I’ve watched a complete shitload of Opal cutting and mining videos over the last year and a half. I mean a shit load of them. This video has got to be the best one so far. No BS. And the song was the icing on the cake so to speak. Glad you had a fruitful journey that day, and was able to bring home some really nice material. Thanks bud
Thanks mate, that really means a lot. Hopefully we can make even more authentic adventures. Just gotta keep the camera rolling and the opal fields always have bloody awesome surprises, or at least stories.
How can I buy those little stones u would throw out? I love my dad.. he is the strongest man I've met! Happy fathers day to all of you great dads and fathers! Without yall this would be a very sad would! U r so needed and appreciated but never told... so today I'll say it- thank you for all you do for us!
Wow amazing beautiful vibrant video guys Plus as a hip hop r&b artist I loved that country opal song..probably because I love opal and rainbow lattice sunstone
Thank you, much appreciated! It's a song written and performed by my super talented bro Shannon @kimberleopal and is based on the true story of how our family came to Coober Pedy and became infected with outback opal fever! All the best with your music mate!
I collect uncut opals. My father in law and his brother were second gen opal miners at Lightning Ridge. And they introduced to another old time who also mined for well over 40 years. I did some trading and some cash thrown their way and have quite a bit of black opal, and opal crystals and end nips I believe you all call them. I have been trying to get a good shell and let me tell you those are easily the finest shells I have ever seen. I must have missed the Belemnite opal cleaned up? The pipes are always cool. Being from the states myself I have to admit I didn't know much about opals.. But once I had a few in my hands I knew I have found a lifelong interest. You guys be safe. And thank you for the awesome upload. Being stateside again this is about my only fix for new opals coming out of the ground. Once again thank you.
Thanks for watching! How cool to have a heritage at the Ridge, Ive never been myself but would love to see it. The belemnite unfortunately had the tip of the perfect termination point chipped off while in the mining ute and i havent cleaned it up any more since. We are hoping to make the first million dollar opal run documentary LOL, watch this space!
Thanks for watching mate! We always marvel at how miraculous the opal fields are and especially that we find ourselves in the right geopolitical situation where the little guy can have a go at finding something. I think if the opal fields were only discovered now it would either never be worked or only big companies could dig it up, just like diamonds..
I have always been fascinated with geology and deposits I live in nova scotia Canada and not much here for deposits...bit of gold and amethyst lots of fossils... my girls re 8 and 9 and I just got them metal detectors so we can hit the beaches. Keep working hard mate God bless you all
Haha, thanks for watching mate, I’m very grateful to have been born and raised in this part of the world and at such a great time of opportunity. All the best!
WOW! Now that’s a compliment! Well, we are trying. Hopefully one day we will document and produce a million dollar find. But until then we are happy chipping away! Haha, thanks for watching!
Your very welcome and thank you. You will hit that million dollar pocket by the hard work you all put in and great ground you cover. . I dig for a living too but on the highways nothing as exciting as opals I find but I'm always on the lookout for treasure lol
Absolutely epic video, mate! One of the most enjoyable digging videos I've seen. And I mean everything about it. From the AMAZING fossils, video quality, and overall stoke. Now I'm fantasizing about being 30 meters down a hole.
Great show! Man you got some beautiful material there! I spent the night in Coober Pedy 20 years ago while driving south from Alice. Almost blew up the cave hotel we stayed in LOL. I love Australia, and would love to visit again, but not likely at my age now, so I much appreciate your great content. Thank you!
Thanks very much mate! It was only the vertical and those couple of shells but we are extremely grateful for that! The long term aim is to get into a claim with virgin ground that produces regularly, it’s pretty tricky to achieve these days with everything so thrashed..
Im from the Uk I’ve travelled to Australia. Currently in Coober Pedy after a very long road trip. Around 2000km from near Melbourne. Would absolutely love to experience some mining. Nevertheless its cool to see the area in real life
@@Amilf_Titler Hey mate! Sorry I missed your message, I hope you had a chance to at least see some of the tourist mines in town, almost as good as the real thing!
