CLAIMS

<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="1d600500dvldtc.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> <A HREF="black_precious_opal.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BLACK OPALS">BLACK OPALS</A>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DOMES">DOMES</A>   |   <B>CLAIMS</B>   |   <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> <B>many</B></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="045d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> Howdy Howdy!  Here's Virgin Valley Opal  claims for sale!</div> <div> The Valley floor has been withdrawn from claiming by an 70's act of congress.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="1f7b98b0.jpg" border=0 width="185" height="139" ALT="South side of the Gooch. Charles Sheldon National Wildlife refuge, Opal Queen and Bonanza" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> For a tour of what is currently for sale I have a fee and appointments must be made. I can't send out treasure maps sorry. I keep track of who is on my claims because no one is allowed without me there.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="255b9f70.jpg" border=0 width="185" height="247" ALT="The Green Trees #2" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> The Green Trees # 2. One of 11 newly filed claims for sale<IMG SRC="259b98b0.jpg" border=0 width="185" height="139" ALT="Opal Negra Millsite. Looking North from the west side of the Green group. Sagebrush Creek Veiw " ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> CLAIMS</div> <div>      </div> <div>      Swordfish Mining has too many Precious Opal Claims to work by myself. Let me say this right up front: I don't provide maps of the claim names. I have no objections to honest miners, but do need a little privacy. The list below is noted on further and once you are there you can find them again with a short reminder note.  For free, it's all public records and you are welcome to try and figure them out. If you tripped on one and want it, you don't have to pay for the entire tour. We're not taking it.</div> <bR> <div>        Without notifying me before you go digging around on my claims can cause me to be summoned by my friends who visit and work here that respect property rights. If I arrive to find ya'll digging or have "samples" you illegally picked up off my legal claim, well you are breaking federal laws. What am I supposed to do? I can let you buy the samples or pay the $150 a head digging fee immediately or I can call in the mineral trespass to the Sheriff. Decisions, decisions,.. haven't had to call the sheriff but once for back up due to the large number of people involved in the taking of our fire wood and lumber for their drunken bonfire actually. </div> <bR> <div>      If you aren't familar with the claims and don't have the owners permission, you can't be rockhounding there. Every year I stop a few who think they can surface hunt or dig in prospect on my claims workings free.</div> <bR> <div>     It takes quite awhile and longer now to drive around on the now worse roads with the loop road cut in half to the various claims passing on my opal information.  I'd like to be fairly compensated for the time spent with you and the expert knowledge of this local geology. If we're running around to all the claims for sale;  there isn't time to walk across them all, let alone test dig. We walk and talk then look at the dirt on the way by to small exploratory cuts on the layers wanted. You should expect to have to work hard to find gem opals. If when the tour is over most folks have a single choice they want to investigate further or they are just happy for the day tour. </div> <bR> <div>     Thanks in advance for paying the $200 seminar claim tour fee before we leave. Nevada does not have a limit on charges for bad checks.  (I charge $100 plus court costs, or my banks bounce fee if made good promptly.)  This price is for a family or couple of miners and for additional prospectors are half off or only $50 each. A group of four separate miners would be $300.Larger groups take your larger vehicle and $75 a head.</div> <bR> <div>       This is not a led rockhound collecting trip. You won't be picking up everything you see as that strips the mine of it's recreational assets. Opal is excluded as it is not allowed to just lay around and the size is probably going to be one the size I let you you keep anyway. Best go to the fee digs where you can dig all day if your goal is maybe getting rough or several specimens.</div> <bR> <div>       Low sedans are not advised on the refuge 4x4 roads as larger rocks have to be driven around. The main roads also have a lot of sharp rocks that cause flats due to all the recent work . Two wheel drive is all that is necessary to access most claims during dry weather if you can dodge ruts. If you can't...getting your car back can be damaging and expensive from the other rough canyons. Walk first. </div> <bR> <div>       We made common opal discovery on every claim before staking the claim. The asking price represents what they are worth in comparison to the other gemstone claims here and in the west. I  will trade for certain items.  All offers will be considered.  Storage canister delivered, mobile home, RV, Motocross bike, Quad, high mpg vehicle etc. I'm wanting functional items not expensive toys. Work needed is not garden equipment type, but more of a Cat D-8 or large excavator.</div> <bR> <div>     A proven precious opal claim price depends on the quality and quantity of what was seen dug so far from that place on the contained bed by us in the past. Most of the remaining open ground is way to deep, or steep, to mine profitably or too vast to prospect anymore with my tired legs.  Availability of electricity and road access, along with past development work and location in relation to proven commercial operations is taken into consideration.  Most claims just never got dug into what I think are the possible opal layers.</div> <bR> <div>       The odds are 100% you WILL find some common opals and wood, and hopefully,  precious opal when you dig on your claim.  People rarely talk about their own opal production. Opal miners are a very secretive lot as a rule of survival. </div> <bR> <div>       Claim groups are usually sold intact unless they are being broken up already.  