Fossicking Natural Sapphires in NSW Australia | Black Springs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ม.ค. 2025
- What's going on guys!? My name's Kurt but my friends call me Kurtle!
Today I’m at Sapphire Bend in East Australia, digging for sapphires. hoping to find some natural Australian sapphires, zircons, quartz and a possible chance at gold or diamonds.
Location: maps.app.goo.g...
Want to experience the thrill of the hunt? I’ve personally handcrafted a limited number of gemstone Pay Dirt bags.
Gravel Packets:
Each 500g Gravel packet guarantees a minimum of 10 carats of genuine Australian gemstones, including sapphires, zircons, and quartz. One lucky bag contains a big 4.6 ct. Sapphire! These are great for learning how to use the specific gravity of gems to your advantage to successfully find sapphires and get that perfect sieve 'flip'.
Pan Sands Packets:
Each Pan Sands packet guarantees a minimum of 5 carats of genuine Australian gemstones. These bags are perfect for everyone, from beginners to experts, offering an opportunity to experience the joy of fossicking at home.
Gemstones are less dense than gold and require more skill to pan successfully, making these bags ideal for learning to pan gemstones. There are a good amount of black sands in these packets that should create a good amount of challenge when separating the heavies!
It’s more than just a product to me, every purchase you make is a huge support for the channel. It allows me to continue creating content and sharing these experiences with all of you. I’m truly grateful for your support.
You can grab Sapphire Pay Dirt bags here: (I am still learning how to ecommerce so let me know if there are any issues!)
Gravel Packets:
www.paypal.com...
Pan Sand Packets: www.paypal.com...
Combined Packets (Discount): www.paypal.com...
Remember to hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more exciting content!
Kurtle
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Hey bro I just want to say to please keep doing these vids (without burning yourself out) I love them
I’ll do my best! Hard to find time around my PhD 😅
nice to see someone who actually shares location..there are so many rock collectors who just love to come online and BRAG about their finds but never share with others..IMO rock collecting (unless it is your job) is about the love of being outdoors and collecting unique specimens etc..all those braggarts who make videos and refuse to share locations all get a thumbs down on their videos from me..simply greedy braggarts who can piss off
So many people want everything handed to them on a platter. Get off your ass and do the miles to find your own areas. I would rather be a bragger than a bludger.
@@shanebabington1342 thanks for your wise input..one more braggert who can piss off and be ignored..bye
Love the skillls shown in finding the right spot to get the sapphires. I am also impressed with your entrepreneurial pay dirt offering. Glad I found you tonight - Subscribed
Thanks for the kind words :)
Absolutely awesome! Especially as it's an area only a few hours away and it's been year's since I have been there.
It’s a great spot 😁
Hi kurtle , good to see you are still fossicking. Enjoy your videos .
Thanks mate - I’d love to more it’s just finding the time!
@@Kurtleman
It is time , in a few weeks I’m heading up through nsw and into Queensland to do some fossicking for a couple of weeks. Just taking time out and going to do it . I’ve never been Saphires hunting before , looks great , going to hunt for Saphires and opals , and live out of my swag 😊😜
I don’t mind the dirt .
If you like your music check out my band Merc & The Semiautos , The album title The Semiautos “ The Collection Part 1 “
And also I have the band The Semiautos with the 1967 The Lost recordings, album which is mainly raw and uncut recorded live. And songs such as To my best friend and Friday Night etc , some new music for you guys to listen to , if you like it , to follow and like would be great , Thanks ,
Keep digging its a fantastic hobby
When I was young my dad would take me out to blacksprings and pan in the river around there and get lots of gems.
Porters?
@@Kurtleman I’ll have to ask my old man where it was. I just remember it wasn’t far from the road and there was a good bend in the river on the edge of the forest.
If it’s a secret spot no pressure but I’d love to know if it’s Porter’s!
@@Kurtleman no it’s not porter’s
Very nice 👌🏽 always good to have your own little spot
Awesome Kurtle keep it mate ..Loving your vids..Been many years since I have been there.Good content mate.
Love it out there but u gotta work for those sapphires especially in winter🤣
You’re not wrong about that!
