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>   |   <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_stones__tops_gemstones_cut_for_years__these_stones_have_all_been_displayed_i.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="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> Virgin Valley Opal  claims!</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>  </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.  SOLD</div> <div> Gree Trees # 1 SOLD <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> <div> More available as I find them.</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> CLAIMS</div> <div>      </div> <div>      Swordfish Mining has Precious Opal Claims for sale, I don't provide maps with the claim names. It's all public records and you are welcome to try and figure them out yourself for free. If you already decided which one to buy. I'll only charge $100 to drive out and show it alone without the whole tour. The cost of test digging days (If paid for) will be deducted from the claim price. </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 total substitute for legal research at the county and state level. I can teach you how to do that.  Call me simple but, let me extend an offer of friendship. 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. Only when dug out is it not possible to find something. Years of digging will either prove it or not. All the proven deposits have continued to produce opal at depth. Decades of mining on our dozens of claims gives me 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>        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 do 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 my $150 a head digging fee immediately or I can call in the mineral trespass to the refuge ranger and Sheriff. I 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. Real slobs that shed beer cans and trash behind them and were told to get off refuge. If you aren't familiar with the claims and don't have the owners permission, you can't be rockhounding there. </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 but a couple, let alone test dig each one. We're looking for which one will entertain you for years. Digging is just digging. All the claims might hit on the next shovel, but I get it if It's nice until you buy the place. We walk and talk then look at the dirt on the way by to small exploratory cuts on the layers that contain opal elsewhere for sure. You should expect to have to work to find gem opals which are still the exception even here the best place in America to find them. When the tour is over most folks have made their decisions which one they want, or why they don't is clearly discussed. I lose as many possible sales as I make by being honest. Most are quite satisfied with their value purchased as a tour.  </div> <bR> <div>     Thanks in advance for paying the $200 seminar claim tour fee before we leave. You can pay when you make your reservations with Paypal.  This price is for a family or couple of miners and for additional prospectors the cost is $100 each. A group of four separate miners would be $400. Larger groups take your larger vehicle or you drive too. Lectures will be given at set locations throughout the valley. I prefer cash to letting them take a large percentage.</div> <bR> <div>       This is not a led rockhound collecting trip. You won't be picking up everything you see as that strips the claim of it's obvious worth.  Opals don't  just lay around and the size is probably going to be one the size I let 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. None of my claims are set up for fee digging, but call me if you have to dig with me.</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 to check your way safe. </div> <bR> <div>       I made common opal discovery on every claim before staking the claims. The asking price represents what the claims are worth in comparison to the other gemstone claims here and for sale elsewhere 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. Small equipment is fine to prospect with, but not to mine seriously.</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.  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 common opals and woods.  People rarely talk about their own claims opal production. Opal miners are a very secretive lot as a rule of survival. I have never heard an amount reported other than those reported to the State Minerals Production records.</div> <bR> <div>       Claim groups are not usually broken up.  These claims all have some topography to deal with. All have opal banks or seams present that will contain whatever opals made. It's mostly hidden underground. I've seen a mines' banks change within a few feet from twigs to nodules to nothing to veins to blacks worth thousands and back to an opal a week. No worked out claims here.</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. I live off the percentage that are stable and do 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 across The Last Millsite and Fairy Fire towards the Opal Showers, Devil Fires, and Sunnysides. 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 20,000 or Best Offer.  1 of the four has sold already; NOT the ones on the thickest opal bearing layer that is currently being mined by the Royal Peacock and Bonanza Mines</div> <bR> <div> + + + + +  SWORDFISH MINING'S LIST OF CLAIM OFFERINGS + + + + + </div> <bR> <div> #1  The Swordfish namesake group of five lode mining claims that were placed over a proven and documented mining claim by John Sinkakis in his book "Gemstones of North America". The South East end of the mining district opal is just as good as the Fee Dig Mines. I wish to just mine here and sell the gemstones for the rest of my life. The plan on opening up a fee dig here if the opal plays nicely and I get the time to sit there all summer is on hold.  100 acres that cover that whole pocket on the fault to the east. It also has a sizable deposit of Uranium.  Tunnel dug in the early years.  $250,000.    </div> <bR> <div> #2   The 4 lode claims adjoining the world famous Rainbow Ridge Opal Fee Dig Mine. The entire northwest side that borders their Patented Fee Dig where they are currently mining for fees. My claims show the same opal clay underground in my test pits.  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.  I assume they contain the extension of the gloriously rich Rainbow Ridge deposit. I could be wrong. $200,000 and digging rights (or $300,000 and no digging rights.) for these 80 acres that have Harney Electric Power line across them. Sampling has found the right color and consistency montmorillite beds on my side of the fence also, just up layers on a down thrust fault. (I heard as rumour the NWR staff made a personal decision without official paperwork to fight any more residences here when they are allowed to legally to obstruct developement. i.e. no more new power lines or phones.)</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 for $15,000 or as a group for $35,000 for all three.  A  4th claim gives direct access to the Virgin Ranch Rd and I have permission to sell it too. </div> <bR> <div> # 4    The Devil Fire claim group.   