Killer opening montage. I'm only 3 minutes into this video, and already loving it. Is that opal digging song available to listen to on TH-cam? I really dig it. Pardon the pun 😆
Dear Red Eye Stones-I kept hearing the song "I come from a land down under, where women roar and men thunder" by Men at Work" I loved that song. Your pun was appreciated, I dug it!
This was a great video thank you for sharing. I have loved opal for more years than I care to admit. Now that I have TH-cam and Google I'm learning much much more. You were calling those few Stones you found shells. Were those actually shell fossils that had turned into opal??!!!!! I have never heard of that but I am totally intrigued! Just out of curiosity how much would one of those shells sell for?
Thank you for watching! Yes they are indeed fully opalised cockle (bivalve) shells that are thought to have lived approximately 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. We sliced one and it made approximately 30k worth of jewelry while the other is about a 20k stone that we haven’t set yet.
@@Opaldigger thats not a bad find!!!!!! Cleaned up Im sure they would bring more. If you were able to part with them!!!!! I dont think I could! I mean, I know opals aee a business but those finds are tremendous
It’s written and performed by my big little bro operating the machine in the video, he is co-director of our mining company Graceopal with myself and owner of Kimberleyopal.com
Great job boys those shells were absolutely amazing. Do you ever get scared when cutting through pillars/pillar bashing? We are going up in the holidays and hoping to try going down some shafts to try our luck.
Hey thanks mate! Yeah, scared ALL THE TIME haha, that's kind of how we manage the risk, just by always thinking that the ground will kill you if you don't pay close attention to it.. Good luck with it! I'd love to watch video of you guys digging out gems.
Do you ever put in timbers/supports before knocking out those pillars? Some of those shots you showed looked pants-ruinly terrifying. I trust your experience and all, but oof. I hope you guys stay safe down under.
Not generally required in Coober Pedy, although some fields could certainly have used them like Olympic as the ground is much more blocky and unstable there. Having said that, Olympic was often mined at about 65 feet then another level would make every 6 feet up for up to three or four levels, so rooms were opened up and then ‘dropped’ with explosives to check the top levels. This is distinctly different to Lightning Ridge where they mostly work the clay stone underneath the sandstone and it’s often only 30 or so feet deep and sometimes very blocky. Our claim where you see is knocking out pillars is loose and blocky from about 58 feet (the shell level) down. But above that is vertically integrated weathered sandstone with gypsum webbing. With the exception of the odd corner or lump developing that could kill us, the roof is generally incredibly strong there and if there were more opal we could probably easily double it’s span quite safely. It’s all on a case by case basis, it’s possible that just 50 metres away the ground is very dangerous and this couldn’t be done. But no, generally we don’t prop in Coober Pedy. Thanks for watching!
I've loved watching the opal hunters and fell in love with the stones in 1969, There was a tiny shop in San Francisco in North Beach owned by PaulGee and he made me a wedding ring from opal which I still treasure. God what a bitch of job this is. The only relief from the damn flies is underground which is where you're likely to be killed. How did they get rid of the flies during filming. I also like gold hunters and when they were hunting gold in Australia their faces were covered with flies. You should include these little buggers because they could be the hugest annoyance of all the tough life this men and women live. Ask anyone from Naked and Afraid and bugs and their bites could be a #1 complaint. You Aussie's have the face swipe down. A constant hand movement to get them off your face and out of your eyes and mouths. What you go thru to get these gems is so well earned. Going up and down those rickety ladders with risk of snakes etc is so brave and amazing I do admire your tenacity and love of the color to do what you do. Forever a fan of those brave enough to do this these days. Good day mate.