These claims all have some topography to deal with. All have opal banks or seams present that will contain whatever opals made. It's all hidden underground. I've seen mine banks change within a few feet from twigs to nodules to nothing to veins to blacks worth thousands.</div> <bR> <div>       Opal is a gemstone that has been priced among the highest on earth. Our unique form of the popular gemstone usually comes as a fossil replacement. All claims do produce some forms of precious and common opals, and possibly the rare fossils in both soft and a harder opal. Most cab cutters grind off everything but the precious opal. Not all opals will cut gemstones,  that's the story of precious opals everywhere if you look at the tailings. We live off the percentage that are stable and cut fine gems.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="2856c110.jpg" border=0 width="364" height="273" ALT="Devil Fire Mine" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The Devil Fire Claims Photo from the Honest Opal Location Monument looking East. The claims are top center. The light colored area that runs from the top to down across the flat and into the canyon under that patch of snow. These 3 precious opal producing claims are priced at $25,000.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> + + + + +  SWORDFISH MINING'S LIST OF CLAIM OFFERINGS + + + + + </div> <bR> <div> #1  The Swordfish namesake group of six lode mining claims that were proven and documented by John Sinkakis. The South East end of the mining district is not just your Peacock or Bonanza type opals. I plan on opening up one of these two properties for a fee dig here if the opal plays nicely.  $300,000 for the 120 acres that also have a economic deposit of Uranium down there somewhere. Have to ask Exxon for specifics.     </div> <bR> <div> #2   The 4 lode claims adjoining the Rainbow Ridge Opal Fee Dig Mine. The entire northwest side (valley = not much overburden to remove) that borders their Patented Fee Dig where they are currently selling the opal bank and mining themselves. My claims had not been dug into deep enough yet. A bulldozer cut was made on an opalized common wood layer on the FARTHEST side of that valley to allay in my mind the layers are really how they lie in my mind.  I assume they contain the extension of the gloriously rich Rainbow Ridge deposit. $300,000 for these 80 acres that have Harney Electric Power across them. </div> <bR> <div> #3   These three claims are closer to the valley floor than any fee dig. I can't wait to see what all these produce. I'm digging Bonanza quality frothy wood casts in a cut and on the claim right next to this cusp the opal runs in a flat layer. This separate but adjacent claim has virtual cliff face to mine under but it is $5,000. I have mined opal limbs there.  These claims cuts are producing opalized wood and small blue pure common opal. They are on opposite side of hills from a patented claim and proven opal layers.  The one claim that was dug more produced potch and cone pockets in the past. These are going to go for more due to the location next to the main road with a rare access to Harney Electric near by. Claims on this cup have cuts on common opal and opalized wood already. The 3 back claims are your choice $15,000  or 35,000 for the 3.</div> <bR> <div> # 4    The Devil Fire claim group. Motivated seller. Paperwork is all in line. If I had time and an excavator, I'd be mining myself there. I do like the larger log deposits. Owner has moved home due to failing health and needs to sell.  These are proven precious opal producing claims. Scott Ryals of the Opal Negra and myself walked them and found some precious opal float,  precious opal twigs, and opal chips actually.</div> <div>       The claims command an entire prominence with many definitive cuts on the various layers of outcropping opal dirt.  Two different access roads.  Power is at the foot of the hill.  A very thick contorted Montmorillite deposit contains more trees and opalized hard common woods for sure. The down canyon side buffer claim had earnest money down but they have not called back for a couple years and the clock is ticking to opening day. Deposits are now time limited to a year before expiring. When the season opens I am starting down the list of others interested in that one.  Larry, the mine owner, has shown me all varieties of opal and wood and conk including  some precious cones from here. The main 3 claim group is  $20,000 for the 60 acres. The single costs $3,000 by itself.</div> <bR> <div> # 5 This claim was held for years but never mined by a Reno businessman. My mentor said the man found good white opal there. Rainbow Ridge Road was run across it.  It is across Sagebrush Creek headed for Rainbow Ridge Fee dig. I have found white vein opal on the kids claim that backs it up. It was rumored there were precious opal stone trees buried in the flood plain. If so they were hauled off years ago. The claim access road runs right across the more or less level flood plain to a camping spot a hundred yards off the road. Again the power is not many poles away. I am digging on my claim that is contiguous. $3,000.</div> <bR> <div> #6 These three claims are next to 2 proven mines.  Patented ground is adjoining these side by side claims down a wash and up across a hill. The opal from this area is smaller but some of the most stable fire opal found in the valley. By that I mean the yellow, orange, red, fire opals with some precious inter-mixed when you find a pocket. I recently proved the middle one with a chunk of float opal in basalt (rare here and also no proof it came from there being a surface find. But it is the 5th or 6th one out that way). One claim does show the opal coming out of the layer that goes under the other claims. The "best" acess one is easiest to dig one is $8,000  and the two in the middle are 5,000 for both as a little piece of one is over the patented ground so there is not a full 20 acres.  </div> <bR> <div> #7 These two claims are on a fault halfway up to Rainbow Ridge. They are putting out the typical signs of an opal deposit below. Stumps and float wood. I'm in partnership on these for a sale $22,000 for  40 acres.