DEATH OF AN OPAL MINING TOWN: Mintabie, South Australia gemstone
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- In January, 2018, the Australian government announced the closing of the town of Mintabie, where, in some of the world's best opal was mined. Mintabie is in Aboriginal lands, although in a resolution, the government leased the town for a period of time, ending in the early 2000's.
The reason for the closure of the town (and the mines) was, in my view due to the depletion of opal. Most of the miners left and the town declined, prompting closure.
This video is intended as a celebration of the great opal town of Mintabie and its fabulous opal.
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I love the darker/Gray based Mintabie Opal!! Definitely some of my favorite material
“Hooning” is one of the most Australian sounding terms I’ve ever heard. Learn something new everyday! Thanks for sharing. 😊
Thank you for sharing that with us Colonel.
Very much appreciated
Truely spectacular , good work securing those specimens .
Aw much
I think like you that Mintabe has some of the finest color of all opal.
@@PulitzerOpal found someone from Australia that can still come up with some for sale or auction but nothing of that size or quality. Some of the smaller stones like you showed does have some very nice color so I guess I better get what I can while I still can.
I can look at Mentabe opal for hours. Seems like each time u find a new flash of color. The yellow is very pretty with the dark gray background. It's a cheery brite
Mintabie.
Important correction to the information with this video. The Australian Government is NOT closing the town, it is the South Australian Government as the mining legislation is state, not federal. Also there are far more complicated issues than the reasons given by the government. Various politicians have used parlimentary privilege to make accusations on a whole town population that sould slanderous in other circumstances. There is much that could be said but this is not the forum for it.
End of an historic town. :( Great presentation, thanks for filming it!
What a load of bull! I lived and mined there for 11 years and we developed a good relationship / mateship with the APY locals. Football carnivals, BarBQues, working together, schooling etc., all of which was despised by the city based lefty Aboriginal industry who devised every effort to discredit us because they wanted control. I could write a book on the crap that went on and the way the 'Industry' distorted facts to cover up their failures and blaming us miners at Mintabie was their scapegoat. It's going to be interesting to see who they blame once the opal miners are gone and all the issues remain.
Oh and regards drugs, did they ever get to the bottom of the multi million dollar dope crop the police found growing on APW lands some years ago? I guess not, strange isn't it, perhaps because it WAS NOT Mintabie miners involved and yet now they say a few old aged characters at Mintabie are big time drug dealers. Apart from the obvious they are mostly dead broke and also, why have they not been charged and thrown into jail, these evil oldies! lol ! Besides if the authorities want to really sort things out, investigate ALL those living on and involved with the APY lands, the truth will shock the Aussie tax payer. APY folk are being wronged but not by Mintabie miners, period!
extraordinary play of color. great story!!
very gorgeous my sweetheart also loves opal more then her birthstone diamond her 2 favorites are amethyst and opal i frankly luv the beautifull rainbows in it are so amazing austrailian people got amazing spots to mine i mine to but working on getting lapidairy equipment someday
bloody shame! the Mintabie material is some of the most crackin opals i've seen. yours are amazing! if i was out there, i'd still be digging up this stone.
That's so beautiful you do an awesome job on opals
They are my favorite, Yeah I was wondering Is you would be able to sell a rough patch Of Opal.. Or Whatever you have
Wow, there's some beautiful stones
Thank you I like watching you I learned a little bit
Beautiful opal!!
The opals are exquisite. I could never afford to buy such beautiful jewelry so thank you for sharing the pictures and knowledge. I think its the most beautiful of all the gems.
Dear God that rectangular cabachon was a Beast.... You are a gifted cutter my friend...I envy you I truly do
Mining is still happening in Mintabie~ and still producing some gems…hope this info helps K
I looked at a Google Maps image from 2021 and there is still evidence of mining going on.
You have a lot of Opal! Thanks for the video😊
Bought when opal was much less expensive. The value is about triple today and I would not spend that much in today’s money for it.
I can see the addiction of pulling the Gem from the stone.
Those are gorgeous nice work
Hi Doc....Steven here. For years we bought opal rough from there. Murray Whitehead( rip)was our miner. Opal youshow here is in my 50 years in the business...Stellar. I want
I knew both Murray and his dad Brian. Had some crazy times there as a miner in the mid 80's.
@@StormyJack-qk2tn Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner - I don't use this account often. Glad you had such great experiences with the Whiteheads - Brian was among my favourite people there - had the craziest laugh I've ever heard. Any idea whatever happened to Murray's missus, or her Sharon, who used to work at the pub? Good people as well.
I’ve worked in Mintabie on and off for 20 years! Still here until the 1st of July! Is a sad crying shame to see a place like this go down! The government really made up a lot of BS about us. Mintabie still to this day has so much opal left here. I’ll be mining up to the day of closure!