PS-I was shocked at how hard it was to find an appropriate tree to cut down to shore up the walls in the mine. You all are challenged at every corner to keep doing what you must be born to do. Opal fever is as addictive as gold. My first opal purchase (besides my wedding ring) was an opal in situ.. To see the glory of color peeking out of claylike material was life changing for me.and I'll treasure it forever.. Your show makes it all the more valuable to me to see just how hard it these days to find these illusive beauties. Have you ever met an old timer who mined these areas before they were gutted. it musthave been like finding a lake packed with trout without end. Now that it is no longer sustainable I've got to give you my full respect for what you are willing to do on a daily basis (ie equipment failure etc) to reach your goals.. How long do you think that those precious areas will remain productive. I guess I answered my own question or this show wouldn't exist. I will watch and admire you all as long as you do what you do. Thank you so much for the peek into your lives.
@@marciaclark3408 Thank you! Yes we know a lot of the old timers, many who have passed and some still spinning yarns about the glory days. And we certainly experience the mixed emotions of hope and despair knowing what used to be in a mine and hoping it's not all gone.. Thank you for watching!
Thanks for a look at the 1st Harlequin opal I've ever seen. Awesome. Wish Icould send a case of cold beer to enjoy when you hit the high temps outside the mines. How hot is it down there or is it cool. thanks. Sorry for so many words but this excites me.
@@marciaclark3408 Not at all, it is about 18c in winter and 26c in summer, varying with the mines depth, water content, ventilation and air flow etc. But when it's 45c up on top, 26c underground is downright heavenly!
I understand, only we are just mining with a phone in pocket most of the time, any extra equipment just gets in the way of finding opal! Thanks for your feedback all the same, I do appreciate it as there are things we can do to improve the sound quality wherever possible. Thanks heaps for watching! 😁
@@Opaldigger I truly don't know anything about making videos but please trust I was not trying to be harsh. But not being a miner, it really matters to the video to be able to hear what y'all are saying...lol.. God be with you and keep you safe in your journey, thank you for sharing with us poor city dwellers....
Way to go!!! You have a bright future, stay the course.
Thank you Sir! We have the added advantage of being hopelessly addicted to the game so it helps us to keep going! 😁
I’ve watched a complete shitload of Opal cutting and mining videos over the last year and a half. I mean a shit load of them.
This video has got to be the best one so far.
No BS.
And the song was the icing on the cake so to speak.
Glad you had a fruitful journey that day, and was able to bring home some really nice material.
Thanks bud
Thanks mate, that really means a lot.
Hopefully we can make even more authentic adventures. Just gotta keep the camera rolling and the opal fields always have bloody awesome surprises, or at least stories.
Amazing to learn more about the effort that goes into the search for the beautiful opals offered at World Class Opal! 🤯
Thanks for watching mate! T
Sorry, the comment I sent was meant for a different video. That being said i know I will enjoy your video. Thanks.
No worries!
Opals and fossils are my two favorite thing’s! Opalescent fossils!!! ❤️❤️❤️
How can I buy those little stones u would throw out?
I love my dad.. he is the strongest man I've met! Happy fathers day to all of you great dads and fathers! Without yall this would be a very sad would! U r so needed and appreciated but never told... so today I'll say it- thank you for all you do for us!
Hi! We sell some parcels including some lower grade practice and beginner material here: opalauctions.com/stores/graceopal Thanks for watching!
Thanks
Absolutely beautiful specimen
Wow amazing beautiful vibrant video guys
Plus as a hip hop r&b artist I loved that country opal song..probably because I love opal and rainbow lattice sunstone
Thank you, much appreciated! It's a song written and performed by my super talented bro Shannon @kimberleopal and is based on the true story of how our family came to Coober Pedy and became infected with outback opal fever! All the best with your music mate!
Great video presentations. Love the music!
Thank you! Written and performed by Kimberleyopal.com
I collect uncut opals. My father in law and his brother were second gen opal miners at Lightning Ridge. And they introduced to another old time who also mined for well over 40 years. I did some trading and some cash thrown their way and have quite a bit of black opal, and opal crystals and end nips I believe you all call them. I have been trying to get a good shell and let me tell you those are easily the finest shells I have ever seen. I must have missed the Belemnite opal cleaned up? The pipes are always cool.
