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OPAL BOOKS
Some of Len Cram's best selling titles, most of them are out of print and almost all are signed by the author.
OPAL INFO
Look here for general information on different types of opal, formation, and the like.
ESKIMO NELL
Who is that???
Suppliers of Quality Opal Rough & Spectacular Finished Stones, specializing in Yowah Nut Opal, Opalized Wood, and Lightning Ridge Black Opal.
"Mining In Yowah" Our Boomerang Mine 
The Boomerang Mining Lease is a .18 hectare boomerang shaped lease in Yowah, Queensland, Australia. Part of the original Great Extended Lease of the 1890s ( the first recorded lease), it has been extensively worked underground by the old timers. Fifteen or so shafts were visible at the surface when I first pegged it. All of them were the old timers' hand dug rectangular shaped holes. These have been backfilled by both hand and weather with trees growing out of them. This is an indication that the old dirt in the shaft has not been processed for many years. This is a promising sign as there was no market in the late 1800s and early 1900s for matrix Yowah nut opal. The miners back then were looking solely for gem, crystal opal-centered Yowah nuts. The Great Extended was renown for producing small, gem quality red crystal nuts that had skin to skin color and since a man named Evans owned the lease, these gem nuts are called Evan's nuts and are highly sought after by those walking over the area fossicking (picking up surface nuts). Some of these nuts have a tiny opal center with a great thickness of ironstone around it much like a peach pit in a peach. The skin to skin color nut can be compared to a chestnut -all opal in a thin ironstone skin. Working below ground, often 10 feet to 40 feet deep, the miners would haul the dirt out of the depth using a windlass (a hand cranked winch) while following the nutband (the horizontal band of earth bearing Yowah nuts). Candles lit the way and the nuts were often cracked open underground and checked for color by candlelight or taken over to the bottom of the shaft to use the available sunlight shining from above. Consequently, much color was missed and opal matrix, due to the market, was left in what is know a "The Crackin' Heap". Hundreds of nuts were cracked with no trace of color. When color, good color, was found, the nuts were bucketed to the surface to be cracked under the shade of a tree or around the campfire while tea was on the boil. Ironstone weighs heavy so the rejects were left in their heap below ground. As the mining progressed, new dirt was moved to release more nuts. This throwaway dirt was stowed in the drives (tunnels) behind the miners that they were no longer interested in. These drives would be packed firmly with the "backstow" which covered the :crackin; heap". Many rejected nuts were also sprinkled liberally in with the backstow. This process saved the old timers the unproductive work and unnecessary sweat of windlassing all dirt up the shaft to the surface. I am gloriously thankful of this, as it has left present day miners a source of beautiful, valuable matrix Yowah nut opal! Today we are in the process of open cutting this impossible to work, dangerous ground. The tunnels have caved in over the last hundred years or are about to. By removing the sandstone overburden, we expose the backstow in both the shaft and the tunnels. Also exposed is the added bonus of the virgin, solid pillars, that were originally left to hold up the mine roof. The old diggers had to leave some gem nut-bearing ground alone as props to keep them safe underground. All these nuts have TONS of Queensland sandstone and clay mixed with them. The dirt needs to be trummeled in a mesh cage to separate the ironstone from the host dirt easily. The nuts are thrown in buckets and hauled off to be washed, cracked, and sawed before the cutter shapes and polishes the best. Our partner's excavator has pulled out huge heaps of dirt liberally sprinkled throughout with potato like nuts and cut a large ramp with which to walk the excavator in to dig deeper to virgin levels. We are at the point now where there is so much opal bearing dirt stockpiled that this has to be processed before the virgin levels can be prospected. We also have a nice, shallow opencut mine called the "Jackaroo" that produces good color and spectacular silica patterned nuts. Opalized wood was also found in a 20 foot deep prospecting trench in the Jackaroo earlier this year.That is why those who join our opal expedition to Australia are free to work these stockpiles, and can keep the opal they find, up to the price of their tour. These are the same stockpiles I work when over there mining. We encourage fellow lovers of opal on our tour, to actively participate in the mining of their own opal. The physical exertion level you use is up to you as the dirt can be raked through with a lightweight hatchet, the nuts can be pulled out of the heaps just like picking potatoes, shoveled into a small trummel, loaded into a large trummel with a loader, or sieved with a handheld shaker much like a 16 inch flour sieve. We also provide a larger sized hand sieve that is tripod mounted on swinging cables for ease of shaking. All mining gear is provided by us. Remember, what you sieve, needs to be washed and sorted then cracked to determine which is opal bearing. Cutting facilities are also made available for your use. You are topside so the claustrophobic need not fear. The amount of opal you get is usually relative to the amount of dirt you sieve. Everything is done at your choice of speed and what and how you do it is no different to how the opal miners have been doing it for over a century. This IS opal mining. Go back |