We are trying to keep high spirits mate, sometimes it’s pretty tough out here in mintabie let alone what’s happening with the Closure. My father and I are actually residing here full time as of 4 years ago, but as I mentioned over 20 years mining here. Nice to see some mintabie opal, something about it. My personal opinion that mintabie is much nicer than Coober Pedy. Add me on my Facebook Bayden D Pearse. Will send some pictures of some rough material, also A resent video 👍
Pulitzer Opal I'm not much of a fan of Facebook either. I've just sent you an email :)
Top 5 I EVER Seen in my 53 years in the opal business
Very interesting stones coming from that area, beautiful! Could they possibly discover another vein of them nearby?
Pulitzer Opal Aborigin-opals!
I always thought mintabie opal was under valued compared to other aussie opals, dark base many colors and very saturated staked close together,very nice stuff,would you call it semi black ?
Sad to hear. I hope they end up opening the mines back up. You are so lucky to have got so much of it before the mines closed down. Horse shoe king!
just so mesmerizing!
Pops I like the blue and purple in opal also.
You make that jewellery! 💖💕💖 wow!
In Oakland we call hooning a "sideshow", and they are performed on highways and city streets.
I was in Tuscon, this time of the year. I purchased some boulder opal. What is your opinion of boulder opal? Additionally, your settings (findings) are exceptional. Could you recommend your resource? Thank you. Does your e mail still valid? I would like to seek your advice, or if there is a private You Tube, could you advise?
like any opal some boulder is high grade some is not,ive see studding boulder opal gem grade stuff for very high prices
Growing up in the 60s & 70s in the US, we always used to hot rod around in our muscle cars. “Hooning “ didn’t originate in Australia I’m sure. I’m saddened that Australia has become (or maybe always was) so unfree. People ought to be free to live where they choose- if they’ve bought the land and heir home the “government “ shouldn’t be able to force them to move. My opinion.
Boy and look at how bad Australia is now, my goodness they have been kidnapped by tyrants and need to remove them all, as well as many other countries. People should live free, with no intrusion from govt or other citizen or business. Govt was meant to protect those rights but instead exploit them and erode them away into nothing. Evil people crave control over others. They have to be stopped.
Is a Mintabie closed now? I just ordered some. 😀
Thanks Pulitzer Opal, We are fighting to keep Mintabie open, please sign our petition on change.org save Mintabie South Australia. The town is not as described in the review. We are fighting it to the highest court in our land. we have a facebook page which is savemintabie sa, and our email address is savemintabiesa@gmail.com. Thanks for your support. Aussies don't give up that easy, we are a tough bunch downunder.
Do you sell rough opal or have a website for cut product?
OK I am a new subscriber,,, I have watched several videos before I became a subscriber,,, I am a Welder by trade and I work in construction... But that has nothing to do why I subscribed ,,,lol,,, I like doing my nails.. I thought of the way. Once you did that Finger nail thing,, It sparked an idea. The only thing girly about me is my fingernails and I have figured out a way with gel No Polish,, It's called cat eye,, I was able to make a absolutely gorgeous recreations Of opals on my nails, It is so freaking cool and I just wanted you to know,, That you were my inspiration.. Everyone loves my nails.. When I went to the nelson'll on. They asked who did it and I said I did and They said wow. How did you do it. I told them and I made $250.. So thank you very much.. As always sending peace love and joy your. Have an awesome day.
I bet you are a champion old fashioned giver .
DAAANG!!!!!
I apologize I did get you confused with Black Opal Direct at first. Are u Sir in the US? I looked on your channel homepage, do you have a website. I like to send you a couple videos to help me get back on track with opals I cut, bought and suggestions. I have one opal I scared to recut so the ends look like some of your style and remount as a awesome ring for myself. Its too large for a ring. Seen a beautiful mounting a long time ago, called gentleman and it was a three stone ring, the opal was all from the same piece. Had the center stone and 1 triangular piece on each side. Hard to tell sizes from pictures. The diamonds were all VS or better but small. Like 2 or 3 pointers. Wish u-tube would allow posting video in comments. Just no one in my area that cuts stones or buys them. Never should have bought a pixie afterwards found lots of used equipment my jewelers father still has in a huge Building filled with a treasure trove of items he has bought cheap being in 5th generation small town Jewerly store for past 62 years. He is now 80 and realizing its time to sell some of his really cool items he has collected over all those years. Going this coming Sunday to look at all the silver coins he has bought over the years. He still works 6 days a week and his wife of 62 years is failing and he is thinking of selling store to spend more time with her. She was always at store for most of past 60 years and its heart breaking.
Linda! linda! beautilful'beautilful'god bless you my friend your job
@5:32...... How much money is in your hand right there?