Being from the states myself I have to admit I didn't know much about opals.. But once I had a few in my hands I knew I have found a lifelong interest.
You guys be safe. And thank you for the awesome upload.
Being stateside again this is about my only fix for new opals coming out of the ground.
Once again thank you.
Thanks for watching! How cool to have a heritage at the Ridge, Ive never been myself but would love to see it.
The belemnite unfortunately had the tip of the perfect termination point chipped off while in the mining ute and i havent cleaned it up any more since. We are hoping to make the first million dollar opal run documentary LOL, watch this space!
Love opal mining wish I could be there
Thanks for watching mate! We always marvel at how miraculous the opal fields are and especially that we find ourselves in the right geopolitical situation where the little guy can have a go at finding something. I think if the opal fields were only discovered now it would either never be worked or only big companies could dig it up, just like diamonds..
I have always been fascinated with geology and deposits I live in nova scotia Canada and not much here for deposits...bit of gold and amethyst lots of fossils... my girls re 8 and 9 and I just got them metal detectors so we can hit the beaches. Keep working hard mate God bless you all
@@aaronfiander4650 Awesome! Hope you all find heaps!
very beautiful stone color. like rainbow colors.
Thank you! Yes, rainbows for sure mate. Love it.
Truly living my dream....I truly envy you guys... thanks for sharing...I'll have to make sure by just living vicariously through you 😂
Haha, thanks for watching mate, I’m very grateful to have been born and raised in this part of the world and at such a great time of opportunity. All the best!
Hello guys. Totally best opal program on the planet. Keep safe down there
WOW! Now that’s a compliment! Well, we are trying. Hopefully one day we will document and produce a million dollar find. But until then we are happy chipping away! Haha, thanks for watching!
Your very welcome and thank you. You will hit that million dollar pocket by the hard work you all put in and great ground you cover. . I dig for a living too but on the highways nothing as exciting as opals I find but I'm always on the lookout for treasure lol
Absolutely epic video, mate! One of the most enjoyable digging videos I've seen. And I mean everything about it. From the AMAZING fossils, video quality, and overall stoke. Now I'm fantasizing about being 30 meters down a hole.
Thank you again Sir, that fantasy is exactly what we aim to invoke as it's sooo addictive and fun, and just too good not to share!
Thanks for sharing
And thank you for watching! 🙏😁
@@Opaldigger Thank you for sharing the song opal miner.
great video guys. Very much enjoyed that
Thank you for watching!
Great to see good opal still coming out from old mines, and someone willing to climb in a hole to get it. Thanks for filming. 🤪👍
Cheers mate, I’m still anxiously awaiting that 20k per oz pocket you’re going to dig out and film in great detail.. Very possible!
You needed that support piller
Great show! Man you got some beautiful material there! I spent the night in Coober Pedy 20 years ago while driving south from Alice. Almost blew up the cave hotel we stayed in LOL. I love Australia, and would love to visit again, but not likely at my age now, so I much appreciate your great content. Thank you!
Awesome! I haven’t lived there full time for over ten years but it will always be home to me, and ya can’t blow up too much sandstone IMO. Lol.
Freaking Cool! I hope you guys find buckets full of that new material!
Thanks very much mate! It was only the vertical and those couple of shells but we are extremely grateful for that! The long term aim is to get into a claim with virgin ground that produces regularly, it’s pretty tricky to achieve these days with everything so thrashed..
Wow that is incredible. Well done guys
Thanks mate! Much appreciated!
Im from the Uk I’ve travelled to Australia. Currently in Coober Pedy after a very long road trip. Around 2000km from near Melbourne. Would absolutely love to experience some mining. Nevertheless its cool to see the area in real life
@@Amilf_Titler Hey mate! Sorry I missed your message, I hope you had a chance to at least see some of the tourist mines in town, almost as good as the real thing!
Great job, what beautiful shells, thanks for sharing and congratulations on the find
Thank you! It is our pleasure! 😊
Bloody nice shell you got ... Greetings from the USA
Thanks mate! And greetings from the Aussie bush!