So good, I really want to do this again man! 🤙
Just say when ;)
Damn straight they are the popular videos lol......currently midnight and im binge watching
What a compliment 🫶🏼
I need to try again at sapphire bend. Took the kids to porters retreat 12 months ago with no luck, also no idea what I was doing. This has helped a lot mate
Good luck! I’ve never had much luck there either but maybe I should do a video on Porter’s
@@Kurtleman yeah that'd be awesome
I’ve no doubt you’ve sold out of those tailings. I went for a drive through The Gemfields in Qld years ago & bought a bag of tailings without even the guarantee of finding gems - just the hunt was fun. I still have it as I had no idea what I was looking for then & was pulling out anything that looked remotely sparkly so have lots of spinels. Put it to one side for years & just found it the other day. So I’ll be squirrelling my way through to see what I can find now I know what I’m looking for 😊. Especially since I’m looking for more than just sapphires & garnets, as I can use tiny rocks in my art 😊
I definitely did - I’m on to the last one of batch #5. Everyone seems to be buying a heap for Christmas… I’ve updated them to into sieve gravels and pan sands as there weren’t enough gravels in the original for my liking
@ I don’t know if you sell or leave the really tiny sapphire fragments, or pop them in your bags, but those are also cool treasures to sell for jewellery & resin crafters. I’d say they’d even sell to people who do nail art too. I recently bought a bag of tiny fragments of aquamarine, citrine, peridot, labradorite & fluorite to use in my polymer or metal clay jewellery. Am thinking they will look gorgeous set in a resin line down the pendant 😊
Good find, I came there but couldn’t find the public place for fossicking 🙁
Not a problem: maps.app.goo.gl/YMcMXSy7R6jb4R6s9?g_st=ic
I love the videos, I went to that fossicking site not long ago and found a bunch of quartz crystals but no sapphires.
It’s getting harder to find good wash there. There are definitely some very nice quartz crystals though
Nice Kurtle. Paydirt bags in time for Christmas, excellent idea, although you can’t send them everywhere, Tassie blocks paydirt from entering the state. Not sure they have an issue with the dirt, just don’t like fun coming in 😂😂😂😂😂😂🤪
Good to know! I wasn’t aware… I guess I could sieve it live for them then post the sapphires 😂
Top stuff mate 👍
Thanks mate
Hey mate! Just found your channel. I'm from Wagga, and the region around Tumbarumba has some good places for fossicking/rockhounding. Sapphires and rubies apparently. You earned my subscription, keep it up man!
Thanks mate! I lived in Leeton for a year - not too far away. I haven’t looked out that way yet for fossicking though. Maybe I’ll make a trip one day!
very nice, good information too.
Awesome work mate!
Thanks 😊
Thanks.Im actually heading there this weekend with my dogs bloody godsend seeing this clip.Random 🐕 Dogs.Eeew
@@Quinny33they were pig hunting - the owners came and picked them up. Couple young blokes in a Ute
@@Kurtleman I understand the hesitation when they ran up, but pig dogs should be trained well enough 😁 coupla mates while digging is always good 😂👌
Yeah my sisters ex partner had a few and I love dogs I just didn’t want to meet them at eye level when they came running at me 😂
Can you please advise how to find?
Those red gems you are calling garnets are zircons :)
Sure are :)
Interesting
So, where ya been these past few years. I've enjoyed your underwater hunting videos and had a few questions. Sad, we don't have these kind of rock hounding much this in the states (there is some, but not near where I live), I'm in south Florida, but have plenty of beaches to hunt on.
Honestly It’s just hard to get the time to do it! I’ve bought and moved into a house and I am in the process of doing a PhD. But I always hope to do more!
Do you guys have fossils there or am I thinking of somewhere else?
Sure thing what’s your questions?
found heaps of fossilised shark teeth on a beach in Florida when I was a lot younger, worth a shot
Nice video man.
Hello just wondering if any of the ones you found can be cut is there a size limit to what can be cut
Hi Rebekah - I’m not very knowledgeable about the whole cutting process but I think you lose about half of the carat weight. So however small you are able to cut something I’m assuming you could cut 😂 I’m sure someone on here might be able to chime in who has more experience!
Some good quality Forestry corp water in that dam 😂
The best quality 👌🏽👌🏽
Any experience in Glenn Innes? 😊 I’m heading there next week
Hi Taylor,
I’d absolutely love to go there - it’s on my list but I’ve never been. Let me know how you go and if you have any recommendations!
Also any chance of paydirt with gold or emerald or ruby in them, coming up in the near future?
Ruby’s are red sapphires so there’s a chance of those and there is also a chance for some tiny gold but nothing substantial. Emeralds are up in QLD, I might get there one day but have no near plans too…
If you want gold pay dirt check out this one: www.detect-ed.com/products/turbopan-300?_pos=2&_sid=d3e7a827a&_ss=r
I’ve never tried it personally but I trust Detect-Ed and the same discount code: KURT applies
Would the gems/garnets you found be worth much?
Sometimes the bigger ones are worth something but generally they’re not worth enough to make any kind of living doing it this way and in this place. Mainly for fun!
