Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

New to the forum but not new to rockhounding.

From NV. Recently discovered and visited the VV opals.
I love finding anything and everything like gems, fossils, artifacts, prospecting and everything in between.

Say hi and let me know where you’re from and what your favorite rock/gem to find is and the location. I’m wanting to learn and explore more!

Mine has been some fossil locations I’ve stumbled across in NV and also Garnet Hill in Ely NV.

Also thinking about getting into UV Rockhounding if anyone has any experience with that, let me know your thoughts!

Greetings Louden, and welcome to the forum. You've definitely come to the right place and I'm sure we have a few members who can give you tips on where to go in NV. Do you cut any of the rocks you find? Whether you do or not, we'd love to see some of your finds if you can post some for us, and again, welcome to the club, where all members are hopelessly addicted to rocks of every kind.

Hiya and welcome. I'm from Denio and up to my neck in opal claims, opal, chysocholla and partnerships for more, but.... I carry my Convoy S-2 around with me. Still looking for a decent place to use it for good fluorescent. Woods all over virgin valley are nice orange or yellows, The Wilsons at the Peacock have the one hot opal area claimed and you would have to go thru them to get access. There is also an area of hyalite and agates that some are good glowers and some are dead. The geodes are hollow never filled and the refuge just changed the rules to no digging, surface collecting only without any tools on the rest of both refuges. But yer lucky to find more than 7 lbs anyway in a day. Its not he BLM rules.

PinkDiamond wrote:Greetings Louden, and welcome to the forum. You've definitely come to the right place and I'm sure we have a few members who can give you tips on where to go in NV. Do you cut any of the rocks you find? Whether you do or not, we'd love to see some of your finds if you can post some for us, and again, welcome to the club, where all members are hopelessly addicted to rocks of every kind.

Thank you.
I have cut and polished a couple of things. But I need to pick up more lapidary equipment and learn more about it to be efficient. (If you have any recommendations on that I’d like to know! I use a Dremel) I do however have more than enough rocks to keep me busy for a long time cutting and polishing in my collection haha. I’ve actually recently been practicing on some of the opals I found out at VV. I found a good chunk of dry stable stuff that was ready to mess with.
I will upload some of my finds! I have to take pictures first.

SwordfishMining wrote:Hiya and welcome. I'm from Denio and up to my neck in opal claims, opal, chysocholla and partnerships for more, but.... I carry my Convoy S-2 around with me. Still looking for a decent place to use it for good fluorescent. Woods all over virgin valley are nice orange or yellows, The Wilsons at the Peacock have the one hot opal area claimed and you would have to go thru them to get access. There is also an area of hyalite and agates that some are good glowers and some are dead. The geodes are hollow never filled and the refuge just changed the rules to no digging, surface collecting only without any tools on the rest of both refuges. But yer lucky to find more than 7 lbs anyway in a day. Its not he BLM rules.

Hey there! Thank you. I think you are the only person on the forums I’m familiar with.
I’ve actually been wanting to stake a claim and have been researching the process. Which doesn’t seem too bad. I’ve been thinking about an opal claim for fun for my girlfriend and I to opal hunt to start with. As this last visit really caught our attention to the virgin valley.
I was actually wondering about the opal out there and just how fluorescent it is. I’ll have to test it on the ones I found when I get a light. Have you tested the difference between Long, mid and short wave lights on the opals?
Thank you for the information.

I have a midwave tube, but never installed it. I use short wave to find most anything bright and long wave for ease.
The fastest way to a claim is hire me for the 200 see what i have for sale. Lot of the common does nothing here glowing wise. Some is green some is orange, but most is a phosphorescent or of blue green with an after glow that i get compared to Wilsons bright green with no after glow. The surrounding areas agates have not impressed me as green glowers extraordinaire.

Hello!