Rewatching because DANG....
Haha, thanks mate!
great stuff man top looking spot
Thanks guys! It was a beauty! Can’t wait to get back already.
real nice vid. dont find shells like that here but we do have some beautiful beaches
Thank you! Well, beautiful beaches is what we are all about. If we find the right patch we may be able to live near one!
The singer missed his calling... He should have been an opal miner!!
Working on it ATM, as you know! 😅
Killer opening montage. I'm only 3 minutes into this video, and already loving it. Is that opal digging song available to listen to on TH-cam? I really dig it. Pardon the pun 😆
Haha, thanks mate, much appreciated! Yes you can see the full original here: th-cam.com/video/oSOUYZRqAwA/w-d-xo.html
@@Opaldigger thanks!
Dear Red Eye Stones-I kept hearing the song "I come from a land down under, where women roar and men thunder" by Men at Work" I loved that song. Your pun was appreciated, I dug it!
@@marciaclark3408 thanks. The question had already been answered. But thanks for reaching out! Good to know there's still good folks about.
This was a great video thank you for sharing. I have loved opal for more years than I care to admit. Now that I have TH-cam and Google I'm learning much much more. You were calling those few Stones you found shells. Were those actually shell fossils that had turned into opal??!!!!! I have never heard of that but I am totally intrigued! Just out of curiosity how much would one of those shells sell for?
Thank you for watching!
Yes they are indeed fully opalised cockle (bivalve) shells that are thought to have lived approximately 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.
We sliced one and it made approximately 30k worth of jewelry while the other is about a 20k stone that we haven’t set yet.
But to be clear, if we sold those shells on the opal field the week of finding I think they would have been around 8-10k max.
@@Opaldigger thats not a bad find!!!!!! Cleaned up Im sure they would bring more. If you were able to part with them!!!!! I dont think I could! I mean, I know opals aee a business but those finds are tremendous
Who is singing through it they sound fantastic
It’s written and performed by my big little bro operating the machine in the video, he is co-director of our mining company Graceopal with myself and owner of Kimberleyopal.com
Thats a bloody deep and narrow shaft 🙈 id stick to and excavator i cant handle confined spaces 😯. Whats brand is your shortwave light?
A lot of people do like open cuts, but down the hole the weather is pretty good all year round. It’s a convoy 365nm, they’re bloody great.
Great job boys those shells were absolutely amazing. Do you ever get scared when cutting through pillars/pillar bashing? We are going up in the holidays and hoping to try going down some shafts to try our luck.
Hey thanks mate! Yeah, scared ALL THE TIME haha, that's kind of how we manage the risk, just by always thinking that the ground will kill you if you don't pay close attention to it.. Good luck with it! I'd love to watch video of you guys digging out gems.
Do you ever put in timbers/supports before knocking out those pillars? Some of those shots you showed looked pants-ruinly terrifying. I trust your experience and all, but oof. I hope you guys stay safe down under.
Not generally required in Coober Pedy, although some fields could certainly have used them like Olympic as the ground is much more blocky and unstable there. Having said that, Olympic was often mined at about 65 feet then another level would make every 6 feet up for up to three or four levels, so rooms were opened up and then ‘dropped’ with explosives to check the top levels. This is distinctly different to Lightning Ridge where they mostly work the clay stone underneath the sandstone and it’s often only 30 or so feet deep and sometimes very blocky. Our claim where you see is knocking out pillars is loose and blocky from about 58 feet (the shell level) down. But above that is vertically integrated weathered sandstone with gypsum webbing. With the exception of the odd corner or lump developing that could kill us, the roof is generally incredibly strong there and if there were more opal we could probably easily double it’s span quite safely.
It’s all on a case by case basis, it’s possible that just 50 metres away the ground is very dangerous and this couldn’t be done. But no, generally we don’t prop in Coober Pedy.
Thanks for watching!
Do you find black opal in this mine too or is it all crystal? Was that broken one a knobby?
