How Much Money Can You Make Digging For Opals
Nosotros humans are obsessed with shiny, sparkly things, going to phenomenal lengths and expense to get our grubby little hands on gems similar gold, rubies, diamonds and emeralds. Wars have been started, lives have been cut brusque, and enormous fortunes take been won and lost scouring the world in the promise of finding that unmistakeable glint of buried treasure.
These days, the hunt for such jewels is virtually entirely monopolised past big industry. You lot or I can't just wander into a goldfield or a diamond mining area and promise to strike it rich, like some 19th century charlatan. The giant mining companies would you have you lot arrested and carted off before you'd even scratched the surface. You lot're far better off staying at home and buying a lottery ticket.
But in that location is one type of gemstone that nevertheless offers promise for the amateur prospector. 1 minor chance left to make your fortune armed with cipher simply your blank hands and a truckload of determination.
That gemstone is opal. And the place to find it? The weird and wonderful Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the earth, in the center of Australia's Outback.
How are Opals Formed?
Opal is formed from silica – the aforementioned stuff as sand – and when you learn that the entire Coober Pedy area used to be a vast sea bed, it makes sense that this should exist an opal hotspot.
As water percolates down through the ground, information technology picks up silica from sandstone and forms a solution of silicon dioxide. The solution settles into cracks and spaces, and sometimes fifty-fifty into the casts left backside by decomposing bounding main creatures. The water so evaporates, leaving the silica behind, which over millions of years becomes an opal.
About 90% of all opal is a slow white colour – this stuff is known as 'common opal' or 'potch' and has no value. This is when the silica crystals are arranged randomly and light is not refracted.
Coloured opal, the valuable stuff, occurs when the silica crystals are evenly sized and lined-up, assuasive lite to bounciness off them and create a rainbow of colours: cherry, green, bluish, violet, yellow or orangish.
The History of Opal Mining in Coober Pedy
The proper noun Coober Pedy (sometimes misspelled 'Cooper Pedy') comes from the Aboriginal words Kupa Piti – said to mean "white homo in a pigsty". And when you come across the opal fields you'll understand why.
White men accept been earthworks holes here since 1915, when a 14-year-one-time boy named Willie, who was working for a team of gilded-prospectors at the time, wandered off and found opals. Since so people accept come to Australia from all over the world to try their luck and the opal mining boom took off.
But it'southward been a tale of highs and lows. In the 1930s and 40s the Groovy Depression almost led to Coober Pedy'south total plummet, and the town was merely saved in 1947 when an Aboriginal woman fabricated a tape-breaking notice which made headlines and sparked a new 'opal rush'.
During the 1960s, the arrival of European immigrants seeking their fortunes acquired the mining industry to aggrandize into a multi-million dollar industry and Coober Pedy gradually became a modern mining boondocks. Today, more 90% of the earth'south precious opals are found in Commonwealth of australia and Coober Pedy is known equally the opal mining capital of the earth.
But unlike with gold and diamonds, in that location is no scientific way to search for opals: finding them is entirely pot luck; hit and (ordinarily) miss. And so big corporations don't carp: information technology's non worth the investment. Which means that any Tom, Dick or Harriet can only turn upwardly and give it a go.
How to become to Coober Pedy, South Australia
I was lucky enough to visit Coober Pedy while working every bit a producer on a BBC science series called The Treasure Hunters. The episode I worked on looked at how a diverseness of natural treasures are formed, and the lengths to which people go to get them out of the basis.
And there are few treasures more elusive, and few places more personally challenging, than the remote and inhospitable landscape of the Australian Outback.
Coober Pedy is in Southward Australia about 520 miles north of Adelaide and 420 miles south of Alice Springs – information technology'southward one of the most isolated cities in the world. We flew on a small plane from Adelaide (you can also travel past road and rail, but the bulldoze volition have you at least eight hours, plus breaks, forth long and lonely roads). It's quite a mission to get to, but definitely worth adding to your Commonwealth of australia Bucket List.
Starting time glimpse of the Australian opal mines
As the plane made its approach, we could see the weird landscape stretching out below us, pockmarked with holes and spoil heaps like some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland. These are the Coober Pedy opal fields, and information technology's here that dauntless and possibly foolish men (and some women, though it's mostly men) come to find their fortunes.
You tin can await for flights to Coober Pedy here.
Coober Pedy is hardly a buzzing urban center, as you can probably tell from the airport terminal building. The boondocks has a population of just a few thousand, and almost everyone is there either to dig for opals, or to supply services to the mining community.
Why are Houses Hush-hush in Coober Pedy?
In one case you've been given your bag back (there's no luggage carousel here), you lot'll demand a place to stay, and at first y'all might wonder where all the hotels are. Until you realise that the reason why you tin can't see them is considering many of the them are surreptitious.
With its desert climate Coober Pedy is and then inhospitable – sometimes reaching a scorching 45° C (113° F) in the shade – that residents decided the best mode to cope was to build their homes beneath the surface, where the sandstone keeps the temperature at a much more than acquiescent 24° (75° F) all yr round.
