Contact Us
To purchase Opals or for more information, contact Graham using the form .
You've found the finest range anywhere on the Internet already! We pride ourselves on personal service.. As many customers have said, "they care about their customers ".We deliver value-for-money. Guaranteed - if you still need more reasons, : 21 Days Returns Period. No problems - just return it within 15 days!We have over 30 years opal experience. Certificates of Authenticity. All of our loose opal stones come complete with a free Certificate of Authenticity. Fast international delivery. We keep all opals and most jewellery in stock. We're happy to wrap and deliver your gift directly. 100% safe. You can trust us. We're certified. We meet Federal Government e-commerce standards. Keep in touch. Why not contact us with your question.
Or contact us using the following details:
| Email: | gems@grahamblackopal.com |
|---|---|
| Telephone: | , Po Box 326 lightning Ridge 2834 Australia. |
Graham Black Opal
I would like to thank the customers who visit my site and to let you know there are many more options of opal gems available for you to consider. Please e-mail me for further details.
PORTABLE POWER TOOLS USED FOR OPAL PROSPECTORS
Every opal prospector must have a 240 V electric mini welder, along with a angle grinder, one large - one small. A set of mechanical tools shifter speners, a good 4 pound hemer . And if you are lucky enough to afford a set of cutting torches and gas bottles then there is not much that can stop you and hold you up from being a professional opal prospector. And a good 12 V electric drill these are the bare essentials portable tools that you need available which can be readily transported out onto the opal fields and leases.
SAFETY EQUIPMENT IN THE OPAL INDUSTRY
One good government approved safety helmet you readily see men wearing these helmets in the building trade and around building sites in the cities, this will prevent reasonably small and light objects from damaging you if they fall from a higher position and land on the helmet. Also in your four-wheel-drive you should always have a first aid kit, a fire blanket, clean water, and fire extinguisher for electric fires as well as standard fires. It is also a good idea if people working in the outback which are so far away from medical facilities, that they have undertaken a first aid certificate course this maybe one day might save someone's life is not your own.
OPAL CUT MINING - EXCAVATORS VERSUS BULLDOZERS .
Open cut mining has become more evident in modern times as there is less opal fields that are available to prospectors, hence open cut mining the old worked out claims that had high-grade opal and their is still signs o f solid ground left in the old claims to work, usually it is to dangerously to go underground hence open cutting. We first started using bulldozers for this specialist opal mining operation fortunately like a lot of industries the excavator has taken over this piece of machinery is a lot more economical and working in conjunction with trucks the older burden can be economically placed in a stockpile for revegetation at a later date, or dumped in to a nearby open cut which is helping to revegetate an old existing open cut. As the machine is stationary and only the bucket is moving filling trucks you do not need large amounts of diesel fuel like a bulldozer that is not just moving the over burden it is also moving 30 tonnes of steel every time it pushes the soil, and when reversing back a long way to gather up more soil and over burden it is very painful when you are watching as you are paying the bill as the bulldozer is very slow and is not actually moving any soil at this stage unlike a excavator, also the bulldozers are very limited working in tight open cuts as there is nowhere to push the over burden.
TERMS USED IN THE BLACK OPAL MINING INDUSTRY
1:The Level The stratum in which opal is carried. 2: Windlass A winch for hauling dirt up out of the mine. 3: - Rough Is the term used by miners when they offer uncut opal for sale. 4: Rush Hurrying to peg claims after the discovery of a rich opal find. 5: Rubbing Down The first process in cutting opal where the outer layer of material is removed . 6: Sandstones Strata associated with Australian sedimentary opal, of a felspar base , not quartz. 42 - Semi Opal A term used to describe forms of material which are usually part opal. 7: New Chum Or a green horn - someone without experience 8: Opal Dirt A common name to describe shales and clays which carry opal . 9: Parcel A term used when offering a number of opals for sale . 10: Potch A common opal . 11: Roof top section of a opal tunnel. 12: Milk Opal A white form of opal , either common or precious. 13: Miner’s Right A mining licence which allows certain rights to the holder.( Except for New South Wales , 14: Mullock opal dirt which has been brought up from down in the mine and dumped on the surface .
