As you might already know Australia currently produces about 95 per cent of the world’s precious opal. So why does no other country on Earth have such an abundance of Opal? Lets go back some million years to find out. If we look at the widely scattered opal fields throughout central Australia the sedimentary opal deposits occur along generally flat-lying areas within 30 metres of the earth’s surface. They came to occur over a 100 million year period with a unique series of geological events which were as follows: Sometime between 91 - 122 million years ago central Australia was covered by ...

As a regular to the Opal Fields & a previous owner of an Opal mine I thought today I would just give a brief overview of what Opal mining is about.   The Basic Process So if you are only one person and you fancy a bit of mining you are in luck as a single person can handle the simplest form of Opal mining. The miner digs a vertical shaft through layers of earth. Opal is usually found under a layer of hard sandstone. Once the miner has reached the layer of "potch," the glassy, gray earth that may contain opals. The waste material is hauled out of the shaft with buckets as the miner drive...

Lightning Ridge, New South Wales Lightning Ridge is a town famous for the rich and rare black opal that is found there. When Black opal was first discovered in Lightning Ridge in the late 1880's people didn't realise the potential commercial value that Black Opal had. In fact it wasn't until some 20 to 30 years later in the early 1900's that buyers started realising its value. Some of the traditional fields around Lightning Ridge include the Three Mile and Thorleys Six Mile. How Black Opal gets its name is from the colour of the 'nobbies' in which the black opal is found. The 'nobbies' or r...