Coolamon Mining Report, Start 2006
Dear All,
It seems a very long time since my last report as there has been so much going on in our lives. We live in a world of seemingly endless change in all things - except, of course, the damned dry weather over most of the continent.
The Central Queensland Gemfields had sufficient rain over the summer months to bring up a body of grass, which has now dried off and is likely to pose a serious fire threat in the winter months. However, there was only very patchy heavy rain and, as a result, our mine dams are either very low or empty - thus preventing a start-up of mining operations once again!
Our cattle property at Calliope is in a belt of very badly droughted country and, like many others, we are forced to continue hand feeding our stock and are finding it continually harder to source any supplies of hay for this purpose.
On the other extreme, we have still not been able to commence mining this year at our Lava Plains operation in North Queensland - because it will not stop raining! Once you get north of a line roughly west from the Mackay - Bowen area, everything is green, the creeks have water in them and the cattle are fat. It is only eighteen months since we put a very expensive deep bore down at Lava Plains because it was so dry there, and it worked well - it has rained ever since!
1. The Gemfields.
The Gemfields is just awakening from its quiet time during the hotter months, and
there appears to be a steady stream of tourists and hand miners returning to the
area - which augurs well for the coming winter season.
By all the reports received, the local jewellers and tourist outlets enjoyed a good
season last year despite the dire predictions that people would not travel because of
the high fuel prices, and I expect that this year might even improve on the last one.
The Sunday markets are well patronised and there are a number of new stalls
among the familiar faces.
The very dry conditions will make life difficult for a lot of miners, especially as the
Emerald Shire Council has not relented on its decision not to provide the reticulated
water to mining claims, but miners are a determined lot and will overcome most
difficulties thrown up by bureaucracy.
2. Our Mining Operations.
Our plans to cut back on our activities in order to make life easier do not seem to be
working! The demand for quality natural Australian sapphires has grown to the
point that, while we are prevented from actual mining by dry conditions in Central
Queensland and by wet weather at Lava Plains, we are busier than ever.
We had already moved our Lava Plains mine to the new area on the east side of the
Kennedy Highway and were producing very high grade blue sapphire. Just when
we were considering selling the Lava Plains operation, our supervisor John Fischer
moved the mining into a new pit area and found what we believe to be some of the
nicest sapphire that has ever been found anywhere in Australia. It is still mainly of
smaller size, but quite the most beautiful blue.
We are also in the process of relocating our Gemfields operation from the "Rush" and
"Ricebowl" areas at the Sapphire end, where we have mined for several years, back
to the 50 acres of lease area we hold in "The Scrub" at the Rubyvale end. The
Scrub area is famous for its larger and most beautiful blue and particolour stones
and was one of the first areas to be worked by the machine miners. We have hung
on to this area, waiting for the market conditions to support the increased costs
resulting from the more difficult treatment process, and the lower amount of
sapphire recovered from the very clay-bound wash.
While the "Rush" and "Ricebowl" areas produce a greater amount of sapphire, it is
mostly of a quality more suited to the 'commercial' trade and, as such, was largely
sold to visiting Asian buyers. Since the visits of the Asian buyers have all but
stopped, our business is now based on the supply of high quality cut sapphires to
Australian jewellers - and we hope that the move back to the Scrub area will enable
us to produce larger, top grade material, albeit in smaller quantities.
We will offer our 200 acres of leases, plant and plantsite at the Sapphire end for sale.
While they no longer form part of our planned operation, they remain a valuable
commodity for anyone who has a need for a proven larger, efficient treatment system
to produce the commercial sapphire found in this area.
3. Gem Shows and Jewellery Fairs.
We have already attended the North Brisbane Lapidary Club Show, the Brisbane
JAA Jewellery Fair and the Australian Gemboree, which was held at Gatton this year.
All these shows were excellent, both in their organisational aspects and in the
commercial returns achieved.