15 - Gouge This term is used to describe a miner digging out opal, or digging with a pick in anticipation of striking opal. 16 - Harlequin When applied to opal, the pattern has nearly ninety degree angles of colour. In the early days, the “harlequin” description was reserved exclusively for a stone exhibiting squares of different colours which changed as the stone was moved . 17 - Hyalite A glassy, transparent form of common opal. 27 - Ironstone Much of Queensland’s opal is found in a common ironstone boulder, which is usually a combination of aluminium oxide,silicon dioxide and ferrous oxide . 18 - Matrix Meaning a mixture , or enclosing. A common term used to describe a form of boulder in which flecks or veins of colour are seen . 19 - Fire Opal A common term used to describe certain forms of Mexican opal which don’t necessarily have moving colours. When applied to Australian opal , it implies lively, moving colours. 30 - Floor The bottom of a drive or tunnel. 20 - Floater The term used to describe a boulder or a piece of opal which has been released from an opal-bearing level through weathering. 21 - Foul Air Stale air in which ,due to the lack of circulation in the mine,poisonous gases can be built up . 22 - Free form A piece of opal where the natural shape of the stone has been kept when cutting. 23 - Specking To search old mine heaps for traces of opal. 23- Tailings Material which is left over after the miner has gone through them.
24 - Open cut mining usually this expensive mining practice, is only undertaken on heavily worked and dangerous Opal leases. Which were very productive in previous times.25 - There is no sheep station in this one, a term used by miners that rub or cut their own Opal. Usually one man will say to his partner after shaping the Opal rough , this term means no luck again. 26 - A slab, often used for a barter for Opal purchased, which is 24 cans of beer one box for a straight forward swap for the Opal. 27 - Ratter A word from early days of opal mining for a thief who enters a claim which is known to be producing opal , usually at night . Natural Jointed A term used by the miners to describe lumps of the same piece of opal which all join neatly together in the ground 28 - Band A hard silicious band of sandstone, usually at the bottom of the sandstone stratum . 29 - Biscuit Band A flaky sandstone band , quite shallow. can contain opal. 30 - Bluebottle A blue coloured potch, more commonly found with boulder opal. 31 - Calcareous A geological term to describe chalky types of sands and shales . 32 - Claypan A flat open bare area of country with little or no vegetation .
33- Claim Jumping Using the letter of the law to take another miner’s claim for not fulfilling the conditions of the lease . 34 - Datum Post A fixed starting point, to a granted mining area . 35- Deep Country Any area of a field which requires deep shafts to reach the opal level, The opposite to a shallow country .36 - Double Bar Two horizontal parallel bars of colour running through a piece of opal. 37- Duffer A mine or shaft which produces no opal. 38- Face The wall of a mine which usually carrying opal. 39 - Seam Opal Opal found in pockets or long horizontal seams 40- Sedimentary A geological term for water or wind worn material which has settled and become consolidated 41 - Shin cracker A hard porcelain type of opal dirt, which flies up when hit with a heavy pick, striking the miner in the shins 42- Siliceous One of many names used in geology to describe silicon dioxide compounds. 43- Common Opal Valueless ,lusterless opal which does not show any play of colour . 44 - Conglomerate A term used in geology to describe a coherent mass of water worn pebbles and gravel in cement-like material. 45- Bottomed The bottom of a shaft which has broken through the layer of sandstone which lies immediately above the opal dirt.46 - Boulder opal Opal which has formed in crevices or cracks in iron or sandstone boulders.
AUSTRALIAN OPAL GEMSTONE
LINES UNDER OPALS It is not usually a problem with marks under the opal unless it is a extremely expensive gem quality Opal and you are paying big money, and if they are dark in colour I would not quarry about it at all. If they are extremely light in colour or white running through the dark background of the bottom of the Opal then you do not want to pay much money for these particular opals as it could possibly be a weakness and with changing climatic conditions from hot to cold you can have movement. And if they are cracks that you can clearly see with a magnifying glass then keep away altogether from this type of gemstone unless you are getting it for next to nothing. And if it is crystal opal which is very clear it can deter from the value obviously as you will see it clearly looking from the front of the opal.
