Opal mining

There are many opal mining towns in Australia such as Coober Pedy, Andamooka, White Cliffs and Lightning Ridge.

Opal mining

Those mines are wild and unruly places surrounded by a moonscape of mullock hump where miners fight against horrendous climatic conditions in their search for precious gemstones.

Opal mining

Opaline silica not only fills the larger voids mentioned but also may fill the pore space in silt and sand size sediments cementing the grains together forming unique deposits.

Crystal Opal

Crystal Opal contains strong colour play in a transparent or translucent body. The colours are sharp and visible below surface. It’s come in all color variations and display bright colors which can be either light or dark and are solid. It is mined mainly at Andamooka in South Australia and at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales.

Black Opal

Black Opal’s colours are generally of dark gray, dark blue, dark green, and gray-black basic colour and play of colour. Deep black is highly sought after because of its beauty and rarity. The mines of black opal are situated at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales or Mintabie with only small amounts come from the fields around Coober Pedy.

Boulder Opal

Boulder Opal is covered with dark base surface and has the character of colour play and high density. Occurs as pebble rock, where opal fills hollow. Boulder opal is found at a number of locations in Queensland with small quantities of them stemming from Andamooka in South Australia.

Honey Opal

Honey Opal is display honey–yellow and translucent. It’s mined in Western Australia.

Doublet Opal

Doublet Opal is composed of slice of precious opal which has been bonded to an ironstone boulder backing. The dark backing enhances the brilliance of the opal, giving it an appearance similar to black opal.

Triplet Opals

Triplet Opals is similar and consists of slice of precious opal bonded to a black backing together with a piece of colorless quartz ,glass or crystal dome on top which protects the opal. The transparent cap protects the opal layer and adds depth to the triplet.

Opal matrix

Opal matrix is banded growth or leafed inclusion of precious opal with in the matrix rock. Matrix opal can also be formed naturally where the silica has run into the minute cracks and crazing in ironstone boulder and this form is called boulder matrix.

 
The name of Opal is evolved from an Indian word of “stone”. It always contains water and is made up of tiny microscopic spheres of silica. It is these tiny spheres that give opal its amazing colours by breaking white light up into rays of different colours.