Opal prices and supply

[mick]

Prices going through the roof, no one is mining, supply is drying up.

Its not a manufactured drought by Aussie miners, its just a lack of miners.

Black Opal, its now up there with Santa and the Easer Bunny.

[kjsspot]

Thanks for the heads up!

[PinkDiamond]

Not good for the stone Oz is famous for, mick. Is it because of government regulations, licensing and taxing, or are all the old miners just dying off and nobody wants to take their place? I'm sure there are many contributing factors, but what would you say was the primary cause?

[opalcreations]

I just watched that show Mine Hunters, this episode was on Australian black opals, it is really a ridiculous show, totally scripted, and kind of a stupid premise to begin with (In my opinion, but I'm hard to please, haha) but it's about gemstones, and i can't resist a show about sparklies, no matter how bad it is

The opals they showed as the "king stones" that they were looking for were actually very poor stones compared to what a REAL black opal should look like, in fact, the one stone that they said was worth over $50,000 that had a large amount of red in it, looked like a boulder opal with an iron stone back!
It wasn't even Lightning Ridge black opal from what I could see! I'll have to take a closer look, maybe I'll post a screen shot of it later and you can tell me what you think.

The other stones they showed as super high value stones were some blue on black's, which I've actually cut better looking stones myself than the one they showed on that show, and believe me, I'm not dealing in opals worth thousands of dollars, LOL.

I just wish if TV was going to have shows highlighting Australian opals, especially black opals, that the specimens would be actual high value stones that were accurately portrayed as what they are supposed to be. It misleads the general public, and in my opinion, can actually hurt the market.

People should be impressed and say "wow" when they see a true beautiful Lightning Ridge black opal.

Just my rant and 2 cents

[crazy8s]

I'm with you Chris, that was a really stupid show. The opal looked like a boulder to me also.
Are you watching the new season of The Prospectors on the weather channel

[opalcreations]

I didn't know that the prospectors were back on again, I'll be sure to watch it now, that is a show I actually DO like and watch.
Thanks for letting me know1

[crazy8s]

Here's one for the gemologists- on the Mine hunters they said all rubies florese a jewelry show on tv say only Burma rubies florence. Any one know about this I know I can't spell that word and I'm to lazy to look it up.

[SwordfishMining]

The price of my opal is going up with the expense of keeping the criminal competition honest. Summer is coming and Gas is getting jacked back up too. As I sat in the gas station Saturday in Susanville it went up 6 cents a gallon, the station it was 20cents a gallon cheaper than the others. Blm wants to raise the annual fee to over 200 for each claim yearly and eliminate the small miners exemption. Then lease the minerals not let you mine and sell them as you will with a tax as it comes out of the ground. They already gave big mining the intent to hold where you don't even have to do any work to hold the rights, but they want to force you to do work. Small people out is the writing on the wall unless they have the money to play the corporate write off game with all the new equipment and benefits to live well. Special Use permits to do anything and full regulations if anything you get goes into commerce in any way. Nothing is constant but change.

[PinkDiamond]

:D Here's one for the gemologists- on the Mine hunters they said all rubies florese a jewelry show on tv say only Burma rubies florence. Any one know about this I know I can't spell that word and I'm to lazy to look it up.

8's, as with all gems, the mixture that creates them is comprised of various minerals in various proportions, and when iron is present in sufficient quantities, it