Mining Opal in Aus (Smarter Every Day)

Thought you might like this @Notachickmagnet if you haven't seen it already.

 

My Aunt Ivy, now deceased, was from Australia. She new I liked rockhounding and gave me several nice uncut raw opals. Beautiful. I've got a rare fire opal from the Virgin Valley opal mining area in NW Nevada.
Opals are my favorite.

 

Opals are definitely incredibly cool. I've got a bevy of miscellaneous raw stones that I keep around as well in hopes that one day I'll do something with them. Emeralds are my favorite though.

 

Send some to me, I’ll cut and polish them for you.

 

Thanks, I'm not sure if I've got any gem-quality stones (I honestly need to have many of them analyzed to see what they actually are). The vast majority of what I have is just tailings, so I was planning on seeing if I could make some interesting cabs and/or spheres out of some of them.

 

@Sas how the heck did I not see this!!!!
That video is pretty cool!
Are you a rockhound!?

 

Not nearly to the extent that you are. I really like geology (almost made it my major) and enjoy collecting rocks when I come across something interesting, but it's more of a pastime than an actual hobby.

 

Rockhounding gives me a reason to get out and see places I have never been. I dont know what I would call it actually! Was supposed to be on a month long trip this month rockhounding but my pup needs a fence so I canceled. Only been out once this year. Still seem to pull rocks out of the dirt here in the yard that I stick in my pocket!

 

I've been meaning to take a camping trip out to the Crater of Diamonds state park in Murfreesboro, AR and do some scrounging around. Seems like an interesting way to spend a long weekend.

I used to watch a show called something like Gem Hunters? I think it was only on for a few episodes. Anyhow, they were out somewhere in UT (I think) digging up some interesting gemstone quality stones. Been trying to find that episode b'c that was another trip I've been wanting to do.

 

Crater of Diamonds has been on my list for awhile now, just havent made it yet!
You said emeralds are your favorite, I mined for emerald in N.C. a couple of years ago, didnt find anything worth a mention but the mine was so cool!
It's always pretty neat when you can camp right in the mine!

 

I've only briefly read about that area. I've always thought it would be interesting to buy directly from a source or two in Columbia - but, you know, I'd rather not get murdered/kidnapped in the process lol.

 

Yeah that might put a quick stop to things!

 

We spent a couple of days at crater of diamonds in early August. We didn’t find diamonds, but lots of agates and quartz, and we had a lot of fun digging in the dirt. I highly recommend it!

 

I like agates! I do need to get there one of these days!