Hi! No real black opal in these claims, all white, light and crystal. And no nobbies either, that naturally split piece is a fully opalised sea shell.
Love this video 😎
What type of black light do you use?
Cheers mate, its a convoy S2 356nm
@@Opaldigger 356 or 365? Looks not overly purple on the uv. Perfect for those gems. I haven’t seen a 356
@@danielkemp4187 sorry typo, yes 365.
@@Opaldigger sweet all good thank you.
Can you get this light in Aus? Or only U.S cheers
@@danielkemp4187 we got ours from China. Not sure if they’re still available sorry.
Drilling pillars. 🙄
Aka "Aussie Roulette".
Haha, pretty much..
Dollar dollar bills! Dollar dollar bills 💵💵💰💰
Need some to keep digging!
I've loved watching the opal hunters and fell in love with the stones in 1969, There was a tiny shop in San Francisco in North Beach owned by PaulGee and he made me a wedding ring from opal which I still treasure. God what a bitch of job this is. The only relief from the damn flies is underground which is where you're likely to be killed. How did they get rid of the flies during filming. I also like gold hunters and when they were hunting gold in Australia their faces were covered with flies. You should include these little buggers because they could be the hugest annoyance of all the tough life this men and women live. Ask anyone from Naked and Afraid and bugs and their bites could be a #1 complaint. You Aussie's have the face swipe down. A constant hand movement to get them off your face and out of your eyes and mouths. What you go thru to get these gems is so well earned. Going up and down those rickety ladders with risk of snakes etc is so brave and amazing I do admire your tenacity and love of the color to do what you do. Forever a fan of those brave enough to do this these days. Good day mate.
PS-I was shocked at how hard it was to find an appropriate tree to cut down to shore up the walls in the mine. You all are challenged at every corner to keep doing what you must be born to do. Opal fever is as addictive as gold. My first opal purchase (besides my wedding ring) was an opal in situ.. To see the glory of color peeking out of claylike material was life changing for me.and I'll treasure it forever.. Your show makes it all the more valuable to me to see just how hard it these days to find these illusive beauties. Have you ever met an old timer who mined these areas before they were gutted. it musthave been like finding a lake packed with trout without end. Now that it is no longer sustainable I've got to give you my full respect for what you are willing to do on a daily basis (ie equipment failure etc) to reach your goals.. How long do you think that those precious areas will remain productive. I guess I answered my own question or this show wouldn't exist. I will watch and admire you all as long as you do what you do. Thank you so much for the peek into your lives.
@@marciaclark3408 Thank you!
Yes we know a lot of the old timers, many who have passed and some still spinning yarns about the glory days. And we certainly experience the mixed emotions of hope and despair knowing what used to be in a mine and hoping it's not all gone.. Thank you for watching!
Thanks for a look at the 1st Harlequin opal I've ever seen. Awesome. Wish Icould send a case of cold beer to enjoy when you hit the high temps outside the mines. How hot is it down there or is it cool. thanks. Sorry for so many words but this excites me.
@@marciaclark3408 Not at all, it is about 18c in winter and 26c in summer, varying with the mines depth, water content, ventilation and air flow etc. But when it's 45c up on top, 26c underground is downright heavenly!
This is why get sink holes!
🤣
👍👍👍🇮🇩
Please omit music next video.
I hope you guys got some new microphones....
I understand, only we are just mining with a phone in pocket most of the time, any extra equipment just gets in the way of finding opal! Thanks for your feedback all the same, I do appreciate it as there are things we can do to improve the sound quality wherever possible.
Thanks heaps for watching! 😁
@@Opaldigger I truly don't know anything about making videos but please trust I was not trying to be harsh. But not being a miner, it really matters to the video to be able to hear what y'all are saying...lol..
God be with you and keep you safe in your journey, thank you for sharing with us poor city dwellers....
@@christiroseify All good mate, I agree! It’s a constant work in progress I guess.. Thanks again and God be with you also! 🙏
⭐❤️❤️💎❤️💎🇻🇳