Opal Mining

Opal Tips 2

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Opal washing and processing as you have left your claim and driven the truck to the dam site, reverse it up to the vayer belt which will load it into the agitater. After applying large amounts of water and agitating the opal Clay do not forget to turn it down slow after most of the clay has turned into sludge and run out of the agitater through the mesh that have been cut on either side of the agitater, as you do not want any opal smashed as there will only be solid material left in the barrel like dogs stones and some sandstone from the roof of the claim and also a rock or too.

Opal orientation first you must pinch with a title cutter the outside of the black nobby, just to make sure there is no colour inside before disregarding any material . Orientation is the most important step in the cutting and polishing of opal, the trip to orientation opal rough is practising on a lot of cheap and low grade rough material for many many years and then you can start processing more expensive opal. The rubbing down and shaping is not all that difficult, to polish the opal can be difficult for some people as this is the finished product that buyers will be looking at.

To days topic is open cut mining first apply once you have received approval for a section 22 open cut method of mining. There are many requirements you must fulfil first step remove and keep topsoil, every 6 m you remove opal burden you must leave a 90° step, in this case you really need quite a large area if you want to look at the second level of opal carrying clay. And the most difficult part is for no reason you may leave the claim un-rehabilitated, all the over burden must be replaced and top soil replaced back before trees must be replanted and established.

To days opal topic buying rough rubs and cut stones, most of the buyers come to lightning Ridge some have shops others own homes , and many stay at motels or friend's homes. If they have a sign out the front stating that they are buying either rough or rubs or maybe both then jest walk in with your recent find and wait your turn to show them . It will be up to you and the schools you have will determine the money that you come out with, obviously a town like lightning Ridge gem usually always sells at a good price it is only the low grade cut stones and commercial stones that take some wheeling and dealing to obtain the best outcome

To days opal topic is buying opal, rough in particular driving out on to the opal feels is always a good way to start, its always best to drive out to the most recent rush and of course the business is done in hard currency cash, I have seen new buyers put large signs on their cars which will in turn attract miners with rough, it is usually a casual business transaction a miner will jest say to buyers are you interested in opal rough, and the answer back usually is not at the moment or you will often hear from experience middlemen the reply, maybe I will have a look if you do not mind. Obviously then it is up to you if you have a lot of schools in purchasing rough opal then take your time and have a good look. The miner in most cases will have a price he is asking and well the rest is between you and him to talk business.

Buying Opal especially rough parcels out on the Opal feels, please do not insult the primary producer as he works very hard and will go for a long time between finding his last parcel and his recent parcel. And he might get very angry if you knock his opal, and as you are a long way from any law enforcement officer you could be very uncomfortable driving back to the hospital to have some treatment. A very good softener up is to have a dozen cold beers in a mini fridge in the car, this often relaxes the miner and puts you in a better light.

Buying rough opal this is the most difficult to master , the best buyers are usually opal cutters who had spent many years cutting and orientating parcels of opal. You must realise that black opal, is very different from crystal opal, and Queensland bolder opal again is different to cut you need different types of cutting machinery. And there are many different bolder opal fields around the State of Queensland and they are all a bit different. Please remember the more parcels of rough opal you get to see before cutting and polishing, and of course the finished product will let you know how successful your judgment is and if you are improving or not.

Buying opal rubs, tools of the trade a very good set of magnified glasses and experience on the subject along with your hard currencies preferably Australian dollars. Experience counts here a good hard look make sure when the rub is cut and polished ,rule you lose much size, some very fine scratches made not come out of the face of the opal therefore you will have two cut to stones, in stead of one and if the opals are quite small then they are down valued particularly under one carat.

Buying cut and polished opal's this is not a easy perfession unlike sapphires ,rubies and diamonds. These particular gemstones if they are all facet a particular way and are all the same dimensions and clarity then it is not so difficult to price. Unlike opal you very rarely have a matching pair for examples to opal's shaped the same either symmetrical or free-form. And it is nearly impossible to find to opal's with the same pattern and colour play and of course matching weights. This is why opal buyers are very rare it is truly a specialist profession, they also need to keep up with the International price and also of the domestic feel price.

