opal mining white cliffs nsw

fault is at the very tip of my finger, can follow it all around the mine..

a piece I found sitting on the surface of an old timers tailings nearby..

Thanks for the running log and photos 20xwater. It has definitely been an adventure. Looking forward to seeing you find the mother load. Good luck with it all.

seen this on a roundabout while on a tucker run to broken hill yesterday lol..

NOICE

Way to save money on posts hey ! :Y:

silver said:

Way to save money on posts hey ! :Y:

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lol..a few streets in that area named after minerals.

This thread is excellent. Insight into a unique lifestyle. Better than the "manicured lawn, white picket fence and nosy neighbours rut" so many of us seem to get bogged down in. Hope you find bucket loads of colour.

SneakyCuttlefish said:

This thread is excellent. Insight into a unique lifestyle. Better than the "manicured lawn, white picket fence and nosy neighbours rut" so many of us seem to get bogged down in. Hope you find bucket loads of colour.

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that's exactly what its all about!!!!! :Y: :Y: :Y:

Here we go people, starting a new mine, existing shaft with no bell out or drives..

side view of my plan, ruff and mud mappy(lol)..

above view of plan..


shaft has crossed through 3 faults(pics to come). plan is theoretical and may change in depths/directions.
moving the gear, furniture trolley(again) and wheel barrow did the job(saved dismantling) ..

step 1, bare 900d shaft..

step 2, install spill collars..

step 3, position shaft cover and align tipper..

step 4, bolt on tipper supports..

step 5, erect tipper and fasten to tipper cover..

step 6, ready for tipper leg(4 x 7ft lengths + 1 x 3ft)..

step 7, leg installed and pinned to shaft and test run..

completed in 2 days and ready to rock..

almost forgot lol, hard to take pic of a fault crossing a shaft at approx. 45 degree, left to right
of pic is looking down along best fault..

will take another pic of lower fault once driven a bit.

Your photos, drawings and commentary are fascinating to follow, 20xwater - thank you for sharing them with us. I wish you all the luck in the world with your mining: the hard yakka involved is all too evident. :Y:

finished setting up air,lights,power and tipper controls today..



belling out when you have no room and using a mini shovel is fun lol, all going good..

dad told me he rescued this bearded dragon out of this shaft over a year ago, said as soon
as he got him up the top he went straight for the shaft and spread eagled it back down lol..

looking down that small fault..

interesting and different ground..

on the chew..

just a couple of little shovel fulls lol, smashin it..

dad opened the flow on the hydraulic brake on the tipper for me so she comes back down pretty quick now :Y:

Love ta work 20xwater and I know that you know what you are doin, but just play safe mate!
love the pics and I cannot wait to see that flashy opal soon.
That kaolin is that the same as potch?
Good luck mate.
Mackka :Y:

Mackka said:

Love ta work 20xwater and I know that you know what you are doin, but just play safe mate!
love the pics and I cannot wait to see that flashy opal soon.
That kaolin is that the same as potch?
Good luck mate.
Mackka :Y:

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thanks mate, I keep assessing danger as I go, using a kaolin line/slide as my roof, dip angles of faults
and ground is the same mostly but the grey/ashy fault filler ground is like clay and shiny and wet in
places and hard rock like in others. keeping my drive really narrow is safest way to go.
kaolin not same as potch at all, potch is like fools gold I think lol

these are pics of a 2nd shaft I went down on claim 2, felt really un-safe because there was no ground left
everywhere except for the small pilla's, rat maze with 10m's of ground over head..

Nothing in them pillars worth thinking about hey !

Mackka said:

Love ta work 20xwater and I know that you know what you are doin, but just play safe mate!
love the pics and I cannot wait to see that flashy opal soon.
That kaolin is that the same as potch?
Good luck mate.
Mackka :Y:

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Kaolin is a hard, dry, white clay, usually called 'pipe clay' on the goldfields, where it's often found in alluvial workings. It was the material that gents' clay pipes were made from, back in Victorian times.

Potch is opal stone but without any colour - it's just a cloudy quartz.

So VERY interesting 20X

ray

grubstake said:

Mackka said:

Love ta work 20xwater and I know that you know what you are doin, but just play safe mate!
love the pics and I cannot wait to see that flashy opal soon.
That kaolin is that the same as potch?
Good luck mate.
Mackka :Y:

Click to expand...

Kaolin is a hard, dry, white clay, usually called 'pipe clay' on the goldfields, where it's often found in alluvial workings. It was the material that gents' clay pipes were made from, back in Victorian times.

Potch is opal stone but without any colour - it's just a cloudy quartz.

Click to expand...

was lucky enough to have Graham Dowton from Red earth mining come and have a look and talked to us for hours in mine/shaft 1.
I actually said 'what do you call this white line material' he said 'dirt' lol. rather than focus on ground types he looks for what
he calls 'active ground'.
I'm now fault chasing as a result.

Thanks Grubsteak and 20xwater very interesting and I now have a better understanding. I still think I will stay above ground but keep puttin up the pics.
Mackka