Coolamon Mining Report, September 2006
Dear All,
We are very late with our end of June Report as we have been just too busy over the last two months to be able to take the time necessary to compress our frantic life into a few paragraphs. It has today become a "Spring Report" and, to mark the occasion, we have just had our first rain for a long time.
We are very pleased that some of the increase in the demands placed on us results from an apparent growing recognition of the value of genuine gemstones, in the face of the continuing flood of synthetic, chemically treated and radiation enhanced material. While a lot of cheap (and some not so cheap) adulterated or fake gemstones are still being sold to undiscerning buyers, a large and growing number of Australian jewellers are insisting on being able to guarantee the origin and authenticity of the gems they use in their creations, and are proud of the quality of the jewellery they produce.
It would also appear that, while there is some very good quality, genuine sapphire coming mostly out of African mines at apparently quite cheap prices, more and more buyers are becoming aware of the high quality of our Australian material and are specifying the use of Australian gems in their jewellery orders. However, we can not relax, as the great mass of public are still being subjected to jewellery advertising which is sometimes misleading and, at worst, downright deceptive.
Some of the increase in our workload also comes from our involvement in chrysoprase and zeolite, but I will deal with that later as they are both very interesting for very different reasons.
In the last few months, we have attended Gem Shows from Hobart to Cairns. The Australian Gemboree in Hobart was well attended, but turned out to be somewhat of a disaster for us as we both caught the most horrific colds, having picked the worst period of weather possible for our trip.
Life on the Gemfields
Despite the continuation of the very dry weather in Central Queensland, and the continuing high fuel prices, the hand miners and 'tourist miners' returned in large numbers this winter and most local businesses enjoyed a good season.
The decision by the Emerald Shire Council to no longer make the reticulated water available to hand mining claims has caused considerable angst and has made life difficult for many miners, especially during the current drought conditions There are now some 1,500 to 2,000 mining claims on these fields - and these hand miners do find a lot of good sapphire and zircon. It is these "small miners" who will become the sustaining factor for mining on the Gemfields for many years to come.
We have had a fairly constant stream of hand miners proudly bringing in their 'finds' for us to inspect and evaluate for them, and we are aware of a number of investors and serious jewellers who are only too willing to pay very good prices for these 'top of the range' gems, which can be certified to be genuine and natural - so we feel that the prospects for the future of the hand miners is quite good.
We are only too happy to help arrange a sale on behalf of the hand miner who makes an amazing find ( e.g. a recent 84 carat golden yellow ), or to seek out the rare stone for the investor or serious jeweller who has a client requiring something out of the ordinary.
Our annual Queensland Sapphire Producers Show and Sale, held during Gemfest week, was again a huge success and all participants have signed up again for next year - with the fervent hope that the season will break so that we can get back to mining.
One of the best features of the Gemfest week was the larger numbers of small miners and locals who added to the interest of visitors by setting up roadside stalls and operating their local businesses.
Larger machine mining operations here on the Gemfields remain almost at a complete standstill as there are very few dams with any water at all, and the option of using the precious underground supplies is not at all favoured when the local graziers and many householders need it for their survival. I fear that we will remember 2006 as the year in which we did not mine one metre of dirt for the whole year, so it is just as well that we stockpiled rough sapphire in the years when we could mine.
The John Broadfoot faceting courses, sponsored by the QSPA and the local Lions Club, continue to be a great success and the last one was so heavily booked that John had to bring in the Facetors Guild President, Peter Stringfellow, as an assisting tutor to cater for the numbers.
John's next course at the Lapidary Seminar in Allora next month, and the courses here on the Gemfields in November, are already booked out so it would appear that the cutting of Australian gemstones in Australia is being given its due promotion.
The weather here is just beginning to become a little hotter, and the exodus of the visiting southerners has already started. We just hope that the heat will bring with it some good rains over the whole of Central and Southern Queensland.
Australian National University Testing Service
Some of you may still not be aware of the service provided by Dr. Andy Christy of the Australian National University in Canberra. This allows for the testing of sapphires to identify those which have been chemically modified by beryllium treatment, as well as other gemstone identifications. I will set out his contact details below.
A number of people have told us that they have used these ANU tests to positively identify beryllium treatment of sapphire, which had not been disclosed to them at the time of purchase. This had enabled them not only to recover their costs from the seller, but also to avoid compounding the problem by the on-selling of the adulterated material themselves.
We recommend this ANU service, and hope that it may become more widely available through other institutions who have the very sophisticated equipment needed for the testing process.
Andy's Contact Details:-
Dr. Andrew Christy
Manager, Analytical Laboratories,
Department of Earth Sciences,
Australian National University,
CANBERRA. A.C.T. 0200.
Phone: 02.6125.0561 Fax: 02.6125.5544
E-Mail: Andrew.Christy@anu.edu.au
Jewellery World Show 2007
We have just received the first information about the Jewellery World Show to be held on 26 to 28 August 2007 at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern. The reasons given for holding this second major Jewellery Show in Sydney echo many of the concerns regularly expressed to us by concerned Australian manufacturing jewellers, and we wish the organisers every success with their venture to promote Australian jewellers, particularly those using guaranteed natural gemstones, preferably Australian, wherever possible.
