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INDEX
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THESE ARE THE WORDS I WORK WITH
Definitions:
- agitator - cement mixer processes clay with water
- automatic hoist - machine used to convey clay from mine to surface with motor, cable, and the ladder as a track
- ballroom - an area chambered out, leaving a large room
- blower - a machine sued to convey clay from the face of the drive to the surface with a large pipe and an air suction action
- collar - roof level around the shaft in the mine at drive
- drive - a horizontal tunnel dug by a miner looking for opal
- face - part of vertical wall which miner is working
- false roof - a sandstone lens floating lower in clay level than the actual main body of sandstone overburden (Opal often lies near the sandstone roof.)
- hanging ladders - usually 10 foot sections of lightweight, metal ladders with hooks on ends that link each section loosely and swing from a cross bar or log across opening at top of shaft
- lead - electrical cord
- level - the usual level mined for opal is a layer of moist clay, mostly near the underneath side of sandstone
- matrix - a porous material made of impurities and sometimes found with opal
- muggie - a lesser grade of semi-precious opal
- nobby - an opalized shell or other nodular sediment
- pegged - a claim that has been staked for possession and filed with mining registrar
- pillar - an area of the mine left to support the roof
- puddler - a machine, used mostly wet, to process clay from the mine
- roof - the point where the clay meets the sandstone overburden
- sticky beak - a look around, or if in other people's business; being nosey
THIS IS THE PAIN AND DISAPPOINTMENT
Burnout. We were both suffering from four weeks of pushing ourselves to the point of complete exhaustion 7 days a week. I was feeling weepy, and kept hoping for rain or a mechanical breakdown so we would have a day off from this underground toiling. It
left me in a blurred stupor at night content to just sit and stare at insects crawling across the floor while enjoying their energy.
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The Aussies have a saying, "rare as rockinghorse shit," and this is how it is to find a good claim to work. |
Friends who hadn't seen me for 7 weeks were amazed at the muscles I had developed in my arms, shoulders, and neck, but I knew that though I looked in good nick, as they say, I was tired to the point of being dangerous in the mine.
If we had found our fortune gleaming at us from out of the face of the drive, my partner assured me, we would be filled with energy anew. Instead, we'd been throwing wheat germ on our cereal, taking vitamins, eating heaps of fresh fruit and vegies, and
taking cod liver oil along with an aboriginal concoction of tree bark to ease the aches and pains in our stiff joints and muscles.
It was time for the dissolution of the partnership. Our traces had run out and we were both too tired and disillusioned to chase. Lightning Ridge mining back in 1983 was really underground prospecting. We found a few muggies and two little gems to pay
expenses. We dismantled the gear, cancelled the claim and went our opposite ways.
A few years back, no one mentioned or paid attention to propectors who dropped 50 feet of rope or hanging ladders down abandoned, unpegged opal claims. We were there to have a scratch with the pick in the old workings, looking to pry out an opal that was
missed or find a new run of opal nobbies that was exposed by the collapse of a false roof. It is now a $2,000 fine if you're caught working in a claim you haven't pegged. You can drop down to have a sticky beak alright, but without a pick.
My light was an old automobile tail light bolted to my helmet with 250 feet of household lead (a sturdier cord is better as the cord gets rough treatment dragging through fallen sandstone, and around old wooden props), trailing from helmet to a 12-volt
car battery up on top. The chunk, chunk, chunk of my gouging pick in one drive was echoed by my partner's chunk, chunk, chunking in another drive. A sudden silence means something fell on you, you stopped to peel an orange, or-r-r-r-r you broke a good one
and you sit there in your private, not to be shared yet moment, in awe of the ancient and living fire of opal, color blinking out at you. After you've savored the moment alone long enough, or if your partner notices the lack of prospecting noises and
cooees to you, you both get to grin at each other and grin at the gem nobby and then grin at each other. If it's a real good un, one of you rolls a smoke, and you eyeball the face to puzzle out why it's there. Mostly, it is to prolong the moment of
taking a screw driver and gouging out our prize gently to see if there is enough color left to cut a stone. This is often a search in the dirt at your feet for the other half. This is the ritual when find a gem opal.We're talking $2,000 to $6,000 per
carat material. This hardly ever happens.
Once I showed one to some friends called "The Doves." They looked at it, a gleam flashed in their eyes and they looked at me and exclaimed, "A Yem, Barbara, a Yem!" Thereafter, our grading system of opal was: Yem, just opal and mugs (short for
muggies).
I should explain here that muggies can range from $5 to $300 or so per carat. This is a miner's reckoning. Remember a miner is affected by his experience and circumstances. He has seen precious black opal worth $10,000 per carat and the beautiful
semi-precious opal pales in significance. But only because of exposure to magnificent named opal stones. A true lover of opal sees the magic of all opal, loves each stone for itself, and revels in the nearly phosphorescent glow of lavender in a $10 per
carat jelly.
Today, with the use of 9 inch augers, test holes are used for prospecting and many new opal fields are being found. Couple that with Crocodile Dundee's invite to "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" and tourism to Australia bloomed.
People saw the wonderful diversity in opals available in Australia. They returned to their home country and asked jewelers why opal wasn't in their stores. Consequently, with both supply and demand growing, the opal market burgeoned.
Available now are opal carvings, opal mosaics, inlaid opal jewelry, opal intarsia, beads, and traditional cabochons, freeforms and even faceted opal. The opal seeker can find Mexican opal, Australian, American, Brazilian, Honduran, Canadian, Javanese and
even African opal. Opalized fossils, shells and wood adorn the necks, ears, and fingers of many.
Next month: I'll report more extensively on the Yowah Nut Opal and the heartaches and joys of mining in Yowah.
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Copyright, 1997 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.
Outback Gems will have a booth in the Blythe (California) Gem, Fossil, Mineral & Jewelry Show, January 24, 1997 through January 29th at the Colorado River County Fairgrounds. Barbara will be there!
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