BLACK OPALS

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="1c800500dvldtc.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Swordfish Mining:   Virgin Valley Opal</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Swordfish Mining: Virgin Valley Opal"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <B>BLACK OPALS</B>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DOMES">DOMES</A>   |   <A HREF="virgin_valley_precious_opal_mining_claims_from_the_miners_for_sale.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CLAIMS">CLAIMS</A>   |   <A HREF="opal_from_nevada.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PRECIOUS OPAL">PRECIOUS OPAL</A>   |   <A HREF="what_we_do.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WIRE WRAPS, BEADS, JEWELRY">WIRE WRAPS, BEADS, & JEWELRY</A>   |   <A HREF="cut_stonestops_gemstones_cut_for_years__these_stones_have_all_been_displayed_in_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GEMSTONES">GEMSTONES</A>   |   <A HREF="opal_twigs.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LIMB CASTS">LIMB CASTS</A>   |   <A HREF="virgin_valley_wood_replacements.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PINE CONES BARK">PINE CONES & BARK</A>   |   <A HREF="precious_opal_snake_head_cast.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SNAKE HEAD">THE SNAKE HEAD</A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GOODS">GOODS</A>   |   <A HREF="zincite_and_vulgarities.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MINERALS">MINERALS</A>   |   <A HREF="quartz_and_other_mineral_crystals_for_sale.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CRYSTALS">CRYSTALS</A>   |   <A HREF="leah_and_john.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ABOUT US">ABOUT US</A>   |   <A HREF="picture_album.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SWORDFISH PICS">SWORDFISH PICS</A>   |   <A HREF="the_sheldon.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CHARLES SHELDON NWR">CHARLES SHELDON NWR</A>   |   <A HREF="numbers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us">Contact Us</A>   |   <A HREF="map_to_virgin_valley_fee_digs.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Location">Location</A>   |   <A HREF="qa.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="QA">Q&A</A>   |   <A HREF="links_to_friendly_web_pages.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="LINKS">LINKS</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="045d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> Nevada black opals' play of color fire is the tops. Few sights compare to a large black opal in your hand with the sun over your shoulder. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="168bd8e0.jpg" border=0 width="189" height="142" ALT="Semi-polished specimen black opal" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> This super gem specimen did not dry well after it's dome froze and broke. I will make a big bead pendant out of this later.  <IMG SRC="12cbd8e0.jpg" border=0 width="189" height="142" ALT="Nevada Black Opal" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>  This black dried without a crack. Dense dark opal with fluid colors on a light skin in a natural arrowhead shape. Bright pure colors of blue and violet under the green, & red with yellow shooting flames.  2 1/4" by 2 1/2" by 1/2" $10,500. (Krol's)</div> <div> <IMG SRC="1b0b98b0.jpg" border=0 width="185" height="139" ALT="42 gm wet rough" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> color close up wet</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> BLACK OPALS</div> <bR> <div> BLACK OPALS FROM NEVADA:</div> <bR> <div>      The rarest and most valuable opals are bright on black.  Black background opals show off the rainbows of fire, or play of color, the best. Super gem bright opal is that which you can't see through to the background opal color. A lot of "black" opal is some background behind a bright crystal. </div> <bR> <div>       The Virgin Valley gem opal production is only a tiny percentage of the commercial opal industry.  Our cut black opals play of color is unmatched by any other opal in the world. The different formation makes for a style of fire play that's unusual to say the least and comparable to most. It also makes many craze when dried too fast, possibly from the charcoal or manganese contained in them, or it could be the sulfur, who knows. We just know we lose most to drying somehow and a small percentage is as good as any opal on earth. </div> <bR> <div>       Specimen gem rough can be just optically stunning, while being physically interesting to boot, with natural pseudomorph forms. That means that we get perfect casts in precious opal of ancient plants such as twigs, pinecones, and branches that range up to log opals that weigh pounds.</div> <bR> <div>      Miners say "specimen" a lot because a large number of the bigger pieces are bought for mineral displays, not for cutting rough. When dried, most large opals become small opals or cracked, as the water that is an essential part of them evaporates. All opal eventually loses this water they say. (Australian opal included say their scientists). I'm not handing you any BS here and have been complemented.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="27ad05c0.jpg" border=0 width="464" height="348" ALT="Great surface on American Harlequin opal from Swordfish Mining on Display at Winnemucca BLM" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Black twig cast with excellent definition and play of color.  This specimen from our gem pocket is on display at the Winnemucca BLM office.</div> <bR> <div>      They are cut up for use in jewelry only after being dried for a period of time. I dry mine for months before even worrying about what to cut. If you want to save the specimens at the first cracks you have to watch them for a few hours at least.. I dry most of the wood with opal specimens when found because the wood matrix holds the pieces together after being washed off.  Out of water and onto a board in the desert...torture is a good description of the proving process I use. Then they are dry and colorful cachalon opal that looked good damp is now whited out.  Cut the small pieces and marvel at the big. The blacks here are rare as down under and with much more root beer glass found than true blacks. Still, the dark crystal and jelly opal can be huge and commonly weigh ounces. We also don't move the amount of material they go through to get mine run.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="0d380e00.jpg" border=0 width="640" height="480" ALT="NEVADA FIRE OPAL The Evening Starfire" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFF00" FACE="Arial" >Lit by a quartz shop light at a 90 degree angle, Evening Starfire shows both Play of color in moving tubes of rainbows and Contra Luz waves.