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Archive for the 'Opal News' Category

Coober Pedy Opal Steaing Charges

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

THE German backpacker who has been charged with allegedly stealing $165,000 worth of opals has been adjourned so lawyers can investigate his Interpol status.

Carlo Konstantin Kohl, 22, who was due to face the Brisbane Supreme Court today on 36 charges.was adjourned so his defence barrister, Paul Smith, could investigate interpol reports he had received regarding his client.

konstantin has been charged with alledgedly steal opals from Coober pedy and bringing them to Queensland, also The charges relate to him allegedly stealing opals from Coober Pedy and then bringing them to Queensland. He also faces allegations of trafficking in ecstasy.

Smith told the court the report contained information about alleged offences committed in Germany, but did not specify if Kohl had already faced court there.

Call on freeze for opal leases

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Farmers are lobbying the NSW Government in Australia to hold off releasing any more opal prospecting blocks near Lightning Ridge in the state’s north-west.

The NSW Farmers Association wants a freeze on prospecting releases until landholders’ concerns have been addressed.

Chair of the association’s conservation and resource management committee, Louise Burge, says some opal miners are not properly rehabilitating mine shafts and waste dumps, causing environmental and occupational hazards.

“The problems with opal mining claims over private farm land have extended over a period of approximately 20 years,” he says.

“And the standards of mining and lack rehabilitation are what really you’d expect in third world countries, and this is what’s happening in Australia right now.”

Source: ABC News

Opal miners shy away from land releases

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

There has been a dramatic drop in the number of people applying for new opal mining land at Lightning Ridge.

Ballots for 12 areas opened last Friday and so far there have only been about 40 applicants for each plot.

This is compared to hundreds of bids per ballot the last time new land was released a few years ago.

Maxine O’Brien from the Lightning Ridge Miners Association says changes to the way the Department of Primary Industries releases opal mining land is one reason for the decline in applications.

“It’s totally deterred them, according to the numbers - the industry has dropped a little bit but the difference in numbers is quite marked,” she said.

“I think most of the miners have realised even if they do win the ballot, their licence won’t be granted for quite some time because of the additional environmental assessments which have to be presented to the department again in a new format.”

A review into the environmental factors must be finished before mining work can start.

Ms O’Brien says that means some miners may have to wait several months to begin prospecting.

“Hopefully the representative body can have a bit more success in trying to get these processes completed before the licences are granted,” she said.

Source: from ABC news stories

Finding Opals Easier

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

An Australian mining company says it is using Russian technology to make opals easier to find.

Midnight Opals says the technology can detect objects up to 500 metres underground compared with about 25 metres using previous methods.

Company official Anthony Melonas says it is in partnership with Russian scientists who have developed the geo-radar equipment.

“One of the main things that’s been holding opal back is the fact that opal’s a very hard gemstone to find and now that we can use this geo-radar, we can locate the opal a lot faster - that’s less harmful to the environment,” he said.

“We can get access to land a lot easier - instead of going on there with a drilling rig, we can go on there with this non-invasive technology and we can hit opal right on the pocket instead of drilling holes everywhere and this will go through the whole mining industry.”

Source: ABC News Australia

Opals Made of Sand

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Opals Made of SandRussian scientists have come up with a way to make artificial opals from sand.

This new technology is based on being able to create very small silicon dioxide spheres with a diameter varying from tens of nanometer to several thousands of nanometers. Silicon dioxide, of course, is an ordinary material – sand. Sand is generally used to make bricks, glass and some semiconductors.

These items have well arranged atoms of silicon and oxygen in their structure. The new materials are based on amorphous silicon dioxide, where atoms are in “disorder” rather than orderly. But little silicon spheres have equal diameter and are densely packed in a periodic face-centered cubic lattice, like separate atoms in a crystal.

