A jeweler and gem cutter, Jim Nesbitt, examines an expensive sapphire stone using a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers in his gem shop in Sapphir

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A jeweler and gem cutter, Jim Nesbitt, examines an expensive sapphire stone using a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers in his gem shop in Sapphire, a small town in the Gem fields near Emerald in the Central Highlands of Queensland in Australia. The town lay in the largest sapphire fields in the Southern Hemisphere. Sapphire got its name after the findings of blue sapphire stone in the late 19th century. Visitors and locals fossick in the surrounding abandoned workings such as rivers, etc. for these precious stones. If, and when a discovery is made, it is taken to some of the town’s local jewellers to be valued and cut.

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Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Sapphire, Queensland, Australia
Photo credit: © richard sowersby / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: australia, australian, blue, central, emerald, fields, gem, glass, highlands, jeweller, jeweller’, magnifying, queensland, sapphire, shop, stone, tool, town, tweezer