God those sapphires look beautiful greetings from northwestern Canada i have never found any here but some really nice garnets tho there are sapphires here but as i said never found any i hope to get another good garnet haul this year but currently the river i live close by and pan mostly is pretty high and all my nice bedrock and gravel is underwater. But very good video i enjoyed and also subscribed
I would absolutely love to fossick in Canada one day! Good luck on the Saphs :)
@@Kurtleman thank you it is beautiful here I would also love to go to Australia/Tasmania one day but I don't like big ass poisonous bugs I like the cold as well so... lol. But if I don't get any this year oh well I'ma keep my eye out for diamonds tho because they can be found in the area of where I live (ish)
Could anyone tell me exactly were is this spot is
I added a google maps link to the description for you
Hi mate love your videos, im new to fossicking, i just dont know what im looking for, what colours do saphire come im from Victoria
Hey mate - sapphires come in all colours! Sapphires are the mineral ‘corundum’ which is a form of aluminium silicon oxide and the colour comes from impurities. Rubys are also corundum but they are classed as a ruby when they have a particular range of red in them. Too pink and they are just a pink sapphire!
@@Kurtleman…g,day mate , I,m In the central west NSW , I do a bit of prospecting for gold , I have been to black springs and got some sapphires and zircons but no where near the amount as you did , I used a rocker box I made and used it on the Macquarie river , I pulled a small ruby from the rocker box when I cleaned it up going back about 6 years ago , now there is camping in the area and where I used to go gets hammered by fossicking groups who go there , I have learnt to keep my mouth shut on places where I find gold especially because others will clean your spots out and tell others and ruin your prospecting hopes , Safires though is a lot harder for people to do because the going is a lot harder I find , happy prospecting and saffire hunting ,it’s all great fun. 👍
@@fishmut Thanks mate - appreciate the comments!
I can’t believe you found a ruby! What did it weigh in at? I haven’t done much prospecting but I’d love to do more! Maybe I’ll see you out there one day 😁
28colors
What is the name of the gem weighing device/machine? Where can these be purchased from? Great vid btw :)
I’d actually recommend these - that scale set broke very quickly: www.detect-ed.com/products/detect-ed-treasure-scales?_pos=1&_sid=15c1c22d8&_ss=r
You can use the discount code KURT at checkout for a small discount :)
The video description says " Today I’m at Sapphire Bend in South West Australia, "
Thanks for picking up the typo! I must confess I spell checked with chat GPT and it must have changed it a bit 🤦🏼♂️
Would love to go for a hunt with you one time
Anytime mate let me know :) did I give you my number at Penrith?
Me too!
I went to this exact spot and didn’t find anything like this. Granted I have no idea what I’m doing though. I’d love to go with someone who can teach me what to do!
Hey could you mention the rough value of the stones you get in future videos?
They’re not easy to value as rough but I can try next time to give a ball park :)
They are worth nothing if they aren't transparent
Sapphire dirt bucket now for sale 😂😂😂😂
I called them garnets throughout but I actually think they are Zircons! 🤔😅
That what I was thinking too. We got zircons with sapphires when we stayed in Glen Innes 20+ years ago and did. Day trips
@sboydrocks9412 it’s on my list to go there but I need to do some research on where to go!
Remember hydraulic equivelence theory when looking for a gravel layer.
That’s in the advanced lesson ;)
As much as i enjoy your videos and admire your entrepreneurial attitude, it should be remembered that there are strict limits with respect to material taken, these include a 10kg limit for gem bearing material containing gold or gemstones within a 48hr period, this is a per person limit, so, if you round up a few tagalongs to accompany you, you can carry a bit more home.
Not intending to cause you any strife, just to err on the side of caution, if you exceed the limits, it's probably a good idea not to publish evidence of doing so.
The guidelines were set as they are to allow everyone the opportunity to enjoy the pursuit for years to come rather than to encourage financial exploitation.
I did learn this in retrospect! But it was also lucky as I was so tired I only ended up taking what you saw in the end of the video home! So in all it would have been less than 20kg for myself and my partner. I’d definitely have been a lot more stressed if I’d had accidentally gone over the limit! That’s never my intention 👌🏽
Ewwwwww. I definitely wouldn’t be putting anything in my mouth that was washed in that water 🤢
Makes me superhuman 😛
@@Kurtlemanlol you must be! I was hoping that was just ordinary algae & not blue green. But since you’re replying a year later you obviously survived 😁 Hey - have you ever fossicked in or really close to Canberra? I watched your video on Grabben Gullen Creek, but I’m only going to have really limited time while I’m visiting home for Christmas so might be too far to go there. Will have to organise a longer visit next trip & get my brother & his kids to come exploring. It doesn’t appear like there’s much right near Canberra, but if you know of any spots for any nice rocks - not just gems, I’d greatly appreciate a tip. Stay safe out there & keep up those superhuman germ fighting enzymes in your saliva (I’m a Paramedic so that’s always my first thought!) 😁 (errrr not the saliva bit - the stay safe bit 🤦♀️)
your main goal is making the content, not to get the valuable rock
Im not sure what you’re trying to say?