It appears to me that, for the last few years, many discerning buyers have been
aware that the sale of 'faked' gemstone material - whether it be synthetic, dyed,
chemically treated, irradiated or whatever - has largely been undisclosed, and they
have lacked the confidence to buy.
Many trade people were also content to buy the cheap, mostly Asian, products in
the knowledge that they could resell them at a significant profit to less discerning
buyers - even though they had no real idea of the true nature of the product they sold.
As a result of TV programs about problems in the jewellery industry, and with the
assistance of the brochures put out by the ACCC which both reminded sellers of their
responsibilities under Government legislation and buyers of their rights and protection,
buyers now seem to be even more aware of the adulterated gem material that is on
the market, but are prepared to take the trouble to ask questions so that they can
satisfy themselves that they are getting what they want - and very importantly, once
satisfied, they are prepared to buy.
It was very pleasing to note that, at the shows we have attended, the true nature and
treatment status of gemstones was generally clearly displayed for the customers to
see - and I hope that all future shows insist on this, and monitor compliance.
There is nothing wrong with a treated or synthetic gemstone, as long as it is sold as
such, and is priced accordingly.
I was personally very disappointed that the Show that the "Jewellery World "
magazine had planned for Sydney later this year is not going ahead, as many of the
principles espoused by the organisers mirrored my own convictions on what is in the
best interests of the genuine Australian manufacturing jewellers, in order to provide
for the longevity of our Australian Gemstone and Jewellery Manufacturing Industries.
4. Website Sales List
We have experienced a significant increase in the demand for 'significant'
sapphires, particularly greens, particolours and the rarer yellows.
Many of these "fancy" sapphires are found in the hand mining areas and many of the
hand-miners have some absolutely fabulous stones - but no way to market
them. We have therefore set up a system on our second website
www.australiansapphire.com
to allow the small-scale miners and others to present their stones for sale. We
intend that this service may be used for any genuine Australian gemstone, and not
just sapphires.
We do not collect any "cut" or commission from the sale of other people's stones on
this website. Any dealing is solely between the buyer and the seller.
We do require that sellers sign a declaration that all gems placed on this sale list be
guaranteed to be genuine, natural gemstones of Australian origin and, as always,
we recommend that buyers ask for a clearly written Certificate of Authenticity or
similar statement signed by the seller.
5. Faceting Courses.
The faceting courses organised by the Queensland Sapphire Producers Association
in conjunction with the Gemfields Lions Club and run by John Broadfoot have
continued to be a great success, with every course fully subscribed - which gives
hope for the continuation of the cutting of at least a portion of our production within
Australia, thus retaining jobs in our own area.
There also now seems to be a growing shortage of trained jewellers - by that I mean
real manufacturing jewellers, not those who just resell goods that were
manufactured overseas and imported into Australia- and I hope that the people in
charge of our training systems will address this problem before it too has an
impact on our ability to produce genuine local products, at an affordable price, for
those customers who are proud to 'buy Australian'.
6. Chrysoprase
As I detailed in an earlier report, we were given the opportunity to mine and
purchase a quantity of chrysoprase from the Marlborough deposit, north of
Rockhampton. We have completed that mining, but we have now some 50 tons of
rough chrysoprase stockpiled on our Calliope cattle property.
The rough chrysoprase varies from smaller pieces to boulders of several kilos, up to
a ton (or several tons) - with the largest being over 16 tons. The colour varies from
the darker green to a bright, translucent 'peppermint' green, to the paler colours of
the parent chalcedony. We do not intend to break down the larger boulders as
we believe that, in time, they will become quite valuable as major carving pieces.
We have now had time to produce a fair quantity of finished material from this
stockpile, including good quality cabochons, lovely beads and some amazing carved
pieces. The beads are most beautiful, and start at less than 40 cents per carat for
the paler colours, but can go up to $ 5.00 per carat for the 'jade' green colours.
In keeping with our philosophy on gemstones, all this material is sold as completely
natural, with no treatment or dyeing whatsoever.
We have also used our 24 inch slabbing saw to produce slabs which can be used for
bases for clocks, desk equipment ... or just for the beauty of the material itself.
