How Do I Opal Mine?
Opal how do I go mining in Australia
Step 1 First of all you must come to Australia and travel to the out back town of lightning Ridge in the State of New South Wales ,step 2 Contact the government office situated on the main road on the left-hand side as you drive into town ,to lease a opal claim In lightning Ridge you need to take part in a short 1 1/2 day safety awareness course which is organised by the New South Wales primary industry ,This course has a small charge just over hundred Australian dollars and then you will be awarded a certificate. You can view a copy just under all this information .If you do not have a miners operates workshop certificate you will have to organise to work with a miner who has the certificate .You can complete this course in a similar way that you received your safety awareness course ,the only difference is it is a one-day course.
Australia's three basic kinds of opal are found along the edge of what, millions of years ago, was a vast inland sea known as the Great Artesian Basin. Opal fields stretch thousands of kilometres along this geological feature. The main opal fields are Lightning Ridge, NSW (Black opal), Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie, SA (Light opal) and Yowah, Koroit, Quilpie, Opalton and Winton, central QLD (Boulder opal). Australian opals are categorised according to their background or body colour.
BLACK OPAL The term "Black opal" derives from the natural black potch base, which provides a dark background to the rainbow of colours. Black opals are found 600 km north west of Sydney at Lightning Ridge. They were also mined at White Cliffs, NSW, but this field has fallen into disuse. Their rarity and very dark background makes them the most valuable of opals. BOULDER OPAL Boulder opal is found in ironstone boulders and when cut and polished a backing of ironstone is kept. This backing of ironstone is important because the boulder opal deposit can be quite thin as the opal is found in the cracks and crevices between the ironstone rock. Boulder opal is often cut in a free form or baroque shape. An interesting and rare form of boulder opal is boulder matrix, where rivulets of opal run throughout the ironstone. LIGHT OPAL Light opals are mined at Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie in South Australia. Around 80% of precious opal found is light opal. Their milky white background elicit more subtle hues. Many interesting opalised fossil specimens are found in the South Australian opal fields, especially shells.
MINING EQUIPMENT
On the nobby opal fields around lightning Ridge the primary producers in the black opal industry use 7 or 9 yard agitators. In the modern days they use large cement mixers which is taken off the back of the cement truck and securely fitted to the ground, where 2 feet square mesh windows are cut in both sides of the barrel and a high tensor small steel mesh screen is fitted. This allows the opal clay to mix with water and the sludge then will run through the mesh everytime the barrel agitate around, at the end of the procedure when the clay is all out of the bowel there is only sell material left which is named tailings and can be sorted through at a later date.
JACKHAMMERS
This handheld device was one of the very first mechanised piece of machinery used in the opal industry, and was the very first piece of machinery that was used in the opal shafts and drives underground. The jackhammer replaced a lot of hard work and the miners were able to replace their picks and shovels with the jackhammer. In today's time there are not many people in the black opal industry that enjoy using jackhammers as it still takes quite a strongman to use such a machine, and mechanised underground diggers have taken over the industry.
DIGGERS
Underground diggers are a labour saving device and more, there are many underground diggers that are used throughout the Australian opal industry, the South Australian Coober Pedy diggers are usually a different construction than the black opal industry uses. The lightning Ridge black opal industry underground digger is not a complex piece of machinery, it is basically a underground backhoe that does not have rubber tyres or a backhoe bucket, only the digger teeth. Unlike a backhoe it does not transport the the opal clay into the truck or either stockpile it aside, it only breaks the clay up from the front of the face of the drive and drops clay on the floor of the claim ready for removing easily. By which ever method the prospector has at his disposal underground blower, etc.
LONG THROW OPAL HOIST
This method of retrieving the opal clay from deep underground is the best way to stockpile clay aboveground on your opal lease, as the long throw opal hoist will place a large stockpile of opal clay , a safe distance from your opal shaft to prevent any spillage running down your shaft. The stockpile will end up a large pyramid shape of opal clay, and you will have to stop as soon as the bottom of the pyramid expands too close to the opal shaft which will make it too dangerous to work. With a truck and loader you can transport a truck load at a time to the washing plan for processing.
SHORT'S THROW OPAL HOIST
This particular way of removing opal clay from your mineral lease needs a truck as well as a short throw hoist. This hoist is the quickest to set up for a quick look at a new opal mine lease, as it does not take a long time to set up and obviously pack up and move to a new prospecting area if the claim is not showing opal trace. The short throw hoist is not a good idea f or stockpiling with out a truck, this hoist deftly needs a truck parked under the hoist at all time ready for processing when it is full. And if there are two men working the lease one can take the truck for processing to the opal plant and the other ideally parks a second truck under the hoist and begins the step all over again.
