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Opal is my passion. I live, breathe, and talk opal. I want to spread
the Opal Word. I will begin with Australian black opal and Lightning Ridge,
New South Wales. On with some facts:
The opal fields in Lightning Ridge Australia are believed to have been
both an inland sea and/or a series of lagoons, waterways, and swamps.
Both salt water and fresh water plants and creatures are opalized in
fossil form and are found there by the miners. These fossils were laid
down during the Cretaceous Period, about 100-140 million years ago.
In 1995, Lightning Ridge was declared the opal capital of the world as
per Stephan Aracic's book, "Discover Opal." This respectable looking
modern town of unknown population (guess is 6,000 or so) is located
approximately 500 miles north of Sydney in the state of NSW, near the
Queensland border. Do not be fooled by its respectable new fresh face.
Just a couple hundred yards out of town are the old mining "humpies"
(camp), a sort of shanty town architecture. Out from Lightning Ridge
about 27 km is the new Coocoran Fields. A rush started there in 1988
when John Molyneux found beautiful gem black opal, some of which sold
for $10,000 (Australian) per carat.
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Blue green gold black opal from Lightning Ridge. Photo courtesy of Len Cram. |
The Coocoran is a maze of tracks and a hodge podge of tin huts and
caravan trailer mining camps. It is here that the respectability
fades: fortunes won and lost, partnership battles, gunshots fired over
ratting (the theft of opal out of mine walls while miners are away),
old fashioned claim jumping and con artists at work.
Perhaps I need to introduce the other me -- the one-half of McCondra
who was nicknamed Eskimo Nell by the miners in 1983 when I came to mine,
fresh from the Alaska pipeline. Eskimo Nell was, and is, privy to
amazing opal finds and became embroiled in many wild and wooly mining
experiences. So it is these memories that season my writings on opal
with a dash-and-derring-do flavor. That doesn't make it untrue, only
less public relations pretty.
| Blue green gem black opal is from Lightning Ridge, Australia in a 14kt gold setting designed by "Gloria" of Scottsdale, AZ who is an AGTA Spectrum Award design winner. Photo courtesy of Barbara McCondra. |
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The mines at the Ridge produce the world's finest
gem black opal selling for as much as $20,000 per carat. Magnificent
crystal, grey, light, and jelly opal is unearthed along with the black.
The opal is found in a nodular form called "nobbies" with some seam
opal formations in a sedimentary clay level under sandstone. The nobbies
range in size from the head of a pin to twice the size of a man's fist,
with walnut-sized nobbies being the most common.
The phenomenon known as sunflash sometimes occurs in amber and
black nobbies. Amber nobbies are clear, yellow, golden, or beer bottle
colored potch and sometimes glassy black centered. Sunflash is
mysterious and magnificent to behold. Usually, as the name implies,
it manifests in strong sunlight. The rich glassy black opal showing
sunflash is considered good trace to the opal miner, and is an
affordable specimen to the opal aficionado.
The black opal potch (common opal with no color play) varies in shade:
charcoal-gray, leady-black, blue-black, black, and glassy black. This
blackness forms the black base color upon which, or in which, the color
plays.
- BLACK OPAL shows a play of color in a dark body color.
- CRYSTAL OPAL is clear with play of color and has no backing.
- WHITE OPAL shows a play of color in a white body color.
The price per carat relates to patterns, brilliance, and actual colors,
as does directionality of color, visible inclusions, windows and
dead spots.
Next month, The McCondra Report will bring us more information on
Australian opal and life in the opal mining fields.
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Copyright, 1996 by Barbara McCondra
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Barbara McCondra is a popular lecturer who travels widely on speaking
tours. Her son Ron Vil, who mined with her for many years, is the
owner of Outback Gems, specializing in Australian Opal including,
Lightning Ridge and Yowah Nut Boulder opal. They were featured in the
June 1995 issue of Lapidary Journal. You can contact Barbara through
Outback Gems, voice and/or Fax 602-846-0407 or email at
RedonBlack@AOL.com.
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