Lightening Ridge-Black Opals
Many people and followers know that I am a wheeler and dealer of rocks, gems, and minerals. Being in Australia, home of the desirable black opal, was a no brainer. There are other gems and minerals here as well, but the opals beauty is second to almost none.
I booked a tour of a former working mine that also had sandstone sculptures. The mine was and still is owned by Ron Canlin since 1982. The mine didn’t produce much of a fortune for Ron but he had a creative interest in carving in the sandstone to which one can view today.
I started with a waiver, signing my life away if anything happened to me, issued a hard hat and descended the hand carved stairs to the chambers below.
There were about 8 people descending with me and were met by a tour guide at the bottom of the stairs. I didn’t catch his name, but he was a former miner and very knowledgeable about the extraction, cleaning, and polishing of the beautiful stone. Since the mine is not an active mine any longer, emphasis was placed on the carvings which start the moment you get to the bottom of the stairs.
The guide pointed out how to find a seam, what to look for, and how the miners back in the day used to pick in the dark. They would scratch away until they heard a specific “tink” when the rock hammer hit the opal. The only difference I saw between this type of mining and quartz mining was that this mining was done underground. It is like being in a basement once you get the starting hole dug. He also told us you can stake a claim here to this day and the best way to make a million dollars through mining opals is to start with two million. I laughed because I have heard this before in the quartz industry.
The picture above is a modern digger. There is a big tube that acts as a vacuum and all the dirt is sucked up to the surface to an agitator the size of a cement mixer that has screens in it. The screens separate the large material that is mostly sandstone into a pile and the finer screens catch the minerals.
After a slide show demonstration of the mining process, we were left on our own to self-guide through the carvings. These were all carved with a butterknife and fork. I am posting some of my favorites.
So as I have previously mentioned, the kitchens don’t open till 430 or 5pm for the dinner crowd so I had a couple of hours for more shops and an art gallery that of course I couldn’t take pictures inside of. There were more opal shops than I had ever seen in one place. Of course I bought some. I even found a guy on the side of the road that I bought raw opal from! I can’t wait to get that home!
After a really good pasta meal at a place called Bruno’s I had a choice to make. Do I go to the Bore Baths, a natural hot springs, or do I go back to the hotel and beat the rain. Hot springs won. It was absolutely wonderful for a whole ten minutes the skies opened, and massive rain came pouring from the skies. It lasted to long for me to continue to enjoy the hot spring, unfortunately. Back to the hotel with soaked clothes and into the hot shower. Another long day ahead but I’m ready.
