Mintabie opal field is located at the west of the main north-south road just in between Adelaide and Alice Springs and just south of the Northern Territory border. Mintabie opal field is 340 km from Coober Pedy by road. Residents who live in this land are mostly not indigenous Australian origin and that is why constant mining activities are occurring here until now.
There were a lot of proceedings until this place became a commercial opal field in South Australia. Here are some of the information from Read More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mintabie,_South_Australia
The Mintabie Miners Progress Association, through its promotional website, gives the following early history of the area:
As in many other parts of South Australia, Aborigines were reportedly the first people to find opal at Mintabie. They sold black opal at Coober Pedy during the first world war but it was many years before miners braved the harsh conditions to mine the area. The first miners to work in Mintabie found the sandstone too hard to successfully mine. It was not until 1976, when large machinery was introduced, that the potential of Mintabie was fully realized and the fledgling township was established.
In 1981, Anangu won the inalienable freehold title to the APY Lands. This victory came at the end of protracted and often bitter negotiations. As part of those negotiations Anangu agreed to lease back to the Crown the small parcel of land on which the township of Mintabie sits.
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