LUCK OPALS An ancient Egyptian painting depicting jewellery" The folklore
connected with crystals, gems, and precious stones is as old as it is varied.
Much of this tradition dates back to the beginnings of civilization, when
jewelry was worn not only as adornment but also as protection against occult
forces and human foolishness. Amethyst, for example, was thought to sober
drunks, quell sexual passion, and cure baldness. Aquamarine was believed to
protect seafarers, while emeralds increased fertility and intelligence, imparted
prophetic ability, and other wild talents. Rubies provided defense against every
kind of misfortune, made hostile neighbors friendly, and promoted one's stature
in the community. The opal's nasty reputation however has troubled folklorists
for centuries. Fantastic legends have grown up around this harmless stone,
cautionary tales designed to discourage those who might otherwise find
themselves mortally attracted by its fiery brilliance. To this day, the odd
prejudice against opals remains alive and well in some corners of the world,
especially in the backwaters of southern Europe and the Middle East, where
jewellers won't carry opals and customers won't buy them. Throughout history,
while many stones were prized for their positive magical qualities, others were
denounced as vessels of evil. No gem was more vilified than the poor opal.
Witches and sorcerers supposedly used black opals to increase their own magical
powers or to focus them like laser beams on people they wanted to harm. Medieval
Europeans dreaded the opal because of its resemblance to "the Evil Eye," and its
superficial likeness to the optical organs of cats, toads, snakes, and other
common creatures with hellish affiliations. An opal completely contaminated with
evil were believed capable of maiming or even killing a person foolish enough to
wear or own it. Tales alleging to prove this are few in number, but the belief
persists nevertheless, like those old but curiously tenacious admonitions about
walking under ladders, stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, or allowing a black
cat to dart across one's path. Popular superstitions such as these will be with
us always, but however fanciful they may be, most have prosaic origins.
The Romans established opal as a precious gemstone, obtaining their supplies
from traders in the Middle East. Opals from this era are thought to have come
from Cernowitz, a mountainous region in what was at that time Hungary , but now
Slovakia. However early Romans believed the source was India, an incorrect
belief promoted by traders in order to protect their interests. They believed
the opal was a combination of the beauty of all precious stones, and it is well
documented in Roman history that Caesars gave their wives opal for good luck.
They ranked opal second only to emeralds, and carried opal as a good luck charm
or talisman because it was believed that like the rainbow, opal brought its
owner good fortune. In the days when Rome spread her legions across Europe and
Africa, a Roman Senator by the name of Nonius opted for exile rather than sell
his valuable opal to Marc Antony who wanted to give it to his famous lover
Cleopatra. In fact, in Roman times, the gem was carried as a good luck charm of
talisman, as it was believed that the gem, like the rainbow, brought its owner
good fortune. To the Romans, it was considered to be a token of hope and
purity. It was also referred to as the "Cupid Stone" because it suggested
the clear complexion of the god of love. The early Greeks believed the opal
bestowed powers of foresight and prophecy upon its owner, while in Arabian
folklore, it is said that the stone fell from heaven in flashes of lightning.
