) and the Dutton Trout Hatchery, which you pass on the way to Point Lookout. Round Mountain is not only the highest point in New England, but you would have to travel several thousand kilometres northwards to find higher ground (Mt Bartle Frere, south of Cairns in north Queensland, in fact).

The sapphire deposits are located in places not far from the basalt margin (especially the outlying basalt on Round Mountain) and I would not be surprised if more remain to be discovered. The map adjoining is taken from “Records of the Geological Survey of NSW, 14 part 1” (1971). This includes an important article on Sapphires in the New England District. Ebor is on the extreme right of the included map. The DIGS reference is R00050764. The creeks highlighted in green are those known at the time to be gem bearing.

Apart from this map (which led me to check out the place) there are few other sources of information. There are several in the Dorrigo/Coffs Harbour Metallogenic Data notes and one in particular I found when searching DIGS – “V. Evans' Snowy Creek Sapphire Prospecting parish Rigney county Clarke, Ebor area” (DIGS reference R00039966).

Now, before you go rushing off in the hope of finding your fortune, take note of the fact that the areas mentioned are now in the Cathedral Rocks National Park where fossicking is not allowed. A reference about the park ( here) indicates the park boundaries and also that the remains of the sapphire prospecting are regarded as historic relics.

My own visits to the area included (a) Biscuit Creek at the top right of the map above (zero finds) (b) Native Dog Creek (black sand, probably ilmenite) (c) Boundary Creek, also top right of map

(black sand) and (d) Snowy Creek (the area highlighted in green on the map) (abundant black spinel).

This is a summary of the five areas indicated as gem bearing in the Metallogenic Mine Data (full title Metallogenic Study and Mineral Deposit Data Sheets Dorrigo - Coffs Harbour 1:250 000 Metallogenic Map (SH/5610, SH/5611) (explanatory notes)) The DIGS reference is R00037128.

Snowy Creek: described as a placer deposit carrying sapphire and topaz. “There is evidence of small-scale mining and fossicking activity along Snowy Creek upstream from its crossing by the Ebor-Guyra road. Position approximate. Not visited in the field."

Snowy Creek West: described as a sapphire alluvial placer.

Biscuit Creek: described as a placer deposit carrying sapphire and cassiterite, worked by dredging and/or sluicing.

Yooroonah (presumably near or in the Oaky River, south of the National Park): sapphire placer deposit worked by dredging and/or sluicing.

Oaky River, locality Yooroonah: sapphire and cassiterite placer worked by dredging and/or sluicing and by shallow pits.

This information is derived from the various reports concerning V Evans’ prospecting areas.

During 1978/79 attempts were made to have portion of Snowy Creek set apart as a fossicking area. Presumably this was in or near the land being prospected by Mr Evans. The land was subsequently incorporated in Cathedral Rocks National Park. Mr Evans prospected on both Biscuit Creek and Snowy Creek but no payable ground appears to have been located. The proposed fossicking area would have been on Snowy Creek.

The location of the various areas mentioned may be found on the map below, extracted from the Dorrigo/Coffs Harbour metallogenic map. It may take a little searching, but they are there!

418 – Biscuit Creek, 419 – Snowy Creek West, 422 - Snowy Creek, 667 and 669 – Oaky River/Yooroonah.

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Shoalhaven District Geology.

SCREW TIN – EMMAVILLE’S UNIQUE CASSITERITE FOSSILS

SCREW TIN – EMMAVILLE’S UNIQUE 

CASSITERITE FOSSILS

 

From the Mindat Entry on Doctor's Gully Emmaville

Marine fossils have been found in many places in NSW, of course – even in some of the ancient sedimentary rocks near Emmaville – but what makes the fossils described here unique is the fact that they are preserved in cassiterite (SnO₂). Generally speaking, most marine fossils are preserved as calcite or quartz or simply as impressions in what was once soft mud or sand. To the best of my knowledge, Emmaville is the only location where the replacing mineral is cassiterite.

This is a piece of information I’ve known about for many years, but I have no specimens of my own; however I have  found a photograph in the Mindat entry on Doctor’s Gully at Emmaville (here). There may be specimens in the Emmaville Mining Museum (there ought to be) and there probably are in museum and university collections elsewhere, but I don’t have access to these. From the photograph and the reports listed below you will see that the fossils are of two main types.

The first (the so-called screws) are segments of the stems of marine animals called crinoids. These are plentiful in sedimentary rocks ranging from the Silurian to the Permian period and are usually preserved in calcite . Crinoids resemble sea urchins and starfish; however they are attached to the sea floor by long stems made up of individual plates or ossicles. When seen from the edge, sections of these stems do resemble the thread of a screw or bolt, except that a little observation shows that that are not spirals, merely stacked discs. The miners who gave them their name probably weren’t fooled, but similar fossils in rocks have given rise to silly stories about ancient machines being found embedded in solid rock. 

