Hi, I am James from Lightning Ridge Australia. I notice some great pics of (?) oregon opal on this tribe.
hands up the responsible parties!
hands up the responsible parties!
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Australia
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, December 6, 2005 - 12:03 AMI'm not responsible, but I do like opals.
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, December 6, 2005 - 10:48 AMI am a huge opal fan and the pictures are fantasic. -
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Unsu...
Re: Who loves Opal?
Sat, March 4, 2006 - 1:48 AMI so love opals....esp the opalised redwood and shells... -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Fri, April 14, 2006 - 11:42 AMHey James,
I have some specimens from lightning ridge. Very nice stuff! Have you seen the black precious opal from the Virgin Valley, NV? From what I understand, it's some of the only material that compares with what comes out of lightning ridge.
-quinn -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Fri, April 14, 2006 - 3:27 PMoh yeah! doug Johnson brought over some limb sections one time. BEAUTIFUL red in black crystal base. i suspect there is stable gem opal somewhere in that western basin/ high plains area over your way. i have seen the Roebling Opal at the Smithsonian.
very little opal coming out here now. most of the young guys have gone to coal mines for the big bucks. OPA 4 is now being drilled and will produce.
did you know you can come here on a 6 month tourist visa, peg and mine? you can even buy a residential mining claim fully set up with a little cottage for about usd 15k or so. i hasten to tell you i am not a vendor! hehe, not trying to make money here- just thought i would let you in on this little known fact. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Sat, April 15, 2006 - 3:12 PMThat would cool, too bad I'll never have the money to do something like that.
:-/
But maybe some others will since you let us in on it. Thanks.
:-)
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, May 30, 2006 - 9:38 PMThe Roebling Opal is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., from the Virgin Valley in Nevada just southwest of Denio. It has been declared to be one of the most valuable gems in the whole museum.
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, May 2, 2006 - 2:52 PM -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, May 2, 2006 - 4:03 PMhow good is that!!
so Joe, they must be stable.....
there is so much misinfo about stability of opal. even in Lightning Ridge yu occaisionall find a patch of cracky material.
i have heard that for years that nevada produces some stable material.
Tell us more please!
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, June 6, 2006 - 10:00 PMthe opals here in Oregon are beautiful. They're so different from the rest. Have you seen the new blue they found here in Owyhee? Gorgeous....
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Thu, February 22, 2007 - 2:57 AMI guess a better question would be who doesn't. Opals offer everything from red faceted stones(fire opals) to black opals to the contra luz opals. they are all beautiful in their own right. I have to say they are my favorite stone to collect in all of its forms. I would love to make the trek to Lightning Ridge in the next couple of years. I do believe there is some fee mining in the area. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Thu, February 22, 2007 - 1:13 PMthat should read FREE mining! no fee mining at the ridge- insurance/liability. regs have tightened up.
you can fossick around aabandoned claims at the ridge, but really you need to go underground- minimum 40' in the old town fields.
a better choice is to hit the fields in western queensland where the country is much more eroded. if you go in july, there are great little gem shows on the actual fields where you will meet all the serious ppl who make a living from it.
ebay an old van from abt $2k, grab a mattress and camp stove and hit the road.
camping is free out west.
opalton even has some funky stone huts you can stay in for abt $5/day.
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Fri, February 23, 2007 - 9:09 AM"I guess a better question would be who doesn't."
Isn't that the truth!
I love opals. Collecting, cutting, wearing...great stone! -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, May 22, 2007 - 11:17 PMwell, i am going back mining again in the next couple weeks.
watch for opal from Lightning ridge and Koroit, my ebay username is my real name: jamesdumar
or email me at jamesdumar@yahoo.com.au if you would like some pictures -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Mon, May 28, 2007 - 12:53 PMI do, I do! I have been finding many beautiful stones, but none compare to the beautiful surprises I found in the Virgin Valley last fall. I am now ONLY interested in opals.
I want to go again, and again...and again...
