this week i take you on a trip buying opal in lightning ridge
g'day and welcome to black opal direct my name is justin well
we're on a journey we're going to lightning ridge and we're going to go and buy some opal
i'm going to take you on a secret tour to show you what it's like to buy opal off a miner and it's
quite a secret world and nobody really gets to see much of this sort of stuff so you're in for a tree
it's a long drive to the mining fields no matter where on the coast you come from but there
is plenty to see on the way but i always make sure i have a good audio book to pass the time
hey little baby
i brought my son saxon up with me on this trip to help with the driving and do some camera work
he also likes to help out my mates out in the mining fields
whenever they need it nine hours driving and we finally made it to opal country
so this is where the action happens this is where i do most of my buying if i'm not out on the field
and i go and look at some opal out on the field which is a really tempting and scary place to buy
because you see something come straight out of the ground and you really you say this
is the first time i've seen this i want this opal and it's um it's a little bit
probably scary it's best to come back to wherever you normally buy and look at it in the light that
you're used to now this set up here is perfect for me because i've got some opal here i can look at
some opal i've got my natural light source from behind me so that when i'm looking at this opal
i know how opal shows up in the right light because if you use the same light every time
you get a really good gauge or idea about what opal is worth and and how it looks in
your lights that you know best so i've got all of my tools all around me my calculators my light my
loop a little scale portable one and i can gauge whether this is the type of opal i can use or not
meanwhile saxon's out at the opel fields helping out our good friend ken
down at the opal fields here with a minor can ken needed help with his drilling rig this morning and
did some fixing on the hydraulic rams the bearings gave way so i've just come out here helping for
the morning and ken's been working so hard last two months he's put down about 100 holes in this
area all about three feet wide anywhere from 40 to 85 feet deep and he's found absolutely nothing
it's a shame but it just goes to show that you don't always find million dollars worth of opal
when you come out here and it's a bit of luck of the draw really fix the bush bushes and pins for
the rams they are for the tower to lift the whole thing up they're being completely flogged out so
then we needed a crane here and we had snacks to give us a hand and we had to fit it in here so
now hopefully this would be much better and not so sloppy the whole tower was moving like this
when it was in right position that's not what we want and the other day we did some new locks
that's uh on the caliber so we stop it from falling that extra 200 mil
so we got them on three spots that's done so now we're gonna fix the this is actually where we call
call it a bell housing that needs to be secured and fixed so that part sits in the back here
40 bolts snapped here this really well about 15 feet into the ground and it snapped off 40 bolts
that's it that's correct so well we got the rams in and they're not easy they're heavy good stuff
so what i'm taking you to today is i'm taking you to a mine where i know my friend is mining there
and i'm going to check on him he knows i'm coming and i'm going to check and just see if he's got
any opal for sale so what i want to take you on is a journey through the whole opal buying process in
lightning ridge and and you can see what we do and how it works there is a few things that i
will say that you really need to be careful of and that is never go to a mining site without
permission because there is so many dangers and potholes and sinkholes and mine shafts and
all sorts of dangerous things out there that most people might not even know about so
and also it's illegal to go into a mining area without permission
when we get to my friend's claim his name's dave we're going to knock on his door and there's a
special way to knock on a door in a mine so i'm going to show you that as well and see if dave's
home and hopefully he's got some opal so we're just going to head out to the mining fields now
all right we're we're out of dave's mind now and there's a few things i want to show you
uh of how we get to contact the miner down below
now this is a mine safe area so you can't just come here without permission okay it's
very important so come over and i'll show you a couple ways we get in contact with the miner down
below
very important tool so what we're doing is
dave is down the mine you can hear his generator going so you know that he's working okay um
there's lights on down there and the generator will be also running the jackhammer so if you
listen carefully you can hear that jackhammer going if it's not going the generator won't be
laboring which is not laboring right now so i can hear that there's nothing uh no jackhammer going
but if we go a little bit closer i'm sure he's working so let's go and have a listen
so as you can hear oh i don't know if you can hear but you can hear the generator now is starting to
go up and down in revs that means that he's turning the jackhammer on and off and i can hear
the jackhammer going right now so what we do is we grab our piece of piece of metal or a screwdriver
and we listen we listen for the break in the jack hammering and then we go
and that's the way we knock on the door to our mind
and hopefully if he's not got his earplugs in and he's not hammering at the time he'll
hear that yep he heard me hey dave hey what's happening there you going just checking up to
see how you're going and if you're on any opal yeah no i'm not going too bad got a cup a little
bit got a real nice piece out right here if you're interested in it or come australia
yeah come up man come up alright then i'll be up there in a sec no worries so you never ever go
down a mine without an invitation um there's a bucket that comes up with dirt in it and
if you're going down and they they don't know and they turn the bucket on this is very very
powerful equipment and you can get injured very easily so never go down a mine when people don't
know
wow the weather's nice that's beautiful it was 48 degrees last week yeah is it
maybe 30. yeah i think fair 30 31 for a lot cooler underground but i get it
uh we're just doing the rounds and i'm just seeing if you've got any opal
well you've got me at the right time this morning i've just cut onto a little bit down there
you did yeah nice little bit actually yeah really good little piece yes well there so
maybe maybe you could come around the house in a little while um and bring it to us i'll just
pack up here and i'll meet you at family house 10-15 minutes or something perfect
i hope you like it's a nice piece i'm really excited oh hi actually i'm excited
let's hope we're going to come to a deal man hey all right okay all right we'll see you soon
hello hey hey hey hey thanks for coming back no problem
i just saw a big glimpse of color there man yeah you know i've been outlining
the corners you're seeing me come over and i promise i'll come show you this please
wow that's good color man
well done i think there's plenty more of it yeah and what do you what are you asking for
it's got to be worth five [ __ ] five grand oh yeah five grand
it's a nice color what does it weigh
so it's 32 carats as it is i get a say i get a six or seven carat stone out
of it which is a risk that's a high risk when i can only see the color on one side
you wouldn't do four and a half on that would you no i've got to stick to my guns
it's hard to get them out done you got to know everything thanking you that's a beauty i look
forward to cutting that one for sure that should have a nice start i was lucky i come and banged on
your in my ladder stay tuned next time when i take this beautiful piece to the wheel and see if i
make a profit or a loss thanks for watching family fed food in the fridge and beer on the table
food
you