</div> <bR> <div> #8 This claim and millsite are in a hidden side canyon. Produces common blue opal from more than one layer and has large wood up higher. I just dug a nice limb specimen from next to here (unclaimed sliver) today. This claim lies against patented ground and out into a withdrawn area so again the claim is less than 20 acres total. I like it.  $10,000.   A 5 acre millsite next to the claim can go with it for additional $2,000.</div> <bR> <div> I hope condensing the list made it easier. I have several more places I have location papers on at this point but haven't gotten certified. I think they are $3,000 to $5,000 worth. Soon I hope to come up with a suitable time payments or 10 % owner financing deal for you too. I do wish to be paid on a promissary note and you will own the claim from the sale date on.  I have no desire to foreclose on you to retake your claim. </div> <bR> <div>     There are only so many viable places to dig for opals left out here. Most of the mining districts' 45,000 or so remaining acres (not including all current claims and patents) is unminable. You'll see when you take the tour. Claims located right next to commercial grade properties of gem material that have excellent potential versus further away prospects for rockhounds casual recreational use are priced differently.  If there is a history, or are precious black opals currently being mined from a pocket on the claim the cost skyrockets. The price for the Peacock mine was millions. A 1/50 share in the Bonanza cost $10,000. They are still in business. </div> <bR> <div>      My prospects all have THE Montmorillite clay banks that contain opals around here. The Nevada State Gemstone opal claim will be yours. These claims were thoroughly title researched, are legally monumented with wood posts when they were mapped and have had annual upkeep.  The wild Burros don't leave the 4x4's in stone monument "scratching" posts upright (usually). 2x2 posts disappear the first time. They like to chew on them for some reason. Certification papers with maps are recorded in Humboldt Co. and with the BLM. None of my claims are infeasible to immediately go dig on with hand tools. All have vehicle access or a short walk the boundary. </div> <bR> <div>      I can show you PRECIOUS OPALS that I mined from each of the proven claims. If you want to go see that for yourself (i.e. dig prior to purchase) a trial dig can be arranged. If you want to use equipment a lease would have to be made with you responsible for reclamation. No they don't require it yet, but I do. You will get every cent of your trial dig money taken off the price of the claim you buy (only). I retain the right for the mine to have any logs and unexpected large gem pockets encountered. You will get a sample but not the motherload. You are just test digging not fee digging remember.</div> <bR> <div>      If it is just like normal digging you normally keep everything even the rarest museum pieces. I will be there digging also but for myself in a different area than you desire. If you buy the claim within the year after digging; I will take off the digging cost but not the tour from the price of the claim you select. You keep any of the opals and wood found while test digging. You may not scour all the surface wood, especially the large logs.</div> <bR> <div>     The charge for you to test dig on claims prior to actual purchase is $150 per day per person (after the tour) which is only refundable on timely purchase of the claim. This is not a fee dig and is only for interested buyers. I don't have the economy of volume and have to serve each digging party personally. Tour price is not refundable or applicable to a claim. None of my claims have been salted with outside opal by me and apparently by any others.  I would never salt a claim as that would confuse us finding the opal and is a crooks trick and illegal.  You can tell if opal comes from there or not by digging into the undisturbed mud bank.  My first hand digging knowledge is my most valuable asset to me.  </div> <bR> <div>      The sellers reputation is also YOUR best friend.  Ask about who the people selling the claim are and how well they do therre. How successful are they. Compare my prices to going consulting geologist rates.</div> <bR> <div>       I'm a hard working prospector and miner that's been out here for decades now. An individual that will work with you on getting you a satisfactory claim. At least an affordable decent chance piece of ground you can rock hound on for gemstones on your vacations. Denio is my home and I'm not leaving nicely.  </div> <bR> <div>      Recently, bare claims with over 100' of overburden were advertised for over $100,000. My $75,000 claims have less overburden than the patented mine they are on the fence of. This is not a scam and anybody can see I believe there is more opal to be found here by finding it repeatedly. The claims aren't all opened up to eliminate the gambling for great wealth. I do dig for opals on them all and the prices constantly change to reflect my current opinions.</div> <bR> <div>      I will gladly help you decide what you want to do. You can look at me as a friendly source of local information. I'm not a substitute for legal research at the county and state level. I can teach you how to do that too.  Call me simple but. let me extend an offer to talk. </div> <bR> <div>       I'm experienced in the local geology of these opal fields. This desert sea shore and dry island deposit are faulted and warped by repeated seismic events.  Years of digging will give you a feel for any individual mine. Years of digging will either prove it or not. </div> <bR> <div>      Decades of mining on dozens of claims gives one a better feel for the entire valley. The opal beds form an uneven stack of lenses and layers several hundreds of feet and millions of years thick. Finding opal takes skill, luck, and the willingness to keep going thru the dead spots. I've spent thousands of hours searching out and certifying these claims.</div> <bR> <div>     </div> <div> Note: all text and photographs copyrights reserved by John Church.</div> <div> Re-publication not for gain is permitted with proper URL credit given. </div> <div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2" src="http://www.altavista.com/help/free/inc_translate"></script> <noscript><a href="http://www.altavista.com/babelfish/tr"></noscript>   </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_7_own.dat">  </div> </td> </tr></table></body>