Malachite
SOME AUSTRALIAN GEM MATERIAL
COLLECTED OVER THE YEARS.
The gem material shown below was collected in 2018. It was
found by ‘specking’ while travelling through the Northern
Territory and South Australia. The rock was partially preformed
and then tumble polished. The rocks are jasper/chert in nature,
basically silica rich to varying degrees. They have a variety of local
names but I will not list those here. The colours and patterns
truly reflect the nature of the Australian outback!
Move the cursor over the large image to see a magnified
image. Click on the small images to change the large image.
The magnified images will show the different levels of polish
achieved on the gems, reflective of their hardness and silica
content.
In 2018 I also visited the Narrabri region in northern N.S.W and collected some agates and carnelian. The largest of
the tumbled gems below is 55mm long.