The second type of fossil is of a small gastropod (snail) of a species commonly found in Permian sediments. Similar fossils (preserved in calcite) are common in Shoalhaven Group sediments at Gerroa on the south coast of NSW. Thus we have references to “screw tin” and “snail tin”. Here is a quote from the Wingham Chronicle and Manning Observer (Friday 9^th April 1937, page 1):

“Queerly shaped specimens which Emmaville miners have been finding in their claims, and which they have been calling "screw tin," and "snail tin" from the shape of the crystals, have been identified by Mr. T. Hodge-Smith, mineralogist at the Australian Museum as sea lilies and gastropods (star fish and sea snails) which countless thousands of years have turned into tin oxide. Such specimens have not been found anywhere else in the world, and prove that many thousands of years ago the sea swept over what is now the Tablelands.” Why this particular newspaper chose to report this information I can’t imagine. Did they issue a press release in 1937 after a field trip to investigate reports of cassiterite fossils being found near Emmaville?

The locality I’ve known about is Doctor’s Gully, an alluvial tin area near the Emmaville Golf Course (Gulf Road). However, it turns out that several other places nearby have also produced these fossils and there might have been others. It was just plain tin to the miners and worth money as such, so into the bags went beautiful specimens any of us would be proud to own. From the maps you can see that Doctor’s Gully has at least two tributaries gullies, called “Steele’s Gully” and “Charcoal Gully”. They are listed in the various reports as being 2km north of Emmaville. The Grafton-Maclean Mine Data sheets describe them as “fossil placers (fluvial)”. The Mine Data reference for all three is 1166. There is an additional reference (1266) to “Screw Tin Gully”, 3km north of Emmaville, described as “modern placer (fluvial)”. I can find no further reference to Screw Tin Gully but it is apparently in the same general area as the others.

Don’t imagine that you can just turn up at Emmaville and expect to find examples of these very special fossils. Read Jim Sharpe’s account of his experience in the Newsletter of the Mineralogical Society of NSW for November 2013 (here). Finally, a scholarly report on these fossils appeared in the Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of NSW for 1952. The article, by LJ Lawrence, may be downloaded here. It’s nearly at the end of the document and no plates have been reproduced. Note to the Royal Society: it’s time to make your records freely available in modern PDF format!

From Rasmus 1972. Check DIGS for the original

From the Grafton-Maclean Mine Data records

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Shoalhaven District Geology.

SURFACE HILL GEM DEPOSIT GULF ROAD EMMAVILLE

SURFACE HILL GEM DEPOSIT GULF ROAD EMMAVILLE

Location of Surface Hill with the basalt outliers marked

 How often have you wished you were around in the “good old days”? It must have been easy to pick up gemstones then. Maybe.

“Australian and New Zealand Gemstones” (1972) by Bill Myatt has this statement on page 298 in a section about Emmaville. “The Gulf Road is not good in rainy weather, as it crosses four creeks; the crossings, however, are all cemented. Sixteen miles out, Bill Frappell’s Topaz Farm is on the left, where camping and fossicking is allowed on payment of a fee, the money going to charity.” I don’t know when this arrangement ceased, but I would guess more than 30 years ago.

The place we are talking about is correctly called Surface Hill. If you’re searching for information, don’t get confused with the many other Surface Hills around, especially the one on the Timbarra goldfield near Tenterfield. The name refers to the fact that the alluvial wash there was on the surface of the ground rather than in a creek bed or its banks. The place is about 2 km south of the Gulf Road, between Flagstone and Little Flagstone Creeks. Both Minerama and Emmaville Gemfest have conducted field trips there. The last I knew, it was part of the property called “Willow Creek”, where James and Kerry West conducted their business “The Fruit Salad Tree Company” (multi-grafted fruit trees). I believe the property has recently been sold.

Naturally, the old time miners were not interested in topaz. They were after tin (cassiterite) which was eagerly sought all over the Emmaville and Torrington districts from 1872. The cassiterite originated in fluids associated with the nearby crystallising granite. There are literally thousands of veins, dykes and impregnations which formed from the early Triassic Mole Granite. Some are within the granite itself, others are in the adjacent intruded rocks, such as those at Webb’s Silver Mine. At the Emmaville Emerald Mine, the pegmatite dykes can be traced from the intruded rocks into the granite itself.

