It’s late July 2023 and we are back at it on our Olympic claim. When working virgin ground there’s a lot of maintenance and repetitive work that needs doing to get us to the hypothetical prize of that big pocket.
while Shannon is developing a ‘shovel free’ way to load the tipper, I’m scratching around in some level we drove under about 25 years ago and discover a small pocket of stunning crystal seam. As is often the case, a few little geckos have fallen down the mine and we try to get them back up and out into the bush wherever possible.
The opal is thin, the ground is bloody hard, but the weather is beautiful and we even drill an air shaft with our old mate Nick. No complaints from God’s country.. One of these days we will crack it..
This video is now hosted on Young Guns Outback Opal Hunters YouTube Channel!
In April 2020 we were blacklighting (using a UV torch at night) for opal on the legendary Larkins Folly opal field about 15 kilometres west of Coober Pedy Australia.
The stories from old timers about Larkins in the 60's are eye watering. Massive slides (opal bearing faults) that ran for hundreds of metres making, in places obscene amounts of super gem quality opal that was only found on a few rare, small hills on our blue marble.
Over the years we have ventured ointo many of the old mines where accessible, mostly via 60 foot deep shafts, and have had some success finding leftovers of this giant patch of history.
On this particular night, we stumbled upon a rock with a bit of nice colour poking out, watch the video to see the spectacular treasure hidded within!
In this adventure we have the tipper dump moved by the famous outback opal hunter Justin Lang and his mining partner Jared. We fix the wobbly tipper pulley we’ve had for nigh on 30 years, and I head off to Dead Horse to see if I can improve our companies lagging fortunes with some pillarbashing. Its neck and neck between slow and steady earth moving (opal mining) and opportunistic scouting for bits and pieces in old claims (pillarbashing).. Watch the video over at our good mates Young Guns channel to see how this round pans out! #australianopal #cooberpedy #adventure #opal #gemstonejewelry #opalmining #howtoopalmine #cooberpedyopal