The famous 3 mile Opal feel of lightning Ridge was the richest area and the highest quality of all the black opal mining areas, great news the large open cut in the middle of the 3 mile is being fenced by the Department which controls all of the leases in the lightning Ridge and surrounding districts. They're all so will be built a $8 million fossil museum underground about 100 m from the famous open cut mines where the European settlers first discovered the most beautiful and rare pattern black opal, the Harlequin pattern as this is a spectacular tourist attraction and you can clearly see the profile of the different clay and sandstone types, and also all the old shafts, the department has excepted the proposal of a government heritage site because of its rare and unique history.

Todays opal topic detecting opal traces underground, the opal prospector is looking for signs of poch rich is a selector mineral that opal often forms on, there are many colours from jet black, black light black, grey and white. The nobby producing opal country can carry poch in three usual locations the roof of the claim victory in the clay face and sandstone roof is your best chance, you also have another chance around the middle of the face you are working, and sometimes seen poch running in seams along the floor of the mineral lease. Other signs dog stones which are hard small lumps of sandstone in the clay face which can have nobby and poch inside and mixed around the dog stones.

There are many signs you can follow if you are a opal lover steel ban running through the face, layers of different colour clay bands of colour being made up of colours such as dark orange, light brown's dark browns and yellow and white. You are also looking for fault lines large slides and faults running through the profile of the face, please remember when these claims dry out after time you can have pieces becoming dangerous. And why we are on the subject of safety, greasy back slides are dangerous sometimes and they do not need to dry out, the answer to keeping it safe, do not open the drive up to wide that you are working along and this will keep the claim in tacked and strong.

Other signs of opal underground and tools of the trade for prospecting, a lightweight pick and it is always best to have a prospecting generator left a few metres away from the entrance to the shaft so that your air does not get contaminated by the generator and you will have power underground, just run a few electric leads down the shaft because good strong powerful lighting is the secret to visually detecting signs and traces of opal. And remember a good ear when you are gouging is very handy indeed, as the opal may be millimetres or inches inside the clay and the only way to detect this is with a good ear as opal is silica, and sounds like scratching on glass when you scrape it with the peak, sell listen and take it easy when you hear this noise as you do not want to hit it too hard after you have detected this glassy sound you must work slow than to avoid breaking or chipping the uncut opal nobby.

Prospecting underground today's modern technology is not the answer forget about computers, metal detectors such as a electric gold detector, as opal is silica and is not a metal this is why the metal and gold detector is out of the question. Patience is a virtue slow and cautiously wander about, other signs are blows, what is a blows in the profile of the clay you will see a extreme mixture of colours splattered with pieces of sandstone and maybe nobby and opal material, these blows travel all the way to the surface usually another way to describe it as you are looking at the face of the claim where you are working stand back and visualise a large painting hanging on the wall and in the middle is a trolling whirlpool, mixtures of colours and solid material is being trolled around. This is what a blow looks like underground and is a very good chance particularly in my case small blows usually carry the opal.

Todays opal topic is on the subject of prospecting for black opal by the use of modern technology. The drilling rig the best vehicle for this work is a dual axle action track at the back of the vehicle, with a differential on the front stealing wheels also. This means you have a four-wheel-drive truck with a 8 inch drill bit reach will allow you to do or to the death of about 80 feet, you must be able to store plenty of water so you can process the clay from the opal levels as you will then be left with only solids in your small tumbler, you can then inspect the tailings four any signs of potch or colour and please make sure this is done in fall sunlight and a little bit of extra water being sprayed on the tailings for final expections to make sure you do not miss a chance at finding what you are looking for as I know personally of people which have missed seeing opal during droughts, as they could not get access to water and along came a specker after rain had fallen and viewing the previous drillers work found red on black after two years work of this claim he and his partner was worth $5 million Australian each.

To days Opal topic is the mining method of open cut mining, this method you will never miss a patch of Opal. The main reason to open cut a mining lease at lightning Ridge is only because it has been heavily work conventionally by men underground. If the claim was also quite a valuable claim and it is getting too dangerous and difficult to send men underground any more. Then the perfect method is opened cutting, as long as you owen the lease and when you apply for a section 22 at the mining registry office you will have to fulfil all the requirements, firstly you must apply at the local Court for approval.

Opal washing after all the clay has been thoroughly washed out of the barrel put the barrel into reverse which will bring all the solids to the top, and it will slowly run down the ramp for inspection by the mining team. Remember lots of water and you must have sunshine, collect all the nobby and opal material ready to take back to the cutting room, many guys like to retumble for a hour or two very slowly in a mini tumbler. This will make it extremely easy to identify the opal as every think will be extremely clean after this double processing of the nobby and opal material, you are ready now to orientate the opal first disregard all unwanted material now you are ready for rubbing down the rough material.

