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| Email: | gems@grahamblackopal.com |
|---|---|
| Telephone: | 61 7 5446 9223, , Po Box 326 lightning Ridge 2834 Australia. |
Graham Black Opal
I would like to thank the customers who visit my site and to let you know there are many more options of opal gems available for you to consider. Please e-mail me for further details.
PORTABLE POWER TOOLS USED FOR OPAL PROSPECTORS
Every opal prospector must have a 240 V electric mini welder, along with a angle grinder, one large - one small. A set of mechanical tools shifter speners, a good 4 pound hemer . And if you are lucky enough to afford a set of cutting torches and gas bottles then there is not much that can stop you and hold you up from being a professional opal prospector. And a good 12 V electric drill these are the bare essentials portable tools that you need available which can be readily transported out onto the opal fields and leases.
SAFETY EQUIPMENT IN THE OPAL INDUSTRY
One good government approved safety helmet you readily see men wearing these helmets in the building trade and around building sites in the cities, this will prevent reasonably small and light objects from damaging you if they fall from a higher position and land on the helmet. Also in your four-wheel-drive you should always have a first aid kit, a fire blanket, clean water, and fire extinguisher for electric fires as well as standard fires. It is also a good idea if people working in the outback which are so far away from medical facilities, that they have undertaken a first aid certificate course this maybe one day might save someone's life is not your own.
OPAL CUT MINING - EXCAVATORS VERSUS BULLDOZERS .
Open cut mining has become more evident in modern times as there is less opal fields that are available to prospectors, hence open cut mining the old worked out claims that had high-grade opal and their is still signs o f solid ground left in the old claims to work, usually it is to dangerously to go underground hence open cutting. We first started using bulldozers for this specialist opal mining operation fortunately like a lot of industries the excavator has taken over this piece of machinery is a lot more economical and working in conjunction with trucks the older burden can be economically placed in a stockpile for revegetation at a later date, or dumped in to a nearby open cut which is helping to revegetate an old existing open cut. As the machine is stationary and only the bucket is moving filling trucks you do not need large amounts of diesel fuel like a bulldozer that is not just moving the over burden it is also moving 30 tonnes of steel every time it pushes the soil, and when reversing back a long way to gather up more soil and over burden it is very painful when you are watching as you are paying the bill as the bulldozer is very slow and is not actually moving any soil at this stage unlike a excavator, also the bulldozers are very limited working in tight open cuts as there is nowhere to push the over burden.
TERMS USED IN THE BLACK OPAL MINING INDUSTRY
1:The Level The stratum in which opal is carried. 2: Windlass A winch for hauling dirt up out of the mine. 3: - Rough Is the term used by miners when they offer uncut opal for sale. 4: Rush Hurrying to peg claims after the discovery of a rich opal find. 5: Rubbing Down The first process in cutting opal where the outer layer of material is removed . 6: Sandstones Strata associated with Australian sedimentary opal, of a felspar base , not quartz. 42 - Semi Opal A term used to describe forms of material which are usually part opal. 7: New Chum Or a green horn - someone without experience 8: Opal Dirt A common name to describe shales and clays which carry opal . 9: Parcel A term used when offering a number of opals for sale . 10: Potch A common opal . 11: Roof top section of a opal tunnel. 12: Milk Opal A white form of opal , either common or precious. 13: Miner’s Right A mining licence which allows certain rights to the holder.( Except for New South Wales , 14: Mullock opal dirt which has been brought up from down in the mine and dumped on the surface .
15 - Gouge This term is used to describe a miner digging out opal, or digging with a pick in anticipation of striking opal. 16 - Harlequin When applied to opal, the pattern has nearly ninety degree angles of colour. In the early days, the “harlequin” description was reserved exclusively for a stone exhibiting squares of different colours which changed as the stone was moved . 17 - Hyalite A glassy, transparent form of common opal. 27 - Ironstone Much of Queensland’s opal is found in a common ironstone boulder, which is usually a combination of aluminium oxide,silicon dioxide and ferrous oxide . 18 - Matrix Meaning a mixture , or enclosing. A common term used to describe a form of boulder in which flecks or veins of colour are seen . 19 - Fire Opal A common term used to describe certain forms of Mexican opal which don’t necessarily have moving colours. When applied to Australian opal , it implies lively, moving colours. 30 - Floor The bottom of a drive or tunnel. 20 - Floater The term used to describe a boulder or a piece of opal which has been released from an opal-bearing level through weathering. 21 - Foul Air Stale air in which ,due to the lack of circulation in the mine,poisonous gases can be built up . 22 - Free form A piece of opal where the natural shape of the stone has been kept when cutting. 23 - Specking To search old mine heaps for traces of opal. 23- Tailings Material which is left over after the miner has gone through them.
24 - Open cut mining usually this expensive mining practice, is only undertaken on heavily worked and dangerous Opal leases. Which were very productive in previous times.25 - There is no sheep station in this one, a term used by miners that rub or cut their own Opal. Usually one man will say to his partner after shaping the Opal rough , this term means no luck again. 26 - A slab, often used for a barter for Opal purchased, which is 24 cans of beer one box for a straight forward swap for the Opal. 27 - Ratter A word from early days of opal mining for a thief who enters a claim which is known to be producing opal , usually at night . Natural Jointed A term used by the miners to describe lumps of the same piece of opal which all join neatly together in the ground 28 - Band A hard silicious band of sandstone, usually at the bottom of the sandstone stratum . 29 - Biscuit Band A flaky sandstone band , quite shallow. can contain opal. 30 - Bluebottle A blue coloured potch, more commonly found with boulder opal. 31 - Calcareous A geological term to describe chalky types of sands and shales . 32 - Claypan A flat open bare area of country with little or no vegetation .
33- Claim Jumping Using the letter of the law to take another miner’s claim for not fulfilling the conditions of the lease . 34 - Datum Post A fixed starting point, to a granted mining area . 35- Deep Country Any area of a field which requires deep shafts to reach the opal level, The opposite to a shallow country .36 - Double Bar Two horizontal parallel bars of colour running through a piece of opal. 37- Duffer A mine or shaft which produces no opal. 38- Face The wall of a mine which usually carrying opal. 39 - Seam Opal Opal found in pockets or long horizontal seams 40- Sedimentary A geological term for water or wind worn material which has settled and become consolidated 41 - Shin cracker A hard porcelain type of opal dirt, which flies up when hit with a heavy pick, striking the miner in the shins 42- Siliceous One of many names used in geology to describe silicon dioxide compounds. 43- Common Opal Valueless ,lusterless opal which does not show any play of colour . 44 - Conglomerate A term used in geology to describe a coherent mass of water worn pebbles and gravel in cement-like material. 45- Bottomed The bottom of a shaft which has broken through the layer of sandstone which lies immediately above the opal dirt.46 - Boulder opal Opal which has formed in crevices or cracks in iron or sandstone boulders.
AUSTRALIAN OPAL GEMSTONE
LINES UNDER OPALS It is not usually a problem with marks under the opal unless it is a extremely expensive gem quality Opal and you are paying big money, and if they are dark in colour I would not quarry about it at all. If they are extremely light in colour or white running through the dark background of the bottom of the Opal then you do not want to pay much money for these particular opals as it could possibly be a weakness and with changing climatic conditions from hot to cold you can have movement. And if they are cracks that you can clearly see with a magnifying glass then keep away altogether from this type of gemstone unless you are getting it for next to nothing. And if it is crystal opal which is very clear it can deter from the value obviously as you will see it clearly looking from the front of the opal.
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