While the timing is right in our busiest time of the year, we will make every effort to patronise this Show, as it promises to encompass many of the ideals in which we fervently believe.
Chrysoprase ("Australian Jade"?)
We are now the owners of the biggest solid chrysoprase boulders in the world, or at least I think that we can claim to be, as we have one solid chrysoprase boulder of 9 tons and one which is over 16 tons.
When Rod Beattie contacted us at the end of last year to ask us to assist in the mining of several leases that he and his partners in Candala Pty Ltd were acquiring at Marlborough, north of Rockhampton, we did not know what this would lead to.
Candala finally completed all the procedural mining and environmental requirements a couple of months ago, and we provided the manpower and equipment to do the test mining for them. However, in addition we contracted to purchase a large number of chrysoprase boulders "as-is, where-is". We have now completed our work for Candala, and have removed these large chrysoprase boulders.
While chrysoprase normally exists as veins of varying thickness and quality surrounded by the nickel rich rock of the ore body, every now and then Mother Nature does something completely amazing! These unique chrysoprase boulders were found to exist in a very localised formation in a small pocket on one of the leases - and, to the best of our knowledge, such large pieces have not been found anywhere else.
It was one hell of a job to get the boulders from the bottom of the ravine in which they formed, on Candala's southern lease, firstly to the top of the mountain to some flatter country where conventional equipment could gain access, and then to load them onto trucks for carting out to secure storage.
The boulders vary from a hundred kilograms or less, with a number being in excess of one tonne and the two largest ones each being an amazing 9 tonnes and 16 tonnes - and each one is a solid piece of chrysoprase, varying in quality from lower grade to excellent material. We have also loaned one boulder of almost 10 tonnes to the Livingstone Shire Council to use as a central promotion in a proposed tourist development at Marlborough.
When found, the surfaces of the boulders were covered by the adhesive red nickel ore, which covers everything and sticks like the proverbial, so it was very difficult to get any idea of their quality or of the amount of solid chrysoprase they contained. However, after many attempts with different ways of cleaning them, we have found that the 'Truck Wash' we use for pressure cleaning down our machines does a great job - and has assisted to expose the beautiful colour of the material underneath, without damaging the natural surface of the boulders.
The boulders vary from very pale greenish white through paler green to the deeper green more commonly associated with the jade colour - but the principal material is a lovely, translucent 'peppermint green'.
The Marlborough chrysoprase has a world-wide reputation for excellence and we have already had some beautiful cut material prepared from the smaller pieces. It really does look and feel like jade, so it is no wonder that it has been sold as such for many years. We are now getting a lot more of the material from the smaller pieces cut into both standard sizes and also custom jewellery pieces.
We plan to clean up the surface of the larger boulders and to keep them intact, as we believe that they are probably the largest solid chrysoprase boulders ever found - and will, in time, find a market to someone who wants to own the "biggest piece of 'jade' in the world"!! We believe that these largest boulders will have a very significant value to the right people, probably as major carving pieces, so we are in no hurry to sell them - and we believe that it would be 'criminal' to cut up such magnificent specimens just to recover the large amount of excellent material they contain.
I have photographs which can be e-mailed to anyone who is interested - but remember that we live in an area where our transmission speed is very slow, so it can take quite a while to send them.
Can any of you chrysoprase experts out there tell me if there are bigger solid boulders in existence - or can I rightfully claim them to be the biggest?
Pearls
When we were exhibiting at the recent Hervey Bay Gem Show, our good friends Stephen and Debbie Haigh were exhibiting next to us, and they were displaying the first batch of Hervey Bay pearls from the new venture in which they are heavily involved.
These pearls are very high quality Akoya type which grows naturally in the Hervey Bay area, and they included some very beautiful naturally coloured ones. Jenny just loves pearls, and you should have seen the glint in her eyes when she was 'playing' with containers full of pearls of such beautiful natural colours - including pale pinks, creams, silvers and even some lovely gold ones. It was hard to get her to concentrate on her own work and she spent a lot of time matching up the pearls in sets and then working out the appropriate sapphires to be set with them! She really had a ball!!
The Haighs are as insistent on the principles of honesty, integrity and authenticity as we are, and you can be sure that their product will be sold completely natural, with none of the colouring treatments often applied to pearls from other sources. If you would like to contact Stephen and Debbie, you can do so on their e-mail address: s.haigh@bigpond.net.au
We think that the combination will be a winner:- Guaranteed natural Australian pearls, with guaranteed natural Australian sapphires - and we can even use our local chrysoprase as well!
Zeolite
Now, this is a subject that has nothing to do with gemstones, but it has taken up a lot of our time in recent months and it could have a great effect on many lives.
Late last year we were asked to perform some mining on a zeolite deposit just west of our Gemfields. Being an industrial chemist and chemical engineer in my past life, I became very interested in finding out just exactly what this strange rock was.