To days Opal theory - low cost mining specking around the Opal feels, which is the term used for people that prospect by going through other people's waste material. And some people do make a living out of this type of Opal production, it is always better to work on a clear sunny day looking for potch that might be carrying colour. And there is no better way to find Opal by this method then to go out after heavy rain as the clay and dust has been washed off any Opal material and the colour is so much easier to see with the naked eye.

To days Opal theory - gouging which is the term use for people that prospect claims that are no longer leased by any mining company. And as the claim has already been open up by mechanised machinery, it is now possible for people with a small gouging pick to lower some hanging lattice , this is a very inexpensive and cheap way to look for colour by chipping away underground looking for Opal trace that the previous miners might had missed. And of course if you find Opal you will naturally head up to the government mining Department and re-lease the claim into your name.

To days Opal tip - Terms used in the black Opal industry around the town of lightning Ridge New South Wales Australia. { Opal trace } this is the term used in the industry among the professionals, and it means fossil material-nobbys any colour potch - and of course Opal colour. Dog Stone's this is the term again used by miners which relates to sandstone of different shapes usually about the size of a man's hand. These dog stones can carry nobbys which can be carrying colour.

To days Opal theory - sorting through the Opal tailings ? What do we mean by tailings, tailings are the solid materials that are left at the end of the week in your tumbler or processing plant. Your processing plant usually is a 7 or 9 yard cement mixer and if you can process two 8 yards trucks a day then at the end of the week you will have a large amount of solid material left in the agitator barrel. The Opal Clay is a fine clean potting Clay which will turn to silt and run-off through the mesh plates in the side of the barrel of your agitator everytime it rotates, and naturally you have a water flow running constantly in the drum.

Today's Opal theory - is a continuation from yesterdays Opal theory. Processing the tailings I cannot emphasise how important this stage in the Opal business is. All the hard work is done and if there is Opal in the tailings then do not miss any colour, the secret is to slowdown work in full sunlight and have plenty of water as the Opal is rolling down the chute onto the expection table, slowly rotate the Opal nobbys and make sure they are washed clean of clay for good viewing. All good-looking nobbys should be taken home for further viewing and to pinch the corners with a hand-held title cutter to view the inner part of the nobby just in case there was Opal forming inside the nobby.

Today's opal tip - a continuation from yesterday's theme. We've talked about different

Types of Opal and their location in Australia . Today we will talk about the different types of Opal and their qualities, first of all we must talk about the rarest , the most famous, and the most gorgeous of all Opal the { Black Opal } what can you say stunning, mind blowing, out of this world like a comet in out of space it is a one of the kind. Queensland boulder opal usually loll grade compared to black Opal and crystal Opal, there are still some gem quality pieces among the huge amount of commercial grade Queensland boulder opal which is on the market, South Australia Coober Pedy Opal the largest suppliers of Opal in the world mainly white Opal and crystal Opal.

Today's opal tip - Queensland boulder opal fields this is mostly open cut mining I would advise the use of excavators and a 20 tonne minimum machine. The bulldozers were originally used for this particular type of Opal mining, unlike modern times the 20 tonne excavator is much more economical and is a must more useful machine as it can also lolled the material into a truck unlike a bulldozer you will need a second machine to do this particular type of work. Bulldozers are more expensive as you are pushing a huge weight of soil and also moving a huge machine at the same time and fuel is getting more expensive. Unlike excavators they are working from a stationary position and are only moving the upper part of the machine you will clearly notice the fuel bills are down.

Today's Opal tip - the locations to find different types of Opal in Australia, Lightning Ridge is the place to look for the rarest of all Opal, the famous Australian Black Opal the gem quality is absolutely dazzling and is the most gorgeous of all the Australian opals. Coober Pedy is the home of white Opal and are the largest suppliers in the world, and some of the crystal is of gem quality which is great value for gemstone lovers all around the world. Queensland Boulder Opal Fields are scattered around the country Yowah is famous for its Yowah nut opals for around the world. Winton is known for its Queensland boulder opal boulder opal is also found at Quilpie and a few other locations in Queensland. Opalton also has boulder opal, Andamooka has good quality opal to .

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