From TWE David. Basalt outliers marked

The story at Surface Hill is entirely different. Here the cassiterite is found as waterworn grains in an old stream deposit. Let me quote TWE David (from his 1887 report on the Vegetable Creek Tin-Mining Field, DIGS reference R00031676, page 45): “The Tertiary gravels at Surface Hill form three outliers. At Surface Hill a flat-topped ridge of claystone is capped by a bare oval patch of tertiary gravel. The deposit has an extent of 1 acre and a thickness of 1 to 2 feet. The pebbles of which it is composed are principally quartz, from 1 to 6 inches in diameter, and as smooth as eggs. A great deal of tourmaline, as well as topazes, beryls, emeralds, and stream tin (alluvial cassiterite ed), are mixed through these gravels, which from their higher position appear to be older than the similar gravels underlying  two neighbouring outliers of basalt. In its lithological character, and in its stratigraphical relation to the “deep leads” this small outlier of gravel closely resembles the tertiary pebble beds at Cope Hardinge, near Tingha. The importance of these outliers rests not so much on the minerals contained in them, though that has been considerable, as on what they teach of the former wide distribution of stream tin deposits in early tertiary time. The gravels at Scrubby Gully and Surface Hill are over 6 miles distant from one another, the former being 3,360 feet above sea level, and the latter 2,460 feet; while those in the Ruby Hill outlier have an altitude of 1,885 feet, and are over 25 miles distant from Scrubby Gully.”

The mention of topaz, beryl and emerald should get any self-respecting fossicker’s heart racing. I’ve been out to Surface Hill a few times and never failed to find topaz, though not the other minerals. I have no doubt that this is because of the similar specific gravity of beryl to quartz: We look for topaz in the sieve centre because it is dense but forget the less dense beryl among the quartz fragments. It is the same story at Blatherarm and Scrubby Gully. You won’t find alluvial beryl unless you are looking for it.

David has more to say on page 164. “Beryl occurs most frequently in small waterworn round or oval prisms from ½ to 1 ½ inch long and from 1/8 to ¼ inch thick. The localities where it is most abundant are Surface Hill and Kangaroo Flat. The majority of specimens are pale green, and many are colourless. The gems generally contain a number of minute cavities, which of course detract immensely from their value. Some specimens from Kangaroo Flat, which have been cut and polished, are valued at about £4, the cutting and polishing having cost about £3.”  

The only other major source of information on Surface Hill I’ve been able to locate is in the Grafton-Maclean Mine Data records (DIGS Reference R00056102). There are two listings: Surface Hill Northwest (GR1012) and Surface Hill (GR1039). The descriptor for both is “Sn, topaz – industrial fossil placer (fluvial)”.

The 1906 SMH report

Surface Hill Northwest pretty well matches TWE David’s description; there is both a surface deposit and a deep lead under a small basalt cap. A large race carried water to work the gravel which is dated to A Bouveret in 1883. NOTE. The two dams on the creek running south and the existing water race from the creek could date from E Sturtridge’s work in 1906, which is not mentioned. See the Sydney Morning Herald note for 30^th June 1906 (here).

Surface Hill proper is a deep lead deposit with workings dating from 1878. To quote: “Numerous shafts and pits on side of hill. Wash around shafts has rounded white pebbles of quartz. Has known association with blue topaz and alluvial cassiterite.”

What would you see if you were able to get permission to go out there? Firstly, I suggest that you follow the water race from the creek and see where it goes. This is Surface Hill Northwest. All the topaz and beryl would have been discarded where the gravel was washed. The area where the surface gravel was removed is where I picked up numerous piece of topaz in 2001 solely because of the glint of the sun from cleavage faces. Find where the deep lead was mined.

The track continuing around the hill without crossing the creek should go to the main Surface Hill deep lead workings. Once again, beryl and topaz should be in any discarded gravel piles or in the gully where water carried away the waste.

This link here will take you to the ALF thread on Surface Hill, from which I “lifted” Wwoofa’s photograph below.

Field Trip to Surface Hill. Photo "Wwoofa", Australian Lapidary Forum

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Shoalhaven District Geology.

SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS NEAR THE GWYDIR HIGHWAY EAST OF GLEN INNES

SAPPHIRE DEPOSITS NEAR THE GWYDIR HIGHWAY EAST OF GLEN INNES

Dirty Creek is in the centre of the map (from DIGS R00050764)

When I first moved to Glen Innes in 1988 I had with me a copy of the Records of the Geological Survey of NSW 14(1), which contains a valuable article titled “Sapphires in the New England District, New South Wales”. If you would like to download a copy, the DIGS reference is R00050764. The map at the end of the document is a useful tool for locating interesting fossicking spots. I need to point out, however, that, apart from Yarrow Creek, some of our best sites (eg Pretty Valley, Rainy Swamp, Back Creek and Frenchies Swamp Creek) are not indicated as sapphire bearing at all. The map in Mineral Industry 18 Gemstones 2^nd Edition (1980) DIGS reference R00050830, is based on the earlier one.