A few phenomenally lucky ones even hit seams of opal while they were digging rooms out – which sounds like a pretty awesome mode to pay for the building work and probably even afford a dainty new sofa while you're about it.
Not all the houses and hotels are secret, so if you lot'd prefer to stay upward height you tin, simply staying in an underground hotel really brings the Coober Pedy risk to life!
Click hither to search for hotels in Coober Pedy.
Where to stay in Coober Pedy
We stayed in the Comfort Inn Coober Pedy experience, a former opal mine at present turned into a hotel, with underground rooms with big comfortable beds and ensuite bathrooms. I did find it a fleck claustrophobic staying in a room with no windows – and there's something near being undercover that changes the feel and the air quality of a room – simply information technology was very atmospheric and definitely added to the experience.
Coober Pedy Flies and Dust
And then yes, depending on when you visit information technology tin can be hot hot hot in Coober Pedy. And that heat brings on two other unwelcome guests: dust, and flies.
We discovered the flies as presently as nosotros arrived. The petty buggers are everywhere, and they only won't leave you lot lonely. Buzzing circular your face, settling on every available surface, making a beeline (a fly-line?) for moist areas like your eyes, nose and lips.
We were told they're not always THIS bad; we'd just come at a specially buzzy time, but even so, you'd improve be prepared. We had to rush out pretty damn quick and buy fly nets similar these ones to keep them off our faces – I ended upwards looking a bit some sort of edgy Australian Outback helpmate!
Only don't even recall of getting married hither – at least, not in a big white dress. Because of the heat, Coober Pedy is too incredibly dry and dusty, and all your clothes will end upwardly orange pretty much the 2nd y'all footstep outdoors.
How to Find the Coober Pedy Opal Fields
The main opal fields are situated but a short bulldoze out of town. If you're a serious opal-hunter, y'all'll need to invest in a 4WD vehicle – but if you're there as a tourist (which, absolutely, is probably what you lot'll be), you tin can volume an opal fields tour or try to persuade a friendly local miner to take you on a drive.
Once you're outside the built-up area of the town, you actually start to appreciate the weird beauty of Coober Pedy. Information technology's like a lunar landscape, pockmarked all over with holes from which yous half wait some kind of giant burrowing animate being or alien brute to pop upwardly.
Moving picture locations in Coober Pedy
In fact, so weird is the opal fields' landscape that many Hollywood filmmakers have used them as a flick set. Vin Diesel was a marooned space traveller here in Pitch Black, Guy Pearce took a trip through the area in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and a space send left over from Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome, lies abased in Coober Pedy town centre.
This bit of film memorabilia is not the only abandoned piece of equipment lying around. Sometimes, the oestrus and the grit storms become the better of the difficult-worked vehicles; others lie discarded in the opal fields after their owners bankrupted themselves and went back to where they came from, leaving their hopes, dreams, and earth-moving machinery in the dust behind them.
Information technology makes for a very eerie and strangely cute landscape.
Tin can Anyone Mine Opal In Australia?
Of course there's a reason why people come here to brave the heat and the flies and the grit: the chance to strike it rich with a huge opal find. And it could happen: some seams are no more than eight inches below ground, and if you're insanely lucky you might even find a stone just lying on the surface.
In that location have been some spectacular discoveries – one worth over a 1000000 dollars – but plenty of locals still believe there are more rich pickings to be had.
Tourists are allowed to visit the mines, only if you're serious about properly trying your manus at opal mining, you need to be over 16 and have the following:
- Australian citizenship or a work visa.
- A let costing but AUS $74 and identification plates costing AUS $8.90.
- A wooden stake.
How to go Opal Hunting in Coober Pedy
In one case you've got your visa, your permit, and your stake, what you and so need to practice is pick a likely-looking bit that isn't currently claimed by anyone else, hammer your stake into the basis, and get stuck in. That's it!
Of grade, in reality it'due south not a unproblematic equally that. You'll need plans, and equipment, and engineering knowhow, and a hefty dose of dust and determination. But if you're serious about applying for a permit and staking a claim to mine opals in Coober Pedy, there's loads more information via the South Australian Government website.
And at present comport on reading to find out how the experts do it…
How to Detect Opal in Australia
Once you've staked your opal mining claim, you need to outset earthworks. The easiest way to do this is with a giant drilling automobile like this ane.
When you run into 1 of these, suddenly all the little holes and piles of dirt brand sense. For over a hundred years, miners accept been doing just this – digging holes, checking to see if they've hit a seam of opal, and when they find they haven't, moving on to the adjacent spot.
The holes remain unfilled with the spoil heaps next to them, and over the years x holes became a hundred, and so a thousand – a memorial to the failed attempts and crushed dreams of the miners who've been and gone.
Not every attempt is a failure though. This is Australian opal miner Justin. He used to piece of work for large-calibration mining companies until he decided to quit and go his own boss. He didn't like to talk virtually how much money he'south made from opals, but he reckoned that over the years information technology's definitely been in the multimillions of dollars.
