Mining at our Boulder Opal MineMining Boulder Opal Our boulder opal mine is at an extremely remote location called Vergemont cattle station. Travelling to our mine from Brisbane takes a total of 35 hours, this includes 3 hours on a rugged bush track.
The picture below shows our mine on google maps (you can zoom out on the picture below to see how remote it really is). Below is a picture of our mine, after all mining has been completed we will return the environment back the way it was. Most opal mines hae a small camp, a mine can be cut off from the nearest town for weeks at a time due to floods.
To locate the opal, the 1st step is to drill into the ground to find evidence of opal. Once opal traces have been discovered the miner drills the earth looking for the opal level (stone layer that has a high possibility of containing opal).
Once the opal level has been found, the next step is to try and locate a fault in the level - as there is a tendency for opal to be found close to faults and disturbed ground. The miner will drill a series of holes looking for a drop in the level depth. If a drop is found he will continue to drill holes, narrowing the distance between the holes until the fault is discovered.
20 Tonne excavators are used in most Boulder Opal mines as large quantaties of earth need to be moved to find the opal - it's a fast way of getting down to the opal level. The biggest challenge for most opal miners is the cost of diesel and maintenance. All Australian opal is becoming significantly more expensive to mine.
The picture below shows different levels and a fault line that opal miners are looking for. A bullbozer works the ground while other miners crack the unearthed rock using large hammers - they are looking for the opal inside. Most Queensland opal forms inside the rock, hence the name Boulder Opal.
Click here to find out exactly what opal is. Click here to find out how the opal formation creates colour. Click here to view our Opal jewellery
Find Wonderful Jewellery from the above Boulder Opal Mine |
What is it about Gemstones & Opals that captivates our hearts?
The feeling that one can get by gazing at the captured sparkles, colours and patterns of certain gemstones and opals is indescribable. Just like a sunset over the ocean, or a misty morning in the countryside, gemstones & opals make many of us take pause, and revel in the splendidness of life.
JG Jewellers strives to discover as many of these 'special' gemstones as possible and make quality jewellery out of them, so that anyone, at anytime can take joy in the wonder of nature.
We are manufacturers, wholesalers, have our own shop, and a website that is very user-friendly.
To help keep track of our marketing, I am going to give you a special unique one-off coupon code that once entered, will take 20% OFF the price of any piece of jewellery.
(Items are posted from Australia, if you live outside Australia click here).
Here is some of the many recent testimonials of satisfied customers who have shopped at our website.
How to get the 20% discount...
- Step 1) Make a note of this code 'magic2'.
- Step 2) Go to the "home page" and start shopping. When you have finished, enter in the code: 'magic2' on the check-out (final) page. This will discount 20% from the jewellery price!
- Step 3) Finally and most importantly, wear your jewellery, show all your friends, and together take joy in the wonder of nature.
Thanks for reading, I hope you find something special...
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P.S. We developed this website to drive targeted traffic to JG Jewellers. All I needed to do was write the content - SBI does the rest. If you can type then you can do it too, its that simple, click here to find out more.