Month: September 2020

https://web.archive.org/web/20180821152353fw_/https://virginvalleyopal.com/black_precious_opal.htm

     Hiya Hiya from Virgin Valley Nevada, USA. I’m the man with the best legal claims for sale. Please ignore the slander about me from the competition plastered on it’s page. I’ve dared him to come to court and prove he is not lying. I’m living here and can show you around in person any day. I don’t use agents who know nothing and do not have to drive to Nevada for clients.
     The Virgin Valley Opal Mining District in Humboldt Co has been mined for Black Opal, White Opal, Crystal Opal, Fire  Opal and Precious Wood Opal since the early 1900s and it has been suggested; also by the Chinese explorers before Columbus. Swordfish Mining, me, began operations in 1993 on the Swordfish claim group.  I fell head over heels for Leah Brashear (RIP 2005) and her family, that with her mom Marie and Grandparents, had established several good digs and a millsite in the 70s we lived on for a decade. Leahs’ eulogy is back on the about me page.
      The past 2015 season had about the same traffic or less than the year before. The Kokopelli Opal Mine stayed open and the Opal Queen stayed closed.  Kokopelli Opal digging is by appointment through their website.   http://kokopelliopals.com/Fee_Digging.html.  In Virgin Valley at any of the mines, except the Opal Queen Mine where he has a 50/50 opal split policy, you keep ALL the opals you find for what was paid for the day.  All gem opal rough including semiprecious opalized wood is included in the entry fee. Outside on the refuge the limit is 7 pounds. [Opal Queen Currently closed and claimjumped][No digging allowed on refuge]
      The brilliance, size, and qualities of the precious Nevada opals play of color is unique and varies. It generally occurs as wood replacements, more than veins or nodules. This offers both collectors and cutters unparalleled variety in a unique matrix; petrified wood. Opal is a mineral pseudo-morph (meaning it fills holes when forming) and can make lifelike fossils, even bones and teeth can be replaced. and the deeded mines have recovered many such items over the years.  Miocene Period from about 12 million years ago give or take a few. The genus of the plants are modern ones. There isn’t a big supply of cutting rough from all these mines put together each year.  Most all the opal here is mined and consumed by the many rockhounds and jewelers who specialize in our favorite fossil – precious wood and the State Gemstone Black Fire Opal. The best opals are usually kept in water without drying as specimens due to changes all opal might go through after mining. Clarity changes, cracks as it relieves pressure drying and the ones that craze.

Keith Hodson said it was an “Honest Opal” in that it told you right up front what it was.

      YOUR luck, skill and effort are the factors of which mine to go to and then what opals you’ll come away with. All have fair offerings, but each Fee Dig is different from the others. They all have their own nature, facilities, and operators to experience, while the black precious opal might be found on every one any given day.  Swordfish Mining links to all of their websites to make it easier for you to contact them. You have to work hard for what you MAY find, so don’t give up. Some opals are available in the gift shops here or online from other miners. Ask the owners your questions about their dates, times and fees please. I am not in charge of any of their businesses. Opal is where you find it, the best may come from any mine and the biggest best one is still out there to be found in all likelihood.

     When e-mailing me:   PLEASE USE AN OPAL RELATED SUBJECT as I blacklist without reading spam.

Contact  john at virginvalleyopal.com Or call me at  home 775-941-0725 Pacific Time Zone. Please leave a message if I’m out mining and I will call you when I return.

  

Gemstone Wood: all Opals will be more colorful and brighter when in held in hand. No photo shopping has been done to any images. Any cracks or treatments are disclosed if present. Provenance certificates will be issued by me on the strength of my reputation in the district for specimens I see extracted.
Swordfish Speaks WordPress BLOG https://virginvalleyopal.com/talkin/  is irregular, but feel free to subscribe. [This is that & that is gone]
Swordfish Mining PO Box # 124 Denio, NV 89404
Note: All text and photograph copyrights reserved by John Church. Re-publication not for gain is permitted with proper URL credit back to here given.

Seems like every September the weather decides to go cold a few weeks in. Still in the fire season, but this jet stream dip brought us fresh air & hopefully is pushing the fire back where it burned already.

I will say for the campground signal tree turning orange its about right. The horseflies go away and the rest of the bugs will follow with real ice for a couple days later.

