This technique requires the sapphires to be very close to the surface. Specking is the most basic form of collecting sapphires and isnt actually a form of mining. Its simply walking around picking them up off the surface, generally after heavy rain has washed away the top soil. As simple as this sounds it can be very successful. Hand tools are generally a pick, spade and a sieve. There are many ingenious devices that can separate dirt and rock faster than a sieve that may still be used in conjunction with a pick and spade. In most cases this form of mining in Australia will be carried out at 1-2 meters depth. There are many fossicking areas open to the public (after a small fee has been paid for a fossickers licence) where anyone can give it a go. Its hard work digging into river gravel and brings a great appreciation of the work done by miners in the past.

As the name suggests a shaft is dug to the depth of the sapphire bearing material which could be 15 meters deep. Since the 70's this has been done with a huge truck based drilling rig. Once the depth has been established jackhammers and hand tools are used to dig into the wall, following the ancient river bed. Some miners have even disassembled small ride on diggers and reassembled them underground to increase the volume of rock they can remove.

This form of mining is the rarest on the Australian sapphire fields as it requires large machinery. The topsoil is removed and stored for later rehabilitation, then the miners dig down with bulldozers searching for the sapphire bearing layer. Once found they carefully follow its path, sorting most of the soil and rock onsite. Its a high cost game, but it can provide huge volumes of sapphire.