The Oriental traditions referred to them as "the anchor of hope". Lucky opal -
the stone of hope, the birthstone of October. Early races credited opal with
magical qualities and traditionally, opal was said to aid its wearer in seeing
limitless possibilities. It was believed to clarify by amplifying and mirroring
feelings, buried emotions and desires. It was also thought to lessen inhibitions
and promote spontaneity. In the 7th Century it was believed that opals possessed
magical properties, and centuries later Shakespeare was attributed with the
description of opal as "that miracle and queen of gems". Eastern peoples also
dealt very heavily in this precious stone, which was believed to bring luck and
to enhance psychic abilities. However, the entire time the Hungarian mines
supplied Europe with opal, including a stone for the crown of a Roman Emperor,
superstitions circulated attributing evil powers and maladies to the colourful
stone. In the eleventh century, Bishop Marbode of Rennes wrote of opal, "...Yet
'tis the guardian of the thievish race; It gifts the bearer with acutest sight;
But clouds all other eyes with thickest night." This is thought to be based on
the idea that opal granted its bearer with invisibility, therefore it was a
talisman for thieves, spies and robbers! Opals were also thought to have
teleportation powers. A piece of opal jewelry might suddenly disappear from some
obvious place, only to turn up weeks or months later somewhere unexpected. Of
course, forgetfulness might also be to blame. Fear and loathing of the opal did
not discourage the development of a counter folklore which cast the stone as a
symbol of hope, innocence, and purity. The Arabs of Mohammed's time were quite
enamored of the gem, and were convinced they were carried to earth on bolts of
lightning. European writers and poets of the Middle Ages also sang the opal's
praises, claiming it had curative effect on bad eyes, protected children from
predatory animals, banished evil, and made entertainments, friendships, and
romances much more intense and enjoyable. Fair-haired girls in Germany and
Scandinavia were encouraged to wear opal pins in their hair, as they were
thought to add magical luster to their golden locks and protect them from
freezing rain, wind, and other vicissitudes of the Nordic climate. In the Middle
Ages, the opal was known as the "eye stone" due to a belief that it was vital to
good eyesight. Blonde women were known to wear necklaces of opal in order to
protect their hair from losing its color. Some cultures thought the effect of
the opal on sight could render the wearer invisible. Opals were set in the Crown
jewels of France and Napoleon presented his Empress Josephine a magnificent red
opal containing brilliant red flashes called "The Burning of Troy." The
"Evil Eye" Medieval Europeans shunned opal because of its likeness to the eyes
of several "evil" animals, such as cats. Fear of the Evil Eye, common to
cultures the world over, was and remains especially acute in the Mediterranean.
Simply defined, the term signifies a covetous or malicious glance meant to bring
harm. Witches were thought to possess this awful power in great abundance,
though common people with unrealized magical talents could also wield it, albeit
unconsciously. The Eye did its stuff directly and indirectly. It could strike
its intended victim sick or dead on the spot, or kill family members, blight
crops, sicken livestock, or summon a storm with the muscle to level a house, a
village, or an entire town. The Evil Eye's association with the opal probably
originated in Elizabethan England. There the stones were called "ophals," a
shortening of the word ophthalmos, which referred to the human eye. The Evil Eye
was accepted as fact in 16th Century Britain, as was belief in omens and
auguries. In the minds of superstitious Elizabethans, the occult link between
ophals and ophthalmos was both obvious and ominous. Fear of the Eye crossed the
Atlantic with European settlers. In Puritan New England, colonists wore
heart-shaped pendants with prayers inside to protect themselves from the godless
gaze of Satan's servants - witches, sorcerers, and magic workers who could be
found in every forest clearing, every abandoned barn, and under every bed.
Ironically, they had it all wrong. The word opal had actually descended from the
Roman "opalus," an ancestor of the modern opal that was thought to heal the
blind and make a person invisible to his enemies. Opalus was among the most
virtuous of stones. To the Romans, who in their own way were even more
superstitious than the Elizabethans, it was certainly no kin to the Evil Eye.
During the late 18th and 19th centuries opal fell out of favour, as it
was associated with pestilence, famine and the fall of monarchies. Opal was also
tied to the Black Plague, an affliction that struck in the middle of the 14th
Century, ultimately eradicating more than a third of Europe's population and
much more in neighboring territories. During the decimation of Europe by the
Black Death, it was rumoured that an opal worn by a patient was aflame with
colour right up to the point of death, and then lost its brilliance after the
wearer died. As the plague put Europe under siege, desperate people searched for
a scapegoat. They found several in the persons of Jews, heretics, and, of
course, the much-maligned opal. Queen Victoria, however, did much to reverse the
unfounded bad press. Queen Victoria became a lover of opal, kept a fine personal
collection, and wore opals throughout her reign. "The year 1348, an astrological
Martial sub-cycle, saw Venice assailed by destructive earthquakes, tidal waves
and the Plague," wrote Isidore Kozminsky in The Magic and Science of Jewels and
Stones. "The epidemic in a few months carried off two-thirds of the population
of the city sparing neither rich nor poor, young nor old. It is said that at
this time the opal was a favorite gem with Italian jewelers, being much used in
their work. It is further said that opals worn by those stricken became suddenly
brilliant and that the luster entirely departed with the death of the wearer.
