THE OLD MINE LOCALITY YARROW CREEK
NEAR GLEN INNES NSW
This is an area on Yarrow Creek that we have visited
many times, both during Minerama (the annual Glen Innes gem and mineral show)
and on our regular Wednesday outings with the Baptist Church Fossicking Group.
The only evidence that there had been sapphire
mining there was a few ponds (the remains of settling dams for sediment) and a
mound where a trommel had evidently been set up. Just when this took place is
unknown. I’ve found nothing about the spot in DIGS (the NSW Geological Survey
document site) but I would guess it happened in the 1960’s when lots of small
mines were operating all over the Glen Innes and Inverell region.
Everything changed one Wednesday in 2008 when
dozens of cuttable pyrope garnets turned up in one hole near the old trommel
site. They were accompanied by similar sized black spinels and poorer quality
sapphires. This was at the beginning of winter, so a further search had to wait
until the following summer.
It was then that the first of several gem bonanzas
turned up. It became clear that the miners had dumped back into the creek all
the garnets and black spinels they had found along with the poorer grade
sapphires. They must have had a market for larger zircons because there were
few of these.
This led to a regular “feeding frenzy” on our outings and no boulders were left unturned in the search for more goodies. Since then a search further has revealed only a little spillover into the adjacent waterholes so I guess we found most of the miners’ waste.
Make sure you check out the videos on The Old Mine on my You Tube site. You will find them here and here.
First day finds - small zircons and garnets |
First day finds - some of the best |
The writer with some good wash |
The bonanza location |
Why not check
out my You Tube channel here where you can view gem hunting, mining and general geology videos.
https://johnsbluemountainsblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/links-to-all-blog-entries-and-relevant.html All Blue Mountains blogs and videos
All New England and other Geology blogs and videos
Limestone Caves of NSW
Song Studies. Bible studies based on hymns and songs
Shoalhaven District Geology.
Another good day's finds - January 2009 |
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