That doesn't hateful he'southward a multimillionaire now though – running equipment like this is an expensive concern, and many Coober Pedy opal miners who hit pay dirt shortly accident all their profits in the quest for the adjacent big find.
Justin and his partner use their giant drill to dig a one-meter-diameter hole in the dirt. He told me that the chances of hit opal straight off are extremely rare – unremarkably he has to drill the pigsty and and so tunnel along horizontally under the ground until he finds something. If he hits opal on the first go it usually means he'due south landed on a large pocket of the stuff, and he'due south in for an exceedingly adept year.
With the pigsty drilled, the next stride is to audit the walls of the shaft for signs of opal. This involves one person being winched down to take a look. It's hot, dusty, and very claustrophobic, but I can but imagine the excitement you might feel if yous saw that telltale flash of colour winking dorsum at you from the side of your freshly-drilled rabbit-hole.
Coober Pedy's Hush-hush Mines
As Justin points out, yous'd have to be insanely lucky to hit a patch of opal on your first attempt. Far more probable is that you'll need to showtime tunnelling sideways under the footing, hoping to hitting a seam earlier y'all come to the border of your merits and crash into someone else's tunnel.
But with opal so difficult to find, and miners and then adamant, information technology doesn't take all that long earlier what started out as a single shaft soon develops into a rabbit-warren of tunnels and chambers.
This is Bob, who allowed u.s. to film within his mine. Bob's an Australian engineer who's been in Coober Pedy for near 50 years; he came to the boondocks on his way to the Northern Territory but liked the identify so much he decided to stay. He loves the freedom of being his own boss, and the excitement of never knowing what might happen from one day to the next.
Bob takes a different approach from many other miners in his quest for opals – rather than drilling holes then tunnelling sideways, he finds cliff edges and cuttings in the rock and digs in from the side. This allows him to get bigger mechanism inside and gives a much more spacious underground experience.
Fifty-fifty and so, I did find the opal mine a little nerve-wracking – hoping that Bob had done his calculations correctly and that the walls and ceilings of the tunnels were structurally sound. It wouldn't exist all much fun to become trapped down in that location that's for sure – and information technology has been known to happen. And so it was a relief when we finished filming and were able to emerge into the fresh air again. I was even happy to see those flies!
How to go Noodling for Opals in Coober Pedy
Of class, if you don't have the time, money, or free energy to dig your own mine, there is another alternative. It's called noodling or fossicking for opals, and it involves going through the spoil heaps left behind by other miners to come across if they've missed annihilation.
Many of the big-scale miners focus solely on the big deposits, and don't waste fourth dimension on the odd gem or two here and in that location. For those that can exist bothered, there's good money to be made just picking up what the large guys have left behind.
This is what miner Dale does. He puts his pale into abandoned claims where he knows there'south been a strike, and looks for what was missed. He's even developed his own machinery which noodles for opals by sifting out the sand and scanning the remainder under UV light to pick upwards the gems, which glow white in the night. With a trained eye and a quick mitt he can pick up $2000 worth of opals a twenty-four hour period this way.
As a tourist, this is something y'all tin even try for yourself. A couple of the working mines are open to the public, and they'll let yous noodle for opals in their spoil heaps and keep anything you notice. Though I wouldn't hold out all that much promise – I'm pretty sure they'll have given them a good going over earlier they let anyone else loose on them. But you never know, you might get lucky!
How Unsafe Is Opal Mining?
As you might have already gathered, with the potential for great reward comes great risk. Mine collapses tin happen, and at that place's likewise a take a chance of lung or eye impairment from all that dust.
Even if you never enter a mine, if you venture out to the opal fields yous run the very existent take chances of falling downward one of the hundreds of abased shafts that are dotted about here, there and everywhere. For this reason there is even a dedicated Mine Rescue Squad in Coober Pedy, whose job it is to reply apace in the event of an blow.
Nosotros were repeatedly reminded to be hyper-vigilant almost where we were walking, and never to step backwards without looking backside us starting time.
In the era of the selfie, I tin can imagine the number of accidents is simply going to increment so delight, delight be careful.
Why Should You Become To Coober Pedy?
In all seriousness, information technology's highly unlikely anyone reading this is really going to become a miner in Coober Pedy. But that admittedly does not mean yous shouldn't go. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Coober Pedy is ane of the most starkly beautiful, weird, and fascinating places I've ever had the fortune to visit, and definitely somewhere that'll stand out in your memory when all those Italian churches or Ugandan National Parks have merged into i.
For more than data and advice on how to plan your trip, visit the town's tourist site.
Watch our film all about the opal mines in Australia
If y'all'd like to see the motion picture we made, it's here, courtesy of our lovely cameraman Julius.
Read more
To read more than about what nosotros got up to on this amazing filming trip, why not read How to Grow a Pearl – Inside an Australian Pearl Farm
Or if you'd like more behind-the-scenes Tv production stuff from other places, why non endeavour one of my Unhelpful Guides?
Take you been to Coober Pedy or tried your hand at noodling for opals? I'd love to know how you lot got on in the comments!
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