I am a newbie, so I may change my mind about this. (I am also a woman so you can pretty much bet I will change my mind! :) ) -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 10:20 PMcan we see what you found?
i am off to lightning ridge for six months to cut. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Wed, March 26, 2008 - 3:55 PMI am not sure if you still want to see or not. I haven't been here in awhile and am not sure how to post pics, but I will try.
Remember that I do not know how to take good pics of them yet.. I want to get more, more more, I have others, but here are a few in case you even get this!
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...copation/
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...copation/
smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...copation/
The orange I found on the road to the Virgin Valley. ") Do you know what it is??
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, March 4, 2008 - 4:43 PMKoroit boulder and Yowah opal rough are my favorite stress relievers!
I have cabbed my best gems from Queensland opal, though I have spent thousands of hours chasing seams or grinding through the color, and my fingernails...
Hundreds of dollars on Coober Pedy white for practice, and out of maybe 10 ounce parcels from Lightning ridge I have only three stones of good value.
Still, it is the gamble, you can dig up a huge chunk of opalised wood in the Virgin Valley and watch it fall to peices within hours, even in water, and find the most stable gem right next to it. Too much fun!
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Wed, July 25, 2007 - 7:17 PMWe have collected a lot of common opal for carving and specimens, but never found any firely stuff ourselves. My lady cuts and sell some Australian, Mexican and Honduran stones, and her lapidary teacher is a master with an incredible collection. Christa, my partner also runs a website where she sells truly exquisite opals.
Check out the Snow Princess! exquisiteopals.com/gallery/...-amazing/
If anyone is looking for investment quality stones or just perfectly cut opals for jewelry, please look her way. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Mon, February 18, 2008 - 8:47 AMyes i have a very rare blue opal very beautiful! i am looking to go rock hounding with my family my hubby and kids! i just love opal!!!!! -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Tue, March 4, 2008 - 4:29 PMI have posted a few photos of the black crystal opal I found last year at the Royal Peacock mine in the virgin valley prior to the burn. The stone is polished and stable, and I am going to keep it rather than sell it, I simply love the brightness and patterns.
I am still working some of the other pieces from that trip, and I will be hounding for opal again this year at the Little Joe north of the playa about 40 miles. The opal found in the eroded basalt at the base of the Callico mountains has a lower water content, so less crazing, but it is hard rock pick and shovel work. Then again, I may go back to the Virgin Valley and try Rainbow ridge, we shall see. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Fri, July 4, 2008 - 11:50 PMJust went up to Virgin Valley and hunted for opals with Cowboy Jeff at the Opal Queen it is not a fee to dig mine hooked up with him at the Denio Junction Bar. He let me dig on the wall and search his whole claim which covered a nice bit of a mountain and its peak. Found some fine specimens, one 170cts. and the other few 90cts down to 1ct. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Sat, July 5, 2008 - 11:57 AMToby,
Could you photograph some of the nv opal?
And was this mostly blue base?
sporeboy -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Sat, July 5, 2008 - 10:46 PMSporeboy look at my profile i posted a few pics of my finds. It seemed that most of the opal had red to pink fire for the base but i found several that had green base and blue base with yellow to gold also. By the way just got back fro halleluja junction at the petersen ridge found a couple of decent single terminated crystals and a few stil in matrix. All were found on the california side. Next trip wil travel to Nevada side of mountain and try and find that amythyst. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Sun, July 6, 2008 - 10:37 AMThanks for showing the photos, nice opal!
Keep it in water unless you are going to cut it, then expect to loose most of the rough to crazing.
I do know a site outside of Gerlach that has opal in eroded basalt. it is very stable and has the blue base of the Gabbs NV opal with red broadflash.
Yes, I LOVE opal. -
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Re: Who loves Opal?
Sun, July 6, 2008 - 10:38 PMI was on road 34 which drops into Gerlach I thought it looked like a great place for opal to be had and also many rocks that look like they could be housing geodes. that 34 is a lonely dirt road about 100 miles long but if ya get to 8a its just a hope skip and a jump to Virgin Valley. I wanna ound that spot in gerlach ... lets go.
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