DIESEL GENERATOR LEADS AND LIGHTS
A 3.5 kVA diesel generator is usually the preferred power plant used by professional opal miners, this type of generate is extremely economical which is most important in today's opal mining with fuel prices getting very expensive and making it difficult for prospecting and opal mining. 3.5 kVA generator has enough power to run a house and is not to large and bulky for transporting from claim to claim. Plenty of good quality 240 watt leads are necessary to work a opal claim, I would prefer two 500 W lights pointed directly over my shoulder directly at the face while I am working a digger. And of course smaller hundred watt lights along the length of the drive.
TYPES OF OPAL TRUCKS
There are many trucks available to miners, in the black Opal industry around lightning Ridge and the surrounding towns. I would recommend only certain types of trucks a double axle at the back of the truck is the most sought after truck used by black opal miners. Which can carry large amounts of material and as most of the processing plants are difficult to operate with large twins steering trucks as there is not a lot of room to reverse your truck back to the agitator. Also a single back axle truck is very handy as it also does not need much room for turning, the problem is it cannot carry a lot of weight as it only has a single back axle.
OPALS : DIESEL BLOWER
This technology is used in the opal industry to remove large amounts of opal Clay in the fastest time, in that case it is not the most economical piece of technology designed for the opal industry. Unless it is still a brilliant piece of technology that also drags large amounts of clean oxygen into the claim and continuously recycling the air. It is also quick to pack up and move and reset up on a new opal lease, basically one man can work this operation as long as he has a truck parked under the hopper and is happy to go up and down the ladder's regularly as when the front of the tipper is full he must climb up the ladder to the surface and start the truck and move it a few metres so that the rest of the tip truck can be full with opal clay . It is definitely quicker and easier to have two men and two trucks, as one truck is full the man aboveground moves the truck out of the way, and places a second truck under the opal blower hopper and why this is fulling up with clay and hopefully some opals for your effort he will drive the full truck to the processing plant an empty it into the processing plant.
OPALS : BOGOR
This technology is used in the opal industry because of its ability to be very economical moving materials from the mining shaft at the very face where the men are digging out the opal, it will transport the material down the drive of the claim to the hoist where it will be transferred into the hoist ready for lifting up the shaft to be automatically dumped into a truck ready for processing. This machine does not circulate any air in the claim like a powerful blower does, as the cost of diesel is going up this machine has taken its place in the industry being electrically run by a generator it is very clean also no fumes. The downside is that you do need a very large generator to run this machine, and you need much wider drives for it to turn around in and operate hence safety must be considered to take priority when using this machine.
OPAL PROCESSING PLANT
Opal processing plant is where you continuously keep adding truck after truckload of opal Clay that you have retrieved from deep down in the your claim, in to days modern times people either use 9 or 7 yard barrels that used to be on cement mixer trucks. Normally most opal mining companies remove this barrel from the truck along with a diesel engine , they cut in either side of the bowel 2 500 x 500 millimetres square holes where they add strong high tinsel thin gauge mesh. This allows the clay to run out of the mesh each time it turns because you come large amounts of water into the bowel as it mixes with the clay the clay turns to silt and runs out of the barrel leaving you only with solid materials such as rocks etc and hopefully black opal either.
OPAL OPEN CUT MACHINERY
To undertake a open cut is the biggest expense and risk you will ever run as a opal producer. You need to start with a minimum 35 tonne excavator and two trucks boggy drives that will handle the weight, better still if you are lucky enough to have a 45 tonne machine it will keep up to 3 trucks going at once. And you definitely need a 9 yard agitator for processing the clay and a 8 tonne machine to keep the spill away and keep it clean so that the trucks find it easy to reverts up to a old existing cut hence allowing the over burden to slide into another claim . It is also very handy to have a large steel grid after all the over burden has gone the trucks can park under the grid . And you fill the trucks using this greed this will break up the sandstone roof of the claim making it a lot safer and easier to wash at the processing plant, as you will not have as many heavy boulders tumbling around with the clay and opal, hence having less opal material broken when you sought through the tailings.
