News / opal

  • 'Black Lighting' For precious opal turns up an unbelievable find, for once..

    Black lighting for precious opal on the Coober Pedy opal fields

    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.Shannon with the old cumbersome 240 volt blacklight underground.

    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.

    The Larkins Folly opal field at night.

    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.

    The night sky looking south

    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.

    Amazing opal I happened upon in the old dirt.

    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 cleaned opal pipe..  Perhaps a once in a lifetime find..

     The full extent of the opalised ancient squid (belemnite) pieces.

    Jewelry set made from the pipe.

    A stunning set made with the opal we sent to the UK via Fedex.

    This piece was not even listed before Mum snapped it up!

    This piece didnt get to the website, Mum snapped it up at first glance! 

    Natural opal earrings

    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! :-)

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  • Mining absolutely stunning natural Australian opal on The Farm, Coober Pedy Australia.

    Opal in the wall on The Farm opal field, Coober Pedy.

    Several years ago we were in Coober Pedy and a bit hard up for places to find opal.

    I went for a fly over on Google maps and found this open cut i knew had been started over 20 years ago but had now been completed to the opal level. We went to check and sure enough it had been abandoned so we had a scratch around for a few days, and here are some of the results in a quick video! Shows opening up, digging in the opal level, some of the stunning precious opal kingstones, and of course, the finished one of a kind pieces of beautiful Australian opal jewelry that resulted. Miing explosion moving mullock..fast

     

    Stunning top opal rough from the dig we made in to beautiful opal jewelry.Rough opal from the dig.

     

     

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  • Mining by hand on Dead Horse Gully Circa 1999 Excerpt from 'Pillarbasher'

    Mining by hand on Dead Horse Gully Circa 1999 Excerpt from 'Pillarbasher'

    Quite a few years later my younger brother Shannon and I were champing at the bit each morning to get to the field. After a sauce with pasty and a farmers union iced coffee, we were totally pumped. Off down the dusty track in the crusty ute to our claim in the desert. In those days we had what is known as a 'self tipper' or automatic hoist. Dead Horse Gully was a favourite field we dubbed "red sauce gully" because of the stunning unusually blood red colour in the opal. On one spot we drove 200 odd feet by hand which is blasting and removing the dirt with 2 x 20 litre buckets on a barrow. We wheeled the buckets to the base of the 45 ft shaft and transferred them into the 50 litre bucket on the automatic hoist, and away she went, up and over and back again. Ironically, when we arrived and were installing the winch, we found 3 $2 coins at the top of the shaft and said, maybe its a sign we will find 6 million! Turned out to be 6 thousand, barely wages at the end of it, but an experience I would probably do over for free.
    At one point in that claim we were trying to open up a 9 inch air shaft that was blocked with gibbers about 30 ft down. We devised a simple plan to drop a sausage of anfo (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) or 'nitro' locally. With the safety fuse alight, Shannon dropped the plastic bag down the hole attached to a skinny frayed rope with the idea that a small jolt at the bottom would release the sausage and we would crack the blockage. I still clearly remember the look on Shannon’s face when he brought the rope up and the bomb was still attached! There was still a smidge of time on the fuse so I grabbed the rope and hastily dropped it in the hole. Right then we realized the ute was only about ten feet from the hole and could suffer some damage from the blast. I quickly grabbed a short handled shovel and covered the hole thinking it may stop some rocks from flying out. Cerrracckk!! Off went the shot as we woo hooed and leaped with excitement at the adrenaline rush, being not too far from the hole. As the dust cleared, we noticed the shovel had disappeared, then looking upwards saw the shovel spinning at rpm about 150 ft in the air on it's way back down. Thankfully everything missed the ute and we survived. We literally had a blast, got the shaft cleared and the air flowing but all for very little opal in the end. One of the partners was always totally beside himself and yapped his face off every time a bomb exploded, our trusty red heeler cross mining dog Goof, Goofaloofa or Loofy as we liked to call him most. He loved the back of the ute better than anywhere else on earth, like any other bush dog. If we approached speed on the Stuart highway the wind would catch Loof's eyelids and lips, turning him into a freak. Brilliant for a laugh after a hard day mining, being full of endorphins and pretty 'surfed out'.

     Watch to see the process we followed mining this claim, and some of the spoils at the end...

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  • Gold Gem and Treasure article "Pillarbashing in Mintabie" by World Class Opal Circa 1999

    Drilling and blasting, looking for precious opal in Mintabie

    An old World Class Opal article from back in the day detailing an adventure to Mintabie, note the blasting, subsequent seam and resultant fine jewelry set ready for sale. 

    We have been at this a while! 

    The author drilling to place explosives, and then jackpicking after blasting.

    Drilling and blasting underneath the opal level and subsequent jackpicking down of the opal level. Circa 1999.

    Opal seam in the mine, opal freshly dug, and finished fine jewelry for sale.

    The 'kingstone' I cut this stone into a nice larger oval and two smaller ones, then had them set into solid 18k gold as a pendant and earring set. 

    The photos are pretty bad as I only had an analogue SLR camera but was happy to have documented the process!

    Sadly both Australian federal and state Liberal governments have shut the township of Mintabie meaning this opal field, and the opportunities it afforded to adventurous, entrepreneurial pioneers and indeed the local indigenous people, is now virtually abandoned. 

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