It’s early December 2021 and the Grace Opal brothers (Lochy and Shannon) AKA World Class Opal and Kimberley Opal respectively, try out the smallest mass manufactured cutting head on the market. With no idea whether it will work or be effective, we take it down our East Pacific claim. It seems to work well, and we noodle a few nice stones in the old mullock and pick a few scrappy shell bits out in between. What we don’t show is all the digging in between where there is nothing. But that would be very boring.. A week goes by like lighting and the days feel like minutes in such engrossing work. We found good shells a couple of years ago in the top level and have been picking around trying for more for months to no avail. Towards the end of the trip however, a chunk of sandstone in a pillar above where Shannon has been operating the cutter has a crack in it, I decide to lever it down to make it safe. In the video you can see the small pocket of shells that was immediately behind the chunk of loose ground, and in the middle, a full shell! Watch to the end to witness what many opal purists would consider sacrilege (slicing up a full shell) but man oh man, just wait to see the jewelry we make from it if all goes well…
In early December 2020, our mining company was prospecting on the Donna's Rush opal field about 50 kilometres north of Coober Pedy Australia.
Donna's Rush is a field named in honor of John and Yoka Dunstan's late daughter. I knew her a little personally and can attest to what an amazing person she was, she certainly brightened the day of anyone she interacted with and is very much missed by all who knew her, not least her family.
So with that in mind, it is fitting that some of the most beautiful opal we have ever found has been from the relatively small field of Donna's Rush.
This particular day we winched into a mine that had been dug recently with a tunelling machine with little trace left behind. I tried out a battery powered drill we spent over a thousand dollars trying to see if it was feasible, you can see in the video the small holes it made before the battery overloaded and cut out. Turns out it's too soon for that tech, we will have to stick with 240 volts and elbow grease for the time being.
Just as we had almost finished checking the entire claim, i found some small 'feeders' of trace in a patch of beautiful opal level (the chocolatey weathered sandstone around the opal in the video), and as I was cutting them out, it was very fortunate that a few crumbly chips fell away from the pipe, exposing the end as seen in the video. This piece will be for sale at our mining companies accounts following:
Taken over 4 days in the beginning of October 2021. I return to an old favourite, Dead Horse Gully to see if we could pillarbash some of the beautiful dark crystal opalised shells I simply cannot forget from many years ago. Sure enough, we were fortunate to find a belemnite pipe with a few carats of stunningly flawless world class super gem, a full shell that was quite dirty but also yielded some absolutely mind blowing crystal, and quite a few other bits and pieces that will be appearing in jewellery and rough opal parcels at worldclassopal.net Thanks to @KimberleyOpal at Graceopal.pty.ltd for the loan of half the equipment! 😋
We will add updates to this blog showing the new jewelllery that is produces from this beautiful material. Thanks for watching!
The Grace Opal brothers (worldclassopal.net & Kimberleyopal.com) AKA, Lochy and Shannon, set out one beautiful Coober Pedy evening to try their luck at blacklighting. Australian opal and Coober Pedy opal in particular is famous for it's flourescence under ultra violet light.
Above is a picture of Shannon with an 18 watt 240 v blacklight that we used for decades, thank God for the recent advent of powerful UV torches that weigh only grams and shine much, much farther than these shoulder destroying, time consuming behemoths.
Above is a long exposure showing Jupiter setting in the west and some of the old, extremely rich (in their day) opal workings on the Old 10 Mile and Larkins Folly (foreground) opal fields of Coober Pedy Australia.
Black lighting on the surface around old diggings in Coober Pedy has been a game of diminishing returns over the last 30 odd years, and in the last dozen or so has usually been downright depressing. Rarely anything but a lot of hard work, very dangerous due to the ever present death traps that are mining shafts literally everywhere, not to mention the gaze of a thousand noodlers (fossickers) having stripped the dumps of all but tiny traces.
Hope, however, springs eternal, and one particular night on the fields a few years back, we had that rare burst of energy and enthusiasm to brave the opal fields at night to blacklight, particularly as we wanted to try out the new high powered UV torches that had revolutionised so much of our mining and opal exploration.
Another long exposure looking south, note the southern cross and pointers, always taking the stage in the southern sky over Coober Pedy's crystal nights.
The above video was taken moments after uncovering a fully opalised belemnite in its host rock. the excitement is palpable as I inspect the ancient opal fossil to see the extent of its filling.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this belemnite pipe (carefully removed from its host rock, (natural breaks).
Mind blowing, super gem extremely stable high quality light crystal opal in large cuttable pieces, this will make some truly world class opal jewelry..
The full extent of the opalised ancient squid (belemnite) pieces.
A stunning set made with the opal we sent to the UK via Fedex.
This piece didnt get to the website, Mum snapped it up at first glance!
Another shot of those lovely earrings.
Below is a video of the 'kingstone'. This is extremely rare and superb quality opal, cant wait to find a truck full! :-)