Looking North towards Pueblo Mtn from Rock Springs Table flank. We had a 2.0 earthquake next to Railroad Point by Denio a couple days ago. No damages. I did not even feel it on the other side of the fault, if I could have felt it at the time. Most of the swarms in the past were around Bitner Butte over by Massacre Lake 25 miles west of the Royal Peacock Mine.

Nothing new was shaken down the ridge as far as I could see, besides some gully walls collapsing into their channels.

This is a location marker.

A simple picture on a cell phone proves I am not lying and mailing in a map. In court, any evidence & a reputation win out over no evidence and an excuse. Wish it would get over so he could pay me bills. Never see the interest back or the sales made that he’s scared away by making this place seem scary over the decades.

That is a partition claim going down open space in between other claims, until my neighbor can figure out where his posts actually go, the other neighbors and I match the maps. I have a great idea where they cant be and we covered that end of the hill, on this end of it LOL. Oh, and he is direct competition if he continues to to sell 2 of his three claims like he mentioned. No paid advice was sought by him. I pointed out opal bank on three ends out of friendship. Scott & I are mining the other side of what was Curts’ hill currently and we are still new friends.

For special digs by appointment only. Clubs welcome at group discount of 25%.

I also get so botroidal barites, I think. They glow good in UV light a yellow with orange to white range. And no I do not do fee digging on the pockets I have found to sell claims with. The fee digs are set up for tourists.

Hiya from September in the outback. Today was actually clear when i got up instead of smoke or haze for weeks. Hope they get the fires out before too many more houses are lost. It is a wild world. Going out and as always documenting my days with pics. Especially if doing something important like staking a claim that requires proof.

The summers been bucolic around the valley for the most part. Haven’t been held out anything really great to slaver over opal wise from other diggers. I must be getting jaded in my old age. I knwo Im tired of beating off BS every year.

I imagine some things will be found, but Im so busy with my folks and my claims, I have yet to swim in the pond this year. They are in their 90s and essentially in solitary confinement, which is good. My fellow miners mother passed away after they put a CCP VIRUS survivor in her room. She did not survive and her daughter was not even able to attend the funeral in AZ. Birthday parties and all the campground has been busy enough. It was the first park here in Humboldt co.

Seems my consulting/whatever repairs occupation is always on call, & when ya work by half day or days by appointment or availability, since fee diggers dont seem to make appointments when here, the schedule is fluid.

I do kinda like working with owners and equipment.

Donna dug out this one I saw on the Kokopelli skinning cat as Tim was opening up a road to clear the overburden where they are taking the mine into the pocket. Some boulders were rolling. The Mesa basalt flowed over a deformed surface so it was thicker on the ponds and valleys than it was on ash, diatomaceous earth, clay, pumice, chert, sandstone hills with a grade, mind you the location of the vent goes into how thick it was. The Virgin Valley volcanic field has over 10 volcanoes. Pictures and words cant replace walking on and digging in holding pieces of, or getting opal which all of my claims produce.

I got a new neighbor this year. Very interesting and motivated man. Another miner decided it was more work starting a mine, than continuing one & has another easier to mine claim he got from me, but a quad ride to get to. He sold his first claims to a mutual friend of theirs. He actually asked me nicely, and traded for work, to show him where the opal was.

Each of the claims in Virgin Valley has a different flavor in several broad categories. Opal comes and goes with some tricks.

In reality I have been doing a bunch of hard rock mining on some choice veins where I also dig coppers. In fact I’m waiting for a call from some site owners who were looking for a few buckets, Quantum Quatro silica is the mix, but i dont call it that as it varies too much with the larger crystallization there. Real pretty slabs. AND i should mention trespassers are charged the daily rate as the claim is posted private or I call the sheriff on people behind no trespassing signs. Rockhounds are a special sort and do need to be controlled ot they will come truck mine your deposit away in a weekend. Despite that, the competitor directs people there as if its open ground not surface claimed for all loose material from the mining century. Not surprising he also claims to be and appraiser buying opal collections without access to any of the shops or mines information in Virgin Valey as he is banned from all sites here.

Always talk to the past customers, instead of listening to the competition or reading their anonymous reviews slandering the existing business blindly. Beware anyone who tells you to not talk to everyone involved in something before buying in. Especially one in legal cases up to their neck telling you to not worry. Especially the ones who say do not listen to any official, BLM or law enforcement as they do not know as much as that jailhouse lawyer.