Story further tells that the opal then became an object of dread and was
associated with the death of the victim." Many centuries later, a Spanish king
would sully the opal's already sordid reputation further still. In the late 19th
Century, Alfonzo XII fell madly in love with a beautiful aristocrat named the
Comtesse de Castiglione. The Comtesse reciprocated the King's affection, but
months before the pair were to wed the faithless Alfonzo married another woman,
the Princess Mercedes. Vowing to get even, the Comtesse sent the couple a
wedding present in the form of a magnificent opal set in a huge ring of the
purest gold. The princess was immediately smitten by the gift and insisted that
her husband slip it on her finger. He obliged, and two months later the princess
mysteriously died. After the funeral Alfonzo gave the ring to his grandmother,
Queen Christina, who almost immediately thereafter also expired. After that the
ring passed to Alfonzo's sister, the Infanta Maria del Pilar. Maria died as
well, apparently victim to the same weird illness that had taken the other two
women. The ring was up for grabs yet again, and when Alfonzo's sister-in-law
expressed an interest, he let her have it with the usual result. Deeply
depressed by then, the King decided to end it all by slipping the ring on his
own finger, just as Cleopatra had embraced the asp to terminate her own misery.
In little over a month, the ring did to Alfonzo what the snake had done to the
Egyptian Queen. The ring was finally attached to a gold chain and strung around
the neck of a statue of the patron saint of Madrid, the Virgin of Alumdena. That
put an end to the incredible chain of tragic circumstances, but was the gem
really responsible for the calamities besetting this royal family? According to
Kozminsky, it seems pretty unlikely. "At this time it must be remembered that
cholera was raging through Spain," he writes in The Magic and Science of Jewels
and Stones. "Over 100,000 people died of it during the summer and autumn of
1885. It attacked all classes from the palace of the king to the hut of the
peasant, some accounts giving the death estimate at 50 percent of the
population. It would be as obviously ridiculous to hold the opal responsible for
this scourge as it was to do so in the previously noted plague at Venice. All
that may be said is that in this case the opal was not a talisman of good for
King Alfonzo XII of Spain and to those who received it from his hand, and that
in the philosophy of sympathetic attraction and repulsion man, stones, metals
and all natural objects come under the same law." The saddest opal saga
is the oft-repeated misconception in the last of Sir Walter Scott's
novels, Anne of Geierstein (1829), which irrevocably linked opal to
misfortune. Having not read the third volume, the public jumped to the
conclusion that the heroine has been bewitched, that her magic opal discolours
when touched by holy water, and that she dies as a result. On carefully
examining the texts, Si Frazier, writing in Lapidary Journal, found all
three accusations false. The opal, which actually belonged to Anne's exotic
grandmother, turns out to have turned pale as a warning to its owner against
poisoning (which was the actual cause of her grandmother's death). Even so, this
single work plunged opal prices to half in just one year and crippled the
European opal market for decades. George F. Kunz, author of The Curious
Lore of Precious Stones, says, "There can be little doubt that much of the
modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its
origin to a careless reading of Sir Walter Scott's novel, 'Anne of Geierstein'.