Dirty Creek 1652 Tarcoodie 1704 (from metallogenic map)

One place seemed to be remote from all the others and that is Dirty Creek, near the Glen Elgin road turnoff from the Gwydir Highway about 30km east of Glen Innes. See the map extracts for guidance, also Google Earth. I now know that there are gemstones to be found in many creeks in the Glen Elgin area but it isn’t an area I’ve looked at very closely. Dirty Creek is crossed by the Glen Elgin road immediately after the turnoff from the highway. After a few hundred metres, the creek joins the Rocky River almost at the highway bridge. The Rocky River is known as the Timbarra River further downstream.

Please note that anything I say about access may no longer be true. Under no circumstances should you enter private land without permission.

Stock reserve gate

There is some kind of stock reserve covering the lower parts of Dirty Creek. About 300 or so metres before the Glen Elgin turnoff there is a gate opening into the reserve on the northern side of the highway. The creek runs through swampy and sandy country and you wouldn’t expect to find much in it. All I ever turned up were a few very waterworn sapphire and zircon fragments as well as black spinel and tourmaline. These were more abundant downstream where there are granite outcrops. Upstream you come to the boundary fence. Note that the area shown on the Grafton-Maclean metallogenic map as being the site of mining activity is a km or so upstream. Dirty Creek is shown as deposit number 1652

I haven’t examined Dirty Creek between the Glen Elgin bridge and the junction with Rocky River, but there are many granite outcrops in this stretch so there could be some gemstone concentrations waiting there for those who don’t mind getting wet.

Rocky River reserve entrance

Immediately after the highway bridge there is a track on the northern side entering what appears to be another reserve, through which the river flows. A lot of fossicking has been done here because there is usually a good flow of water and there is a lot of gravel in the river and its banks. I’ve only washed a casual sieve or two, but they always contained some gem material. It’s my guess that this has come down Dirty Creek and into the Rocky as I could find nothing upstream of the Rocky River bridge, though the usual problems of swampy ground and access to the river make this statement difficult to confirm.

The third gem bearing spot in the area is Tarcoodie, which I have not been able to locate, though the mine data information suggests that quite a bit work was done on the deposit. It is shown as deposit number 1704 and ought to be on the southern side of the road in the vicinity of the prison farm (afforestation camp). Stay out of that area!

Extracts from Grafton-Maclean Metallogenic Data

GR1652 (YJ0011) G Dirty Creek OCC sapphire modern placer (fluvial)

NAME(S): Dirty Creek Recorder(s): K. Ringwood, 24/11/1995

LOCATION Map sheets: SH/56-6, 9338-IV-S Coordinates (MGAz56): 404206mE, 6721488mN Locality: 29 km ENE of Glen Innes

Location method: 25K topo map Co: Clive Ph: Lewis Por: 42, 43, 45

MINING HISTORY Workings: dredging or sluicing Extent (m): d: l: 2000 w:

Prods and period:

Exploration:

HOST ROCK(S): clastic sediment, alluvium, Quaternary

DEPOSIT CHARACTER Ore minerals: (sapphire) Alteration:

Gangue: Production: Resources:

Ore genesis: modern placer (fluvial) Relation to host: stratiform Orientation:

REMARKS:

REFERENCES: MacNevin (1972), MacNevin & Holmes (1980)

GR1704 (YJ0010) G Tarcoodie deposit OCC sapphire modern placer (fluvial)

NAME(S): Tarcoodie deposit Recorder(s): H F Henley, 7/2/1992 & 24/11/1995

LOCATION Map sheets: SH/56-6, 9338-IV-S Coordinates (MGAz56): 409405mE, 6720368mN Locality: 36 km E of Glen Innes

Location method: 25K topo map Co: Clive Ph: Mount Mitchell Por: 21, 22; PMA

MINING HISTORY Workings: dredging or sluicing Extent (m): d: l: w:

Prods and period: Gem Exploration (July 1971 - March 1972)

Exploration: G and J Gems P/L (1988-present)

HOST ROCK(S): felsic intrusive, granite, Quaternary sediments, alluvial plain, Quaternary

DEPOSIT CHARACTER Ore minerals: (sapphire) Alteration:

Gangue: Production: Resources:

Ore genesis: modern placer (fluvial) Relation to host: stratiform Orientation:

REMARKS: substantial conventional production plant type

REFERENCES: GS1990/226

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Shoalhaven District Geology.