Opal mining trip December 2021. Stunning discovery of fully opalised Cretaceous shells.
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- It’s early December 2021 and the Grace Opal brothers (Lochy and Shannon) AKA World Class Opal and Kimberley Opal respectively, try out the smallest mass manufactured cutting head on the market. With no idea whether it will work or be effective, we take it down our East Pacific claim.
It seems to work well, and we noodle a few nice stones in the old mullock and pick a few scrappy shell bits out in between. What we don’t show is all the digging in between where there is nothing. But that would be very boring..
A week goes by like lighting and the days feel like minutes in such engrossing work.
We found good shells a couple of years ago in the top level and have been picking around trying for more for months to no avail. Towards the end of the trip however, a chunk of sandstone in a pillar above where Shannon has been operating the cutter has a crack in it, I decide to lever it down to make it safe. In the video you can see the small pocket of shells that was immediately behind the chunk of loose ground, and in the middle, a full shell! Watch to the end to witness what many opal purists would consider sacrilege (slicing up a full shell) but man oh man, just wait to see the jewelry we make from it if all goes well… Thanks for watching! Please like and subscribe if you feel the urge! 😁
Music credits:
LiQWYD: Whenever
Sappherios: Embrace
Alex productions - Komedie
You guys should have your own show. You definitely know how to mine opal.
Thanks mate, that’s very kind of you!
I guess we do really, you’re watching them! We love being low key and love the game. Can’t wait to get back up there and have another crack. One day we want to publish a video of a genuine million dollar find.. Gotta dream!
Great video, once again! Killer material! Those moonrises in the desert must be so unreal in person! Thanks for sharing a glimpse of paradise. ✌️
Thanks again mate, so much about Coobs is unreal, Ive spent over 30 years there all up and it went by like a flash.. Still love every day up there.
Love the digger
Cheers! So do we!😄
JOB HARD and satisfactory ❗👍
What a crazy amount of hard work. I hope you get top dollar for that, you deserve it for braving the opal fields.
Thank you! It is hard work for sure, but hard to quit once you have the bug!
We have a new video coming up showing more of the reality of mining too, thanks for watching!
@@Opaldigger I was watching this video while polishing a nice crystal clear opal with electric blue and green color, so I get it.
New fan
Thanks legend!
I'm so glad your hopes and dreams, the hopes and dreams of your family, your dog, neighbour, mailman, and that spider from the beginning weren't crushed
Oh yeah, I was so upset when the cutter blew up I forgot to film it, so the worlds hopes and dreams got a little ‘squished’ and the red back spider may have suffered a little of that kind of thing too……..😬
Haha make it more like outback opal hunters.
Haha, yeah I’ve gotta remember to film the breakdowns and the pain!!
hi guys. you have the best opal mining channel by far. Nest step 1 x East Pacific ball room so you can go dancing.
As for the drama -dented rim-Shannon driving off that drop off in the Kanga and now a blown out seal on the cutting head and thats just EP.
Cant wait for your next trip.
Haha, that's very kind of you to say.. You obviously have access to some goss about the cutting head LOL.
I really wish I filmed the oil squirting everywhre and the realisation that the seal was broken, but i was too busy swearing and having a tamtrum about it, haha (only partly true). In future I will try to maintain the presence of mind to film the good, bad and the ugly (my head) so as to SELL THE DRAMA!
All that hard, difficult work. It's sure nice to see it pay off, though.
But why slice it up? Would it not be more valuable as a solid piece?
Thanks! Yeah slicing is an excellent way to actually add value, although as you pointed out, the slices need to be tastefully set into gold as lovely symmetrical or at least aesthetically appealing shapes. I love big solid stones but the market for high priced solids is tiny compared to that for bright well made doublet jewelry.
@@Opaldigger after reading your reply to another comment, it made sense. You aren't in business to sit on inventory.
Do you ever post videos of finished jewelry? Those slices will be dazzling.
@@ThatOpalGuy Yes Sir, if you scroll our videos you should see some of our nicer pieces. We only make the best ones public these days otherwise the middle and lower end crowds out the bling haha.
Congrats!!! Nice to see you guys on some good color!
Cheers mate! Couple of flukes but came up pretty well!
Great video and well done with your amazing finds. Would you please put the video format in whole screen mode please as then you get to see so much more of your experience much easier and feel like you’re really underground with you too!!
Thank you! Yes I’m trying to figure that out! I think the whole thing has to be edited in 16:9 so we will get there!
Why the heck would you ruin it by cutting it into slices as thin as paper? You could have polished the damned thing, hung it on a necklace and made 10 times what those paper thin slices will bring!