This is a proven precious opal producing group of claims. Scott Ryals of the Opal Negra and myself walked them and we both found precious opal float;  precious opal twigs, and opal chips. The claims command an entire prominence with definitive cuts on the various layers of outcropping opal dirt, yet was only dug on one small area. Exposed woods look real likely to be in pay layers just as the wood is across the valley in the Bonanza and Opal Queen mines in the layers they mine respectively. 4x4 access roads to the top and bottom sides.  Power is at the foot of the hill.  A very thick contorted Montmorillite deposit contains more trees and opalized hard common woods than those already on the surface.  The mine owner, has shown me opal and wood and conk including some precious cones from here. There are only 2 claims now, one sold in May 2010.  The last 2 claims from the group are bargain priced at $15,000 and contain the most likely area of banks.. </div> <bR> <div> #6 These four 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 that is 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 trace opal in an old cut. The basalt in opal is rare here and I have found several pieces as surface finds.  One claim does show the opal coming out of the layer that goes under the other claims. The "best" access one is the easiest to dig one and is $8,000.The two in the middle are 4,000 for both as a little piece of one is over the patented ground so there is not a full 20 acres.  The 4th claim is $5,000 and gets the whole back of the hard outcrop area. The 3 is a partial claim to fill in area to the next folks. All for $12,000 as a group.</div> <bR> <div> #7 These two claims are on a fault right next to my Lowlands claims. They are putting out the typical signs of an opal deposit below. Stumps and float wood. Test holes went to the silcrete cap on the beds.  Our excavator just danced off it. Entire claims contain layers but at least 20' deeper than we went. I was in a hurry to get up creek further and we did not work it seriously hard to peel a hole out. It needs a pit created to be economical. $15,000 for the two of these. Power lines run right across this land as the claims butt up to the power line road.</div> <bR> <div> #8 Bog opal mine. There is a brown black bog opal out here that is algae mats with occasional wood included. This runs from white to black clear to opaque. Most is crazed but the rest is proven tough. This claim has tons of old opal tailings available to search again. The color runs thin and is missed or barely there. Quite a lot is hydrocarbon stained from associated lignigite beds and shows rainbow sheens. Good ones look like Honduran matrix or the Australian with "fairy" fire.. Right off the main road. The main vein was mined off but there are pockets of similar material showing on the back of the hard spot too. $5,000.</div> <bR> <div> #9 another slice of the bottom beds. Off the side of other proven and still held mines . Cuts made on wood and opal showings from 50 foot above all the way down. 4x4 Road runs thru it. (I two wheel drive it but others would never dare getting stuck up there. This one is a placer claim which has slightly different measurements but is still approximately 20 acres. With a nice flat camping site by the seldom used access road up a back canyon. $10,000 until I get down there and figure out where and what the opal is running. Note: I just sold the claim next to this one.</div> <bR> <div> #10 The other side of the hill that has been worked over more. 2 claims $10,000.</div> <bR> <div> I hope condensing the list made it easier. I will consider time payments, such as;  50% down and the balance in monthly payments at 10% annual interest, with owner financing, for 2 years.  I wish to be paid on a contract with a promissory note, but you will own your claims from the sale date on. I'm known for continuing to help my clients after the sale. Not for free if you want my professional mining help, but help getting settled in, easy questions with no sweat involved - no problem - free.</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 over the hill or under these mesas. You'll see that when you take the tour. Claims located right next to commercial grade properties of gem material that have excellent potential, versus further away prospects that are not proven 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 1/100 share in the Bonanza were more than $10,000. Mrs Lockheed lived at the Swordfish, not some other fee dig site. </div> <bR> <div>      My prospects all have THE montmorillite clay banks that contain opal here. This 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 always 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, so don't use pressure treated with arsenic stakes to be nice to the burros. Certification papers with maps are recorded in Humboldt Co. and with the state BLM branch office. None of my claims are infeasible to immediately go dig on with hand tools and prospect. All have vehicle access or a just a short walk to  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 the value of your trial dig money taken off the price of the claim you buy. I retain the right for the mine to have any logs and unexpected large gem pockets encountered but not ant of the smaller more expected gem opals. You will get a sample if we id hit a big one but not the whole mother lode. You are just test digging to see that I am not BSing. This is not a you get anything you touch fee digging like the other mines lease.</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 to work (which would probably be where I would have dug as I'm trying to have you find color yourself). If you buy the claim within the year after digging; I will take off all the digging costs 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 off the claims when test digging. That is mining. The cost of the tour is non-refundable.</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. None of my claims have been salted with outside opal by me or others.  I would never salt a claim as that would confuse us finding the opal and is a crooks trick and illegal.  I know that other lying criminals (We won't mention their cursed names, because a lot of people still think well of them not having been defrauded personally, because I do not have photographs) salted claims to sell them in the past.  I discount any woods and opals not still coming out of undisturbed earth as genuine proof my claims are good. You can tell if opal comes from there or not by digging into the undisturbed bank.  My first hand digging knowledge is my most valuable asset.  </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 there. How successful are they. Compare my prices to going consulting geologist rates or a class at any specialized school. I'm a hard working prospector and miner that's been out here for decades. I'll work with you on getting you a satisfactory claim.  </div> <bR> <div>  Nevada does not have a limit on charges for bad checks.  I charge $100 plus court costs plus, or just actual expenses like my banks fees if made good on promptly, due to my living 100 miles from town. </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>