Scientists had to develop a special technique, to allow the production of what they call “bricks”, or spheres made of amorphous silicon dioxide and having set diameter. Chemists then applied a well-known technology called sol-gel processing. During the synthesis, a solution of an organosilicon compound is poured into another solution which, under given conditions and a catalytic agent, results in a silicon dioxide sphere suspension.
But the trick here is in getting spheres of a set diameter, because separating small spheres according their size is a very difficult task. Russian chemists say they have solved this problem by sorting out synthesis conditions, so that reaction results in many identical spheres. Moreover, their diameter can vary from 10 nanometers to two thousand nanometers.

After the “bricks” are synthesized, they can then be arranged in structures of any desired shape and size, from one-layer and multilayer films to three-dimensional structures. All you need to do is allowing the spheres to sink to the bottom under gravity, and they will form the necessary densely packed structure due to self-assembly and, hey presto! You have an opal!

That is a simplified version of course but the end result is opals that can be used in laser technology as well as decorating a ladies neck or hands.
Of course opals made of sand will be somewhat cheaper than the real McCoy, but, when they are flashing and sparkling on your hand, will you really care?

Black Crystal Genuine Gold Hills Opal Ring

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Black Crystal Genuine Gold Hills Opal RingA black crystal genuine gold hills opal ring is somewhat unique in that the gold or the jewelery musty come from the back hills of Dakota in the US, yet the opal is likely to be an Australia opal from the north of Australia.

The types of opals available include:

Black Opal
White Opal
Boulder Opal
Crystal Opal
Fire Opal
Matrix Opal

The Black Opal has a dark body tone than the white opal of course, which causes a brightness of color unmatched by the other opal types. Black Opals are only mined at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales in Australia and considered very rare and are consequently very expensive. White Opals, by contrast are almost cream and sometimes called a Milky Opal. Being white they do not show the internal color as much as the black and are generally bought as white opals only. In an excellent quality stone however there can still be seen some color flashing.

Boulder Opals are different again and have a solid layer of brown ironstone on the back of the stone. They originate from large ironstone bounders underground hence the name.

A Crystal opal can be the same as above but has a transparent or semi-transparent body tone which means you can see through the stone. Crystal opal can have a dark or light body tone hence, “black crystal opal” and “white crystal opal”.

A Fire Opal is an American term and describes any opal which has a significant amount of red coloring. Red is the rarest colour in opals, so these are quite valuable. Often confused with a ‘Mexican fire opal’ which is different yet again and displays orange instead of red coloring.

A Matrix opal is where the opal occurs as a network of veins or infilling of voids or between grains of the host rock. A Matrix comprises precious opaline silica as an infilling of pore spaces in silty claystone or ironstone. the matrix opal shows a fine pinfire colour in the natural state. very rare

Any of these opals, in fact, can be put into a gold hills opal ring but the black crystal tends to be the most popular of all.

Fire Opals from Australia

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

Fire Opals from AustraliaFire opals from Australia are a particular type of opal and very popular, but you don’t have to know all about opals to appreciate the fine quality of fire opals available.

95 percent of the worlds opals come from Australia. Most of these from a town called Cooper Pedy in South Australia. Lightning Ridge, a town in New South Wales, a state further north of Australia, is predominately know for its black opals. Opals are also found in the US, Mexico (famous for its own fire opals).

White most opals are either white or “pearl” color and rarer the black as mentioned above, there is also the Australian fire opals. The Australia fire opal is a translucent to semi-opaque stone that is generally yellow to bright orange and sometimes nearly red and displays pleochroism at certain angles.
Pleochroism is an optical phenomenon where due to double refraction of light by a colored gem or crystal, the light is divided into two paths which are polarized at a 90° angle to each other. As the divided light follows different paths within the stone and are traveling at different speeds, they may have the result of differential selective absorption, thus when they leave the crystal they have different colors, making the stone seem to be of different colors. Pleochroism is an extremely useful tool for mineral identification.

Australian fire opals are relatively rare and so command a higher price.

When buying opals ensure you get a certificate that describes the type of opal you are getting. This is important not just for insurance purposes but also for possible resale at a later date.

With a bit of due diligence and plenty of browsing it is possible to find a very nice fire opal from Australia that will look absolutely splendid

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