The wonderful tale... contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to
represent opal as unlucky." Another contributing factor to opal's bad
reputation may be the fact that opals are a relatively fragile gemstone. Opals
are a soft gemstone compared to diamonds, and can be broken if mis-treated or
treated roughly. This may have contributed to an overall perception of opal as
"bad luck", since anybody would be heartbroken to lose a precious beautiful opal
or family heirloom. "A possible explanation of the superstitious dread that opal
used to excite some time ago may be found in the fact that lapidaries and
gem-setters to whom opals were entrusted were sometimes so unfortunate as to
fracture them in the process of cutting or setting," wrote George Frederick Kunz
in The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. "This was frequently due to no
fault on the part of the cutters or setters, but was owing to the natural
brittleness of the opal. As such workmen are responsible to the owners for any
injury to the gems, they would soon acquire a prejudice against opals, and would
come to regard them as unlucky stones. Very widespread superstitions have no
more foundation than this, for the original cause, sometimes quite a rational
one, is soon lost sight of and popular fantasy suggests something entirely
different and better calculated to appeal to the imagination." One royal opal
did bring terrible misfortune to the hapless goldsmith who broke it during
setting. The unforgiving Louis XI ordered his hands cut off! It's no surprise
that few of his colleagues thereafter had anything good to tell buyers about
opal, therefore some blame opal’s maligned reputation on the difficulty that
lapidaries had with cutting and setting them. Some maintain that diamond
merchants of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries saw the amazing attributes of
opal and realised it was going to be a serious threat to their livelihood. When
high quality Australian opal appeared on the market in the 1890's, it is
understood that diamond cartels actively spread the false rumour that opal was
unlucky and seriously damaged the reputation of opals. Opal, with its stunning
play of colour, was increasing in popularity and could represent a threat to the
lucrative diamond trade now that it was being mined commercially. The story goes
that jealous diamond traders spread the belief that opals are bad luck to
protect themselves and give opals a bad reputation. Some of the rumours stuck
and became the 'old wives' tales which are still repeated today. The lucky
stone Isidore Kozminsky in the 1922 edition of his book The Magic and
Science of Jewels and Stones states that "perhaps against no other gem has
the bigotry of superstitious ignorance so prevailed as against the wonderful
opal." He also cites several historical references to the talismanic qualities
of opal including the story of a French baron who resided in London, who owned
an opal that had been in the family since the twelfth century. In 1908 he took
the opal to the London Pavilion where a soothsayer told him that the opal would
bring him good fortune and that he was about to inherit £500,000! The London
newspaper "Evening News" reported that within a few days the soothsayers'
prediction had come true, it also stated that the ancient opal had a feint
inscription in old Spanish, which translated to the words "Good Luck". Another
anecdote tells the tale of a rich city financier who took his 'opal ring' to a
jeweller: he wanted to sell it because of the ill luck it had brought him. A
tale of misfortune was recounted. As a result of wearing the ring, his wife had
fallen ill, a condition that also affected his son, and he encountered among
many other troubles financial difficulties and ill health. The jeweller,
however, merely smiled and showed him that the stone in the ring was not an opal
but a moonstone. Only his imagination had endowed the opal ring with such
unpleasant properties. There are many reports of opal bringing people luck,
including the many opal miners who have made their fortunes and have lived long
and prosperous lives. A well known piece of history comes from the Lightning
Ridge Historical Society. Mick McCormack, a young opal miner at Lightning Ridge,
rode off on his bike when war was declared and went to enlist, simply saying to
his friends "I'll be back". A lifetime went by and a very old man was in the
Lightning Ridge Hotel showing a piece of opal that he had mined and carried with
him through the Great War. At the time he was showing it a buyer offered him
1500 pounds Australian for the stone. The old man said, "1500 quid? Not on your
life, mate - I wouldn't accept fifteen thousand quid. I carried this opal
through the war with me and I remember one time when I thought it was my last
day on earth. Men were killed all around me. Night time, it was, and there was
the flashes of the guns and the shells bursting all around us. My hair was
standing up and I was sweating. I was really frightened. I had the opal in my
tunic pocket. I took it out and looked at it and something …sort of …calmed me
down. I looked at the opal in my hand and I thought , some day, I've got to go
back to the Ridge. And I'll get back! And I'll take this stone back to where it
came from. No mate, money can't buy this stone." A couple of old miners finally
realised who this old man was. They had grown up with him as kids and it was
their old mate Mick who had been true to his word and had finally brought his
stone home. Despite all of this and more, the bad rap against opals has stuck
through the ages. This can be partially explained by human nature. For most
people, a bad opal will always have more appeal than a good one, a cursed opal
more fascination than an opal that brings good luck, wards off wicked
influences, or cures. We humans love a mystery, and the darker the mystery, the
better we like it. "Opals", by Fred Ward, Gem Book Publishers, 1997.
"Australian Precious Opal", Andrew Cody, 1991. "Fatal Attraction", by D. Douglas
Graham, Colored Stone magazine, September / October 2001. Read Jan Stirling the
head coach of the ladies world champion basketball team simply known as the
Opals , endorsement of the Australian Opal industry
COPYRIGHTS 2008