Reddestone sapphires - Australia

[lonewoodminer]

gday,

just new to this forum - just discovered it and wish I''d found it a while back when we were starting to learn more about sapphire mining and marketing. Just wondering what awareness there is out there about Reddestone sapphires. We have been mining on the Reddestone creek for a long while now and selling all production in the rough to Thailand. Just branching out into getting a small amount of our best stone cut and selling online (rough as well) and noticing that there is generally a negative perception out there about Australian sapphire being very dark and unattractive. To us, this represents much of the production from Queensland which is very different from the sapphire from our part of Australia - the New England region of NSW. Interested to hear what others might think about this. Dont want this to be an advertisement (search for Aussie Sapphire if you really want to find us) - more interested to hear what people think about Australia sapphire generally so we can decide how best to proceed from here.

cheers
Andrew Lane

 

[Sasori]

Hi there,
I definitely don''t have any negative feelings towards Australian sapphires.
The actual stone counts more than the origins.

I''ll take a top quality aussie to a lousy kashmir.

Btw, cant find your website.. search under Aussie Sapphire
Cheers
Ryan

 

[lonewoodminer]

Gday Thanks for your reply. Sorry about the web search, still geting keywords sorted on search engines.
Enter www.aussiesapphire.com.au

Cheers
Andrew Lane

 

[rubydick]

Andrew,

Welcome to the Pricescope forums.

RE: Reddistone Creek, my understanding is that this is the best stone in Australia.

That said, it really can''t hold a candle to the big four: Kashmir, Burma, Ceylon, Madagascar. Thanks to the kindness of Terry Coldham of Sapphex in Sydney, I hade a chance to tour most of the major fields in the New England District, along with Sapphire/Rubyvale in Queensland, so I am somewhat familiar with the production. I was most impressed with the blues from Reddistone Creek, but really fell in love with the fancies from Queensland.

That said, I wish you all the best in your new mining venture. Hope you find a king''s ransom of sapphires.

 

[Michael_E]

HI Andrew,
I just had to comment here since I cut quite a bit of Aussie sapphire. I think that it''s great material. The perception of it''s being dark is well founded however, since that''s the type of material that gets here, (USA), as rough. Since the Thai''s are buying the majority of the rough from there, and the best of it at that, we never see Aussie sapphire that isn''t cut and labeled as Thai sapphire. The pictures of the large stone parcels on your website are much more indicative of the range of colors available, with some very fine blues showing up in that lot. Your training program for young sorters is a good approach too!
As far as cutting Aussie sapphire, I love it. The material that I''ve bought has been too dark to cut much over about 7mm though. But in that size range, and with proper cutting and polishing the material is an excellent royal blue. The trick is to get the right crown angles so that the light path for most rays stays towards the center of the stone. This reduces the green component from the green cross that is present in most Aussie sapphire. Do the majority of the stones from your area have that green cross color also ? I''ve got your site in my favorites and will undoubtedly be in touch later this year.
The pic that I''ve attached is an Aussie sapphire, 1 carat plus, and at that size it''s a very nice blue for the money. Speaking of money, I don''t think that it really fair to compare this material with the electric blues from Kashmir, Ceylon and Burma. The costs for the rough or cut stones from Australia are on the order of ten to twenty times less than the costs for what is considered the finest sapphire from those other locations. I think that Aussie sapphire is a very fine material for the price range that it occupies.

Michael E.
The Gem Shoppe

A fan of Aussie sapphire!

 

[lonewoodminer]

Gday all

glad to hear that there is some appreciation of our top quality Reddestone sapphire. We have been trying to spread the word but after so many years of rebranding of our best stone by the Thais, this all takes time. The only way we can see to get our product directly out into the marketplace for people to appreciate, hence the online shop.

In reference to the green cross table, we do get the occasional sapphire with a greenish cross table but these are not typical of our production - likewise with the parti colour, they do occur but only very rarely. Our Reddestone stone is typically a true blue-on-blue colour.



cheers
Andrew

 

[chantal990]

I love Aussie sapphire (feeling patriotic

). It''s true that a lot of it is dark but there are some lovely peices still be had. I own a lovely coloured 1.2ct aqua coloured Aussie Sapphire that I love which I can''t upload it the moment for some reason but it is turely a beautiful stone(ok so I know greeny blue isn''t the most valuable). As to the Reddestone sapphire although I have heard of the area I don''t think I have ever seen any of the stones as most of the stuff that come through to Melbourne is from QLD or overseas.

 

[chantal990]

Yay it worked

 

[chantal990]

ok bad resolution though and the clarity of the stone is a lot clearer

 

[lonewoodminer]

Hi

even with the quality of the photo I can see that the stone would have a lot of life. As far been worried about the greeny blue colour just ignore the experts and enjoy your stone.

 

[chantal990]

I will

Aqua is my fav colour so I love it no matter what anyone says about the different "value" of stones I also love the really pasteel baby blue Ceylon sapphires although they aren''t as costly as the darker cornflower blue ones.

 

[Sagebrush]

Andrew,

Welcome to the forum. You can get my take on sapphire by reading the chapter from my book at www.secretsofthegemtrade.com. Spent some time with a bloke from Great Northern a few years ago in Montana. American Gem Corporation was doing its best to lighten the color of the material they were mining. Don''t know if they had any success. Unfortunately American Gem spent all its money and went the way of all flesh.

Those in the know are aware that whenever an Australian sapphire burns to a pure blue it magically undergoes a change in citizenship and shows up on the Bangkok market as a Ceylon stone. This does nothing to alter the stone''s rep as a greenish blue.

Perhaps you should consider a triip to Tucson at some point to introduce the stone to a wider audience.

Best regards,

 

[lonewoodminer]

Richard

Yes I have read your chapter on sapphire before and it is I believe a very relevent piece of work. However, I still believe to lump all Australian Sapphire into one general group to be a mistake. The difference in the Reddestone stone to that of Kings Plains is significant although the two resources are only some 25 miles apart. The Reddestone sapphire seems to have come from a completely different source and the characteristics of the stone are quite different from all other Aussie stone I''ve seen.

Greenish cross tables in our sapphire are certainly the exception not the rule. Most experts talk of the Blue on Blue characteristics of our stone. I am certainly no expert but have been working with this product for over 20 years.

You mention Great Northern - they have sold all their Queensland gem interests and are I believe trying to get out of their remaining Kings Plain mine, which has worked only periodically over the last couple of years.

Would love to show in Tucson and as soon as our young family will allow us to travel we will be there.

Many thanks for your thoughts

Andrew

 

[Sagebrush]

Don''t really lump togetherall sapphires (form any source). Later in the book I try to make the point that gemstones have no pedigree, that is, you are buying gems not geography and often, stones from neglected sources can be more desirable than gems from famous sources, the point is each gem is an individual and should be judged by its beauty not its pedigree.

Richard