Our partner in the chrysoprase venture is Rick Hodel who lives in the northern
suburbs of Brisbane, and is willing to visit potential clients in the south east corner of
Queensland. You can contact him on: ph. 07.3888.3280 or on mobile 0427.265.045.
7. Black Spinel
For many years, the sapphire miners have recovered a gemstone called black spinel
(aka "pleonaste"), which has always been discarded as being of too low a value to
worry about.
When either "cabbed" or facetted, polished into beads or carved, this material
actually produces the most beautiful gems. It is harder and more lustrous than
onyx, and takes a very fine polish.
While there is currently a limited use of this material as a gemstone in its own right,
it produces the most beautiful black beads, which we supply to jewellers
in 'temporary strings' in a variety of shapes and sizes, and at prices around 40 cents
per carat.
8. Zeolite
At the time of our last report, I mentioned that we were fattening some steers in our
feedlot on our cattle property with a feed ration that included 5% zeolite powder. I
can now report that these steers fattened beautifully, and we were absolutely
amazed at the totally 'spotless' condition of their livers and kidneys when they were
slaughtered. For those of you who do not recognise the significance of this, it is
most unusual for animals subjected to feedlot conditions not to have some form of
lesions or marking of the livers and kidneys, and the condition of these organs is
considered an important measure of the animal's health.
We continue to be able to supply, at no cost, this powdered zeolite material to the
many persons requesting it for personal use as an aid in controlling the effects of
many ailments which, we understand, includes cancerous conditions and blood
related disorders. We do this on the firm understanding that persons requesting
it do so with no assurances or guarantees - as in this country there still has not
been any testing or clinical trials of this naturally occurring material - only a great
deal of anecdotal evidence from people who are using it.
Hardly a day goes by without a call from someone to thank us for sending them
some of this powder and to tell us of benefits they have derived from its use. It is
such a pity that this information is not being obtained by trained persons under
controlled conditions, and subject to the strict analysis needed for it's approval
for medicinal use.
Zeolite is a relatively common material of volcanic origin, and there seems to be a
reluctance by the authorities and the pharmaceutical companies to commit to the
high cost of testing - possibly because it is such a low cost material that there is likely
to be little profit to be gained from its use.
We understand that the mine which produces this material is being sold at present,
and we hope that we will be able to continue obtaining powder from the new owners.
We would have loved to purchase the mine ourselves, but we are trying hard to slow
down, not take on new responsibilities!
We trust that you will all join us in praying for rain for all those individuals and industries so badly affected by the widespread drought - and all those of you in the flooded northern regions who are sick of rain can join and pray too for a more even distribution of this most precious commodity!
I must admit that I do not entirely agree with the current politically popular theory that this drought is all due to man-induced "global warming". Our rough sapphire at Lava Plains is often fractured because it was expelled into a 'frozen' landscape during a geologically recent ice age, so there has been a bit of 'warming' going on for several thousand years, and there have been many many droughts as serious as the one we are now experiencing.
I think that, to a large extent, the politicians of all colours, State and Federal, are desperately trying to cover their backsides for their failure to take any positive action on either construction of new dams or, more importantly, on better use by industry of recycled water to minimise the amount of new water required by the reticulation systems in our cities.
It would appear to be common sense that the first priority would be to ensure the efficient utilisation of every drop of water pumped out of the storages, and that it should not be necessary to even consider the use of "treated" water for human consumption until there is 100% use of recycled water by industry and on parks and gardens, sporting ovals etc.
People in towns and cities in our area have been discouraged for years from having domestic water tanks, despite the fact that many of us in more remote areas have learned to live solely on the water we collect in them. Now the same Councils and Governments are falling over themselves trying to promote such obvious measures.
I'm sorry for the lecture, but we seem to be governed by blind idiots - but, then again, it may just be that I am trying not to sound too cynical about their ultimate agendas!
Regards, Jim Elliot. Coolamon Mining Pty. Ltd
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