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Trip to Australia, 2004
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Here
After hard work, and a tour in the mine,
Jim
Varak the owner and gem trader, climbs out of
the mine.
We went back to the shop and bought
loads of sapphires. Then we did another try
to wash a bucket of sapphire earth for
ourselves and this time we found about a
hundred sapphires and zircons, most small of
course, but about five bigger and many gem
quality.
With this catch we left for other gem
fields and at Anaki we discovered a miner
specialised in zircons. They are, due to the
characteristics, brighter than sapphires,
maybe even brighter than many diamonds. But
they are not popular, as many people have
heard of the synthetic Cubic Zirconias and
mix them up with zircons. Still we bought a
nice rose coloured for our collection.
Indeed a brilliant gemstone.
This was a very special one. It came from
central Australia, from the Harz Range. Only
there that colour can be found and the
field is now depleted. Only 40 kg raw stones
are now at stock and it will yield only 2%
high quality zircons. All the raw stones are
in possession of the miner we met in Anaki.
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