Hi how to contact you? I would like to bug raw.material
Where can I buy plates like those?
I bought large Mintabi plates with grey sand on both sides 15 yrs ago from a Miners 401k stash. Would love more.
@@PulitzerOpal I'm definitely the 6-8 per oz buyer. Would you be happy with the carat price you'd get at that price point?
The $6-8K material is in another video: th-cam.com/video/wkfmVdL_dNg/w-d-xo.html
The other video is similar, but it has a "wiggley" color bar of jelly opal in the middle of some of the pieces. Still, it can produce amazing stones: th-cam.com/video/25lxYazQaYk/w-d-xo.html
I love mintabie but unfortunately every piece Ive ever cut was riddled with sand or cracks but I could never afford material as gorgeous as you have in the video.... thanks for this... like opal porn for an opalholic like me 😜
Nice Tribute. Love your mountings too. Wish you could look at mounting Jeweler and I designed. What looked good on paper did not do Opal justice. Not sure whether to take 10.6 Ct opal and start fresh on mounting or try to improve design . Has tons of rolling colors biggest flashes of red but hangs below my initials and nothing around it.
Brett - Why don't you send me a photo of it? pulitzeropal@gmail.com
dpulitzer i did hope u got it.
Ended up he took apart and just sat there. Opal in distilled water in safe. Lot of money spent for nothing.
you have the best job EVER!
wowwwww!!!! Amazing opals!!!
7:00 looks just like an impressionist painting of flowers.
I neef this opal how I can buy please tell
Hello.waw its awersome the color of the opal ,i love all of them . The purpel blue, blue green , red orange. I gosh iam encorceled by the opal , nice video. Greatings of swisserland
Shit me to tears when people try to claim land. No one owns the land, we all have the right to use it if we respect it and restore it aftwr
How much is it?
please stop to show amazing opal ;) I will have an heart attack soon.:) :) I understand this mintabie opal it is old material, but where do you buy the current rough opal. I find very difficult buy rough if you are not in Australia.
you really made some beautiful jewelry out of this opal.
It just wasn't mintabie
+Pulitzer Opal Unless he meant it as a pun on "meant to be"? I may be wrong though. LOL
The Mintabie township was closed, the nearby (80-100 km away) enormous Lambina Station fields fell over because SAOMI (south australian opal miners incorporated) only had a few, if any fee paying members and the native title claimants wanted 40k to sit down and renegotiate.. that was that.. As usual, the PC governments of the west marginalise the entrepreneurial in favor of the political class and tribalism, while the rest of the world takes advantage of their natural assets..
It was a play on words (mint-a-bie). I'm ignorant to the whole area and usually just bored. Lol
@@joshuabrumback9681 LOL sorry we always used this pun when referring to the town.. Dont know how i missed it SMH
Hooning....
I guess I am getting old as this video was the first I heard about it. However, after hearing your description, I can promise you that the Aussies have no monopoly on it mate! The young drivers in UK with their so called hot hatches and kitted out cars seem to love o do these very same activities in the city streets all over England. What may well make you laugh, being a self confessed "yank" is some of the cars these kids are using. from sub 1 litre engines to about 2 or 2.5 litres, maximum. From the examples I have personally seen. Sure, there is always the odd beefy car a "yank" might be proud of, but most of them are the kinda things you buy your baby daughter to give to her Barbie doll to drive around in ;) Last one I nearly wet myself laughing at was (I believe) a 950cc Citroen Saxo (C'est Francais!!) with a huge big bore exhaust that looked like it should have been on the back end of a Mustang and even on tick over, the engine was running so fast that it sounded like a decent sized car was travelling at about 50mph. I didn't hang around to watch as sooner or later the police turn up and that's when "The fun begins", apparently. But if Hooning is gonna make a real entrance into the UK, then I hope the govt shuts a few of these towns with it ;)
muito bom lengal valeu amigo
Plz aw much
Gostei muito dessa Gema aí vai o joinha retribua se poder
Nice onces
Hooning: conducting drags in built areas late at night, typically in the dead quiet when people are trying to sleep, doughnuts at intersections in suburban back streets very late at night, or burnouts and speeding whether at night/day or in traffic or reckless conduct otherwise endangering others. I can't see hooning in somewhere like Mintabie really being a huge thing, its just the 19th Cent values of old wowsers running the show who pan reckless youth like that.
i really really want to thank you for showing so nicely this truly amazing stones that up to now i sow only in bad stills i presume there are all from aom right? can you please specify prices ? can i buy from you one off the small size please? it feel much better to buy when you see a video you are one off the lackey people on earth to have so much money to spend on such a butiful hobby i whish for you that you don't sell them all and if you want my opinion i will cut at list one cross vertical cut from each peas if it is at list 7mm thick and then tray to cut most off theme in the midel so you get too twine pices and the midel look like the place were the colors will look the best and the cristal is more clear and dark i think that is my un profational opinion my profation is block flute maker i don't know if i mentioned that last time i rouht to you and if you can do a trade off with me for a historic recorder or an obou or any tipe off fine wood turnery with the best wood like ebony rose wood or boxwood i will be happy keep on loding videos please if you have patient cus even if i buy one or too i will never see so manyup close nor any normal person and each one is deferent and in my opinion it is realy a an important documentioned you are doing and with so many stones in this qwality you can do so much more if you are ever in Israel com to visit
4:14 gorgeous!