I found out that zeolite, which occurs as a hard rock, when crushed has had enormous use in the agricultural, veterinary, animal husbandry and feedlot industries. Right at this very time, I am including it in the feed rations to some steers I am fattening in the feedlot on our Calliope cattle property.
However, in my 'research', I also found numerous references to European and American studies which gave accounts of its trials and its use for successful treatment of a whole range of medical problems, including cancers.
Most of us are at a stage in life where we have many friends who suffer from various forms of 'the big C', but when I raised this useage as a treatment for cancers and similar illnesses with the zeolite mine management, I was initially told quite bluntly that they could not discuss this as their approval was solely for animal and other non-human uses.
This response posed a rather serious moral dilemma to me in that, while I did not want to do anything to affect my relationships with a good client, if I had a knowledge of something that might possibly alleviate the suffering of many of our friends and acquaintances and I did not make it known to them, how could I live with myself if later on this knowledge was confirmed to be true?
There is no documented Australian proof of the efficacy of zeolite, and I have not been able to find any reference to any properly conducted medical trials here. However, the mass of anecdotal evidence of many people successfully treating a range of conditions, including cancers, is such that I believe that it is long past time that the Australian Health Authorities instigated proper trials with a view to making this material widely available for human use.
There is anecdotal evidence of the successful use of zeolite to treat or alleviate such diverse medical problems as many forms of cancers, heavy metal contamination, reduction of side effects of chemotherapy and radiation,.....even to treatment of behavioural problems in children.
This is no new 'wonder drug', but a simple, naturally occurring mineral which is found in many places all over the world. I understand that it has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine as there are apparently huge deposits of zeolite in China - and a lot of Chinese medicine was based on 'crushed rock'.
The ability of zeolite is related to its very high absorptive capacity and the fact that its huge network of porous galleries (even in the finely crushed material) retain a balanced negative charge which is available to bond with the "free radicals" put out by cancer cells or heavy metals which get into your system.
Please do not be fooled into thinking that I have any great knowledge on the subject. I am merely using my very ancient and very rusty analytical chemical skills to try to understand what is going on around me, and it will need full and proper investigation by trained medical researchers to flesh this all out - which probably means that this will not be done until it is too late to help many of my suffering friends.
Anyone seeking further information should visit the Brewer Science Library website at
http://www.mwt.net/~drbrewer/zeolite.htm
Probably the biggest drawback to getting pharmaceutical companies involved is that the material sells in bulk for around $ 1,000.00 per ton - so, at the dose rate suggested by Brewer of 12 to 16 grams per day, a years supply would cost about $ 5.00, which doesn't make it an attractive profit making proposition!
A commercially prepared liquid zeolite formulation is available overseas, but I understand that this has not yet been approved for sale in Australia. You can import it for your own use and you can contact either of the following interested local people to assist you in doing this:-
Joy Bayly joy.bayly@bigpond.com has an amazing story to tell of her own experience.
John McKenzie (Macca) ausorb@bigpond.com.au can give a lot of information on what zeolite is and what its uses are.Please note that neither of the above stands to profit in any way - they simply care about people.
I also understand that liquid zeolite is also available through Trish Williams of Mannatech in South Australia and she can be contacted at trish2000@bigpond.comThe Future
During a recent 2,500 kilometre weekend trip to Cairns and back to exhibit at their Gem Show, Jenny and I did a lot of talking about the future and how to carefully plan our exit from the industry in such a fashion as to protect the interests of our many clients and to ensure the continuance of everything we have worked for over the last two decades and more.
We have decided to make a concerted effort to sell the mining part of our sapphire operations over the next twelve months, to allow us to concentrate on the marketing/promotional side of our business - and to enter into an agreement with the prospective buyer/s to sell back to us a portion of the production to allow us to continue our service until the new buyer feels confident to start taking over that side of the business as well.
In setting out the conditions for sale, we will place more emphasis on the buyer's ability and commitment to serve the business we have built up and to look after our valued employees, rather than solely concentrating on maximising the sale price. We are determined to ensure that everything we have worked for does not collapse behind us.
While it would be very easy for us to just keep charging on with our business as though we will be here for ever, we must recognise our responsibilities to our clients. In doing so, we have to face the reality that, at our age, any sudden decline in health or ability could make it very difficult to continue our expanding operations in their present form.
I believe that the increasing popularity of coloured sapphire from the Central Queensland Gemfields, combined with the ability to produce large quantities of the magnificent blue material from the Lava Plains field, will make our mining operations an attractive proposition. We just need to find the buyer with an "Australian Made" label firmly attached to his heart as well as his cheque book!
We both plan to be around for a long time yet, and we are encouraged by the large number of our working friends and business associates who are ten years or more older than we are - but we feel that we must start to plan now, and give ourselves more time to "smell the roses"! Fishing sounds good too.............
Our next shows are at Allora on 16/17 September, Bundaberg on 14/15 October, Toowoomba on 28/29 October, Canberra on 4/5 November and Newcastle on 11/12 November, if you have the opportunity to catch up with us.
It will be Christmas before we communicate again - so, Best Wishes for the Season!!
Kind Regards from us both, and all at Coolamon Mining.Jim Elliot.
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