A look through my opal mine

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My sincere apologies Rodney, I just thought it was a bit unusual that you didn't answer some of the members questions and put a stone up for sale.
Again my sincere apologies and I wish you the best of luck with your mine.
Mackka
 
Mackka I don't see how you saying you smell something and that my stone is potch has anything to do with me not answering a couple of questions. I don't think you asked me a question that I did not answer.
 
Awesome stones ,love the colours. Would love to have one like that when I find a big nugget to fund it :Y:
 
Hi and Good work.. I joined the forum to chat to opal miners I have heaps of questions ..is there a living in it for you. I often wonder if the opals that are found are easily sold. Do you use an agent to sell them or do you auction them like ebay. A gram of gold is money and can be sold the day you find it, how do you turn over opal without starving..I guess my question is are there buyers to keep you in cash without ripping you off. your opal pics are 1st class opal do you have a per carat cost. And do you get it..Cheers thanks
 
Gday Gemo I am a full time miner and its a tough game sometimes you do very well other times I have to go roos Shootin Ill get a job working for a cocky so you can afford to buy some diesel to go back underground Opal price has come back up a bit and black is always easy to sell usually we sell to buyers they stay in motels in town and put a sign out the front to tell us which room they are in and you just go and knock on the door and yes you can sell on eBay or we have buyers that we just sell to all the time buyers are always a bit dodgy last year I sold two stones one for $2000 one for $3000 I had cut both of them so they were finished stones. The next day he had them on his site for 12,000 and 15,000 which is pretty typical. No two opals are the same you cant work out a Standard per carat price lots of blokes come to make there fortune Opal mining not many of them last it is like a sickness you will sell everything and do anything just to get back under ground to try and find a better opal than you found before. You have to have a real love for Opal and the lifestyle one of the few places left you can still have some freedoms to do what you want.
 
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hope your mines doing better than mine. ;) I dont actually have one but got these out of mates back yard and thought ide have a go at rubbing them up a bit. Never done it before and has been a bit hot for me to go looking for gold so spent the day under a tree with a bit of water and a grinding stone playing around.There not great stones but pretty to me for my first go :D
 
Any idea where they might have come from? Im in vic and mate brought the place a while ago off an old bloke who obviously used to go looking for opal. Im geussing qld.
 
Thanks for the info..I think I will get a regular opal seller/miner to sell my opal for the first few times. I'm off to coober soon its different there sell rough and by the oz so unless it's high quality I will need plenty to get what you got for your 2 x stones Ill need to hit a fair bit of material its possible. I love the chase Ill post a pic or 2 when there.
 
Those two nice pieces would be either Yowah or Koroit matrix opal.
Around Opalton, similar matrix opal occurs in fossilised tree root systems.

Boulder opal is usually more "flattish" where the opal formed in a thin crack in an ironstone "boulder" and rivals Lightning Ridge material in its flash and fire especially when there is a manganese backing between the opal and ironstone.
The fact it is not a solid, black potch backed opal (LR) but a natural formed "doublet" makes for the difference in value.

Just a few years ago, trying to sell boulder opal in Lightning Ridge for a decent price was hopeless. :(
Take it to Coober Pedy and they cant get enough of it. :)
Mike
 

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