If only that were true bro, we will make about 20k of stunning jewelry out of those slices and the shell would go for 7k max and that would take up to five years to find the customer. Thanks for looking all the same!
@@Opaldigger yeah, in a good pendant setting those things will be marvelous.
Hahaha, great impression although you still need more unnecessary drama.
Haha, love the opal hunting, and the real stories too, but the manufactured drama’s, not so much..
@@Opaldigger if the world falls apart over one small issue, they shouldn’t be mining. I love the process of mining, don’t need all that bother crap. Thanks for sharing
@@jeffholmes1362Pretty much driven by the TV crew from what I’ve heard. The miners are just trying to get on with it for the most part but ‘they have a show to make’ . I appreciate the sacrifice of the miners as it’s probably good for the industry, but the producers, well, they’re reality TV producers …….
So was that the cockle shell sliced up at the end ? If so what will pieces like that go onto make ? Awesome video, I look forward to your uploads.
@@sharky1317 yes mate, same piece, we will show them as they’re made into doublet jewelry.
Why would you slice it so thin??!?!?
To make into doublets that we inlay into gold. The top is a layer of highly polished natural opal on a boulder opal base.
Here is one of the pieces finished.
worldclassopal.net/products/14k-rose-pink-gold-large-australian-opal-diamond-pendant-super-gem-19ct-h13
The jewelry is less valuable per piece but in our opinion, more attractive and better value for our customers.
hi can you tell me where you got that little grinder from for your machine? was it any good? do they make one that would fit skidsteer cheers
Hey Joe, yeah it is called a rockwheel C2 and can be attached to any machine with some modifications up to 3 ton or I think 220l per minute. Not sure of the specs, This is the smallest but there are many in different bigger sizes. I don’t know if it’s better than a spike, especially in Andamooka, but in tight ground we have found it versatile if a bit slow for driving.
Oh and we had it shipped from a dealer in Sydney. I haven’t got the details but can find them if you need.
@@Opaldigger looks good though we use a combination from spikes, jack hammers, and we also use a modified trencher,
@@Opaldigger what did it cost?
@@joekalmar1085 I can discuss at worldclassopal@gmail.com if you like mate.
Thank you… I’ll try my best ♥♥ ♥♥ 6:100
Could you make this a doublet to make it a black opal? If you're cutting it that thin it seems like you could, but I'm sure you know way more than me and I want you to get fucking rich off of this lot. I'm just curious.
Hahaha, thanks Matt, we will make doublets, and inlay them into gold in a unique process that makes them ‘inlaid doublets’.
Then they will look similar to low/flat dome black opal but at a fraction of the cost. (About one tenth). Of course they’re not black opal and we would never call them that, as it is misleading. But we have very strict quality processes for the way we make them and these should be particularly beautiful!
Thanks again mate, I appreciate your sentiment and wholeheartedly agree. 😁
@@Opaldigger I LOVE doublets and triplets for that reason. I'll never be able to afford the stones I really want. I'll keep that 30 grand for a down payment on a house, but $3,000 isn't out of the impossible.....someday.
Opal is amazing, I really, really hope mining down under grows. Though, I know that's unlikely 😞. Since regulations, claim fees and fewer finds are making it difficult.
I gotta say the lies associated with rarity and price for aussie opal is sickening and gross. If it was so rare there would ONLY BE 5 PEOPLE WITH MINES, But there are thousands of opal miners with mines! Hence NOT RARE. Now i love opal and i would love to see price drop phenomenally like 50 a carat top quality for uncut rough. Then it would be fair. Ya got mi ers selling 10 grand in a few stones with 2 having good color and they get that much! Pathetic. Theres my rant for the day. Sick of prices raising and NEVER dropping. All we gotta do is boycott things and it will force price drop. Boycott football for 2 years and i guarantee it will be 1dollar hot dogs and dollar beers again. And we can do it with opal. If no one buys it they will be forced to drop prices.
Thats why im renting a house instead of buying, surely the boycott will end in a cheap house for us! Of course if the price of opal drops we wont be buying much of anything let alone mining for opal, its pretty complicated.
I gotta say too mate, I've been on the opal fields for over 30 years, i know many miners and have a good idea what they find.Very, very few are rich and even fewer are managing to maintain a taxable income. Just becasue there are a few thousand miners dosnt mean there are thousands of productive mines. Remember these are almost all small outfits with only a couple of blokes digging. Its incredibly difficult, dangerous and very expensive to tunnel 60 feet underground. And the top quality stuff you mentioned represents less than 1% of the opal that HAS color! let alone the vast amount that is just potch, you should come to the Australian opal fields for a couple of months to see what its really like mate.
More evidence that mathematics is irrelevant without good philosophy