HANDHELD OPAL WINLESS
Handheld Opal winless has been around for hundreds of years, it allows a man to go down the hanging ladders into a claim and fill a 20 litter drum by hand and using the winless wine it up by hand ! yes all muscle power and after a few days work you will usually have enough opal Clay to fill a small truck ready for processing to see if the claim is productive. And if there is opal in the new claim then in that case you move in all the heavy machinery, and if you have no luck finding opal then you pull up the hanging ladders without much cost and move on to your next claim starting the operation over again unto such time that you find opal trace colour. In that case you will quickly get rid of the winless setup the blower and a underground hydraulic digger up and get serious.
TRANSPORT FOR OPAL MINER'S
Transport for opal Miner's this piece of machinery is very important for most opal prospectors, as travelling up to a hour in any direction from a town for ex-ample lightning Ridge there are many opal fields in the surrounding areas around the township basically a 360° circumference in any direction. Unlike their city cousins which also travel a hour to work the opal miners are out in the semi arid and dry regions of Australia and its possibly not to seen any people in the course of a day, when driving back and from work it is important to have a strong four-wheel-drive or Jeep. And as Australian weather has such contrast from many years of drought to devastating floods, carried tools water in the dry times and tools and a few lengths of chain if you are bogged and need your car towed out in the wet season.
DIVINING OPAL WIRES
This theory was used a lot more before the portable drilling prospecting rig, even so in today's time many opal prospectors use in conjunction this theory with a drilling rig. Many people first will divine for fault lines usually using two right angle high tensor wire. They place one in either hand and as they are walking over a potential opal lease if the divine rods start moving they are usually picking up moisture that will travel down the fault lines where the opal was deposited in the early stages of the opal forming, this could possibly indicate opal. The opal prospector then will bring in the drilling rig and begin to bring the clay up from the opal levels for further expection on the surface where water and sunlight can remove the clay for a good visual inspection. Obviously if there is opal trace then the prospectors will then organise a Cardwell opal drill to open up a much larger whole to allow men to work the opal levels.
CARDWELL OPAL DRILL
After all the prospecting has been well and truly finished and you are happy with the area, then you must travel to the mineral resources Department and lease the claim. After you have the opal lease safely in your name OK telephone and book a operator of a Cardwell Opal drill. This particular piece of machinery will arrive attached to a large truck the hydraulic lines will lift to hydraulic rams and the drilling rig will stand up 90° ready to open up your opal claim so that the team of men that you have chosen can set up machinery that can be winched down the hole at the surface of the claim that the Cardwell drill has made. After setting up all your machinery you are ready for work.
OPAL PROSPECTING DRILLING RIG
In the late 80s and 90s this piece of technology drilled up many new opal leases as the prospectors relied on this type of machinery heavily, lightning Ridge in particular there was a huge rush around the early 90s out on the Corcoran the prospecting drill was responsible for opal fields like dead bird, Molineu, Allard's , Green acres , and many more. This machine is usually too expensive for most mining teams to own their selves as they are usually underground mining claims, most of the miners usually higher a drilling rig when they are prospecting for a new lease. It is a great piece of machinery to own and be part of the mining machinery in the arsenal of most mining companies.
FUEL TRAILERS FOR OPAL MINERS
Fuel trailers for opal miners it is very easy to use 600 L of diesel in the course of a working week using a opal blower. And as the opal fields are usually situated on extremely large western plains agricultural leases and to drive their it is extremely rough and dusty as most of the roads are only dirt tracks. To carry much more than 400 L of diesel fuel you really need a double axle trailer with a very strong steel fuel tank, any bulk fuel under 400 L you can usually get away with a good strong 4 x 6 box trailer as long as you take it easy and not drive to quick, or otherwise you could break a axle as the conditions are rough and you do not want to split the welds in the diesel tank as diesel will not get any cheaper.
GENERATOR
There are two types of generators used in the opal mining industry, one is usually 25 kVA a large generator and can be bigger this is for the operation of a underground Bogor. And the other is usually a 3 kVA diesel generator which is used as the powerplant to run the lights underground and in small operations a small electric jackhammer. Diesel is the preferred engine to run your generator as it is a lot more economical than a small petrol engine and takes a lot less maintenance, handles the wet season better than a petrol generator also.
HANGING LADDERS
Hanging ladders are extremely necessary for prospecting new opal claims as they can be quickly assembled and lowered down the claim for a quick inspection. The miners usually take small picks and a torch or two down the latter's spending a few days they study the soil profile looking for signs where the claim made be carrying opal trace. If they find good opal trace then they will move in more permanent ladders in place of the hanging ladders, and in a lot of cases the miners are not happy with what they are seeing then they can quickly remove the hanging ladders and pack them in the four-wheel-drive and moved to a new destination starting the procedure over again.