Opals
Opals are the fire of the desert - a mesmerising display of all the colours of the rainbow, they are a symbol of Australia. Australia is famous for its Black opal. Almost all black opal is found in Australia. Black opal has a colour play of red, green, blue, violet, magenta or yellow flecks against a dark background, suc as black, dark blue or dark grey. Almost all the world's supply of quality black opal comes from Lightning Ridge.
Opal is classified as black, dark or light according to it's underlying body colour. Molecular structure and alignment determine the variety of hue. For miners, "colour is money". Red is the rarest, violet the most common. Translucent opal of just one colour, called potch, is discarded. Brightly coloured opals are the most valuable and Lightning Ridge produces more of them than anywhere else in the world.
Such top quality stones explain the irresistable allure that turns certain people into moles, condeming them to long periods underground, carving out chambers the size of ballrooms in the pursuit of a personal holy grail. Gem bearing nuggests are called nobbies and opal is found in narrow seams. Hoisted to the surface the freshly dug sandstone and clay is washed in an agitator - the "barrel of dreams" - to release its hidden treasures. Fortune rarely comes easily: successful opal mining is hard toil driven by hope, extensive patience, unwearying effort and plaenty of lick
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