Sights and fossicking around Rubyvale & Emerald Queensland Australia

<body bgcolor="#000000" text="#FFFFFF"> <p align="center"><font size="4">Frames must be enabled in your browser to properly view this page. When one goes inland to the center of Queensland, clouds become fewer and farther between. In August it is beginning to become hot in the afternoons. Emerald is a regional center of an area that is mainly agricultural. South of town is a nice lake where the locals escape to have a cool swim or boat or fish or even have a picnic. On the way out to the lake one passes vinyards and Mandrine groves. To the west of Emerald, the world famous sapphire mining area is located at Rubyvale. Ninty nine percent of the worlds sapphire is not gem grade but the Rubyvale field has produced some of the best. One of the best places we found to learn about sapphire mining was the Miners Heritage underground mine and display room. There is a large parking area for picnicing and fossicking from bags of rock you can buy there..to see how many sapphires you can find. Ken is very knowledgable about sapphires. He owns a mine across the road and when one tours the mine, a video is shown of Ken mining. Sapphires are mostly known as blue stones, but you will find that they are found in yellow and green also. Rubyvale sapphire was used by one to carve the likeness of U.S. Presidents. I felt the weight of the rock chipping tool..it was heavy. I can imagine the sweat and tears of mining all day without finding a good sapphire. If you buy a bag of dirt from Ken, they have an area where you can sift it and sort it. If you don't know a sapphire from a leaverite, ask Ken. What is a leaverite? Ken says, "Leave 'er right there..Mate!"</font></p> <script type="text/javascript">  </script> <noscript> <img src="/cgi-bin/ax.cgi?trans.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="" /> </noscript>