Agate fossicking is a crapload messier than looking for sapphires. In the photos down below you can see some agates that were found, and this was after some of the muck had been cleaned off ... its a lot messier than that to dig them out.
These are more notes for myself and might not make much sense, but the things to remember are:
- Site selection is a bit of a shot in the dark
- agates sit in the gravel layer
- gravel layer could be anywhere from 10's of centimetres to much deeper, so finding a shallow gravel layer is easier to dig
- once you find the gravel follow it along the ground
These were found in a MRTT fossicking area at Lune River in southern Tasmania (05/09/2020).
After cleaning them off properly you can see some good patterns and colours in them. We'll start cutting in the next few weeks and see what they look like. After just washing they look like this:
All in all its a bit easier to find agates than sapphires, but a lot lot muddier. At least with sapphires you are in a sparkling clean river (at least in Tasmania)