I dont think iv'e ever cut material as hard or that takes a polish better than main level Mintabie opal. It's a travesty that the town was shut down, mostly for political reasons and based on lies and half truths, to the SA governments eternal shame..
@@PulitzerOpal funny you should say!
I was in Mintabie in 1999 and a big time miner Emmanuel Christianos showed us a million dollar parcel, it was several hundred bags of a few thousand each and they all looked exactly the same.. $1500 an oz predominantly green orange with some red. Then he pulled out a couple of ounces of verticals from the Old 8 Mile in Coober Pedy, now THAT was opal... But of course that’s a generalised experience, I know Mintabie had many areas of very special and varied stuff but has a lot of typical material, I guess like milky opal in Coober Pedy, it’s goes for miles.....
I want opal rough India test low grade
Me Pulitzer it’s Billie from Alaska and I am wondering about a private way to message you? Or actually at end I should post publicly but I’m afraid of an overabundance of messages for you and I both but I have some photos I’d like to show you of a ring and necklace that belonged to my late mother in law . The necklace in especial is quite unique it’s clarity is superb and I even have papers from the last appraised however we are looking to have it repaired as it’s been damaged since the last appraisal as would like to sell it after that to recoup cremation costs etc resultant from my mother in law passing away
Hoo ning around as in Hooliganism
Guy, complaining about hooning in Mintabie is a little like complaining about speeding on the moon in the moon buggy - it's so far off the beaten track and outside normal civilization that to apply conventional interpretation to it is kind of ridiculous. I mined at Mintabie many years ago, and the vast majority of the tracks in the area are of the 'here today gone tomorrow' variety put in place by the miners themselves to cut across the field and constantly shifting or disappearing altogether as claims would be bulldozed - you always had to take care driving across because a track you went along a month ago could later lead over a newly cut claim with a drop of 10 - 20 meters. The only road that could be claimed as 'official' was the track out to Marla, and it was a corrugated piece of crap that you could only really drive along comfortably by speeding along it so that you could ride in harmonic sympathy with the tops of the corrugations. I knew people who used to make it a point of pride to set the latest speed record out to Marla - I had one of the most hair-raising rides of my life with a friend who drove out there one day with only third gear available in his car - hence no slowing down, even when other cars - and cattle - seemed to make it an imperative to do so.
There was never any police presence in the town, even at its height in the mid to late 80's when the population ballooned from a couple of hundred (when I was there) out to a few thousand. The closest police station was out at Marla, and they always stayed away from Mintabie unless there was a really pressing need - or to come in for the annual Croatia Day celebrations in order to try and keep a lid on all the revelry and explosive celebrations - and to take part in the illegal two-up games.
Muito bonita suas opalas me escrevi no seu canal se puder retribuir muito obrigado fica com Deus
Hi
👍💝
DAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!!
I guess it just wasn’t mintabie
👍🏼
Good-bye, Mintabie. I barely knew ye.
Fare-thee-well.
🤤
I like how you said I hope I haven't offended anyone your such a under cover softie I'm starting to think you are the cuttle muffin humm?
It was not meant-to-be
So this isn't so much about Mintabie as you flogging your opal?
Los opalos de fuego son mejores
Good-bye
there is no comparing australian to ethiopian ethiopian looks like marbles lol
I love the darker/Gray based Mintabie Opal!! Definitely some of my favorite material
Beautiful opal. That rainbow shield pendant is stunning!!! Matching earrings would complement it. Thank you for sharing.
What’s the price now of good Mintabie in the USA mate?
Well, mate, you know how opal prices can be a real head-scratcher. 🤔 Prices for Mintabie opals in the USA can vary quite a bit depending on the quality and size. I'd recommend checking with some reputable opal dealers or doing a bit of online research to get the most current prices. And hey, while you're here, why not show some opal love and hit that like and subscribe button? You might just score some opals yourself! 😉🇺🇸🔮
Thx 🙏 so much for getting back to me ❤
I wouldn't even know where to find opal like this. Everything I buy is from ebay and it is super super overpriced crazy expensive.
I would love a chance to do a design for you. Opals are nice but the setting work is below what should be done for those