Welcome to part 2 of my recent collecting adventures in the Hart's Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia. For those of you who missed Part 1 - Collecting Sceptre Quartz, please scroll back through the previously published blogs.

In addition to the wide array of collectable minerals from the Hart's Range, beryl crystals have been highly sought after and prized specimens from this region. Several of the mica bearing pegmatites that were mined early last century also produced some fine beryls in a range of colours from yellow through to greens and blues. Although heavily fractured, some of these specimens (particularly from the Disputed Mine) contained large gem quality sections suitable for faceting.


I was interested in searching for some of the smaller pegmatites on the eastern side of the Hart's Range in the hope of locating some decent beryl specimens. My first expedition around the hills of Spriggs Bore led me to a coarse-grained pegmatite showing signs of small, slender translucent aquamarines. After carefully prying away some of the fractured quartz blocks, I located one particularly long slender beryl encased in the white quartz. Later I was able to trim away the quartz, exposing the 9cm partly gemmy aquamarine (see photo right). Unfortunately the beryl was naturally fractured and had to be repaired, but still presented as a nice specimen from the area.

Further south in the ranges around the Harding Springs area, I discovered several prospective pegmatites containing beryl of varying qualities and colours. One particular location produced a number of unusual very dark blue Aquamarines. These were found as small isolated crystals in iron-stained quartz, associated with green apatite and chrysoberyl. Although many were only partial crystals and often fractured, I did however find one small gem quality, terminated crystal lying loose on the surface (see photo far right).

Of all the deposits I located, one in particular will always remain a wonderful memory, for it isn't too often one stumbles upon an untouched pegmatite containing large gemmy beryls! It was towards the end of a 1 month stay in the Harts Range that I set out again to explore further into the ranges around the Harding Springs area. Typically these walks would end up being over 10km in return, often with no particular destination in mind, other than the constant lure of "I wonder whats over the next hill". It was late in the afternoon when I spotted the pegmatite outcrop amongst the trees, and as always, there is that hopefully feeling that maybe this one will be rich with specimens. The vast majority of these pegmatites have little of interest to the collector, and I had already walked over hundreds of these barren outcrops in the last week. I reached the pegmatite and begun walking along its length looking for the coarser grained core, and spotted an area with large feldspar blocks intergrown with the quartz. As I began searching the area, something glassy and blue flashed in the corner of my eye, and I remember the fleeting thought that passed through my mind "was that I thought it was?!". Sure enough, a jagged piece of quartz was sticking out of the pegmatite and in one corner was a gem blue section of aquamarine, shining in the sunlight, and now resides in my collection (see photo below left). This began a frantic closer inspection of the outcrop, and within minutes I was finding more weathered fragments and partial crystals of gemmy aquamarine. As I explored further around the vein, I discovered a weathered face of quartz, literally studded with large weathered aquamarine crystals of the most beautiful greenish blue hues. See photos below.


Many of these crystals were naturally fractured due to weathering, however careful extraction enabled the repair of some specimens, most notably a 14cm long terminated gemmy Aquamarine as pictured below. Further digging in the pegmatite may yield better specimens not exposed to weathering. This is something I am patiently (!) looking forward to returning to in the winter of next year. Stay tuned for part 3 on our mining of neon teal coloured gem Kyanite from Hart's Range.

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