</FONT></div> <bR> <div>       You can see thru the black crystal opals. This black opal was the cover of GOLD PROSPECTOR magazine. It was pictured and named Evening Starfire in the ROCK & GEM article by James Mulkey; "Opals of Nevada".  Museum sized gem specimens are one of Virgin Valleys' treasures everybody into opal want. </div> <bR> <div>       Swordfish Mine opal is on display in Gaumers Rock Museum;  Red Bluff, CA. This mine and mineral display museum, with a modern rock shop, is well worth stopping at.  The Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine outside Helena, MT also has several excellent casts and gemstone fossils. (We visited, we dug their fee dig, and have some great Montana sapphires to show for our effort.) Saw them on The TV too!</div> <bR> <div>      In 2003 Leah found this large black opal "core" on our mine. A core is a hollow limb cast in the clay, empty but for the opal mass laying in the hole un-attached. 190 Grams in 2 pieces. The limb was segmented prior to precious opalization. A N1 black crystal opal. It has that distinctive Nevada burning fire on all sides and reddish multicolor harlequin on the top and bluish multicolor harlequin on the bottom with a brightness of 3 out of 5.  (Krol's) </div> <div> <IMG SRC="12fab400.jpg" border=0 width="427" height="320" ALT="Nevada Opal" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div>            The pieces have no cracks or crazing and were never dried. The larger half is in a custom heavy duty Pyrex glass display with a black rubber stopper. This opal measures 4 !/2" by 1 3/4". The Asteria harlequin pattern is visible from all sides giving a different view of the bars, tubes, flames.  Unpolished, it has red, green, blue, and yellow rainbow rolling bars. A 1" wide color band 360 degrees around. My smaller one to the left is what it would look like polished.  Electric bright shifting pillars of full rainbow multicolor's.</div> <bR> <div>      Swordfish Mining has several large opal specimens both dry woods and wet casts for sale. Several are larger diameter opal limbs with bright veining.  If specifically requested, a certain mines' opal can be provided. Otherwise, these are all just "Virgin Valley Opals". Requests are filled on a first come first served basis and all opals pictured are subject to prior sale. </div> <bR> <div>       Any of the never dried wet opals may change appearances on drying and are therefore sold as specimens only with no assurances of dry ability or cut ability. I'm in no way responsible for them being dried out after being shipped unless it is due to breakage during shipment. You would have to file the claim immediately with the carrier on seeing the damaged wet package. Really, the way I pack them, the box has to be smashed for them to be exposed.</div> <bR> <div>        If one dries good - congratulations you beat the odds.  If not, you're the one who dried it out, and what you see is what you have. They can now be made into something that the dry ability question has been answered.  You can  restore it back as a specimen by some sort of treatment and then polishing it if desired.  Immersing them in Glycerine or mineral oil wets them and hides the fractures well.  Each wet specimen dome comes with instructions for display, storage, and the continued care while in storage.  You can polish or have them polished while wet without ever drying them out to increase their eye appeal.</div> <bR> <div>      Wet pieces (over 1" chunks) start at $25 each. This rough all has precious play of color except the occasional wonderful specimens of contra luz opal or pastel glowing specimens. None of these lower cost opals are solid blacks with no cracks. The black is only a minor part of most stones and is usually not as bright as the white or crystal. Wet chunks are displayed in domes or closed jars unless gambling on that they might dry to be polished and set. Best to assume you'll have to fracture seal it.</div> <bR> <div>      Contra Luz is where the play of color shows with the opal held up to the light. A good quarter of all the clear non-precious areas have contra-luz color. The precious and common areas don't show contra luz play of color. Opals are very difficult to photograph well. I'm still working on teaching myself the art.</div> <bR> <div>      DOMED SPECIMENS are filled with Virgin Valleys pure artesian spring water. Domes of bright cuttable, IF they dried pieces, are generally sold at a huge discount of the proven dry rough cost.  I don't open domes to split up the parcel. Any single stone is individually priced by how rare it is from experience, not by comparisons to what others are willing to sell one single one for. That's the gemstone business; All individuals out for themselves, so buy that one offered by others and don't beat my chops about it. While buying it you find out what they have to say about it to rate their opinions/skill.</div> <bR> <div>       I'm tired of calls about NOT MY OPAL.  I'm in business to sell my products, not to help every other recreational digger try to compete with me. Please don't ask me to provide you with free appraisal services. That is normally a 10% of the appraised value fee from any insurance appraiser.  So what IS a opal over an ounce with multi color 360 degree fire worth? I've never seen anything the size of our stones in stores. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="1b3ab400.jpg" border=0 width="427" height="320" ALT="Aunt Jeannes Black" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> How about one that looks like everchanging colors of tiles in black grout???</div> <div> <IMG SRC="15a40f00.jpg" border=0 width="320" height="240" ALT=" Brunette Conk from Bonanza. Opal treated. " ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Conk not Dino bone</div> <bR> <bR> <div>           Mr. Liddicoat of the Gemological institute of America GIA states:</div> <bR> <div> "If there was a scale of difficulty in the understanding and appraisal of gemstones,  then diamonds would rank as the easiest at #1  and opals as the most demanding at 10."   Opal is the hardest gemstone to find, to mine,  to properly cut and then it is un-doubtable the most challenging to grade and price correctly having to judge it's unique display of beauty into dollar values.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Note: all text and photographs copyrights reserved by John Church.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> Re-publication not for gain is permitted with proper URL credit given.</div> <div>  <img align=bottom src="http://www.thebook.com/cgi-bin/thebook/Counter1/Count.cgi?ft=0|tr=0|prgb=0;255;0|md=7|dd=B|st=333332|sh=1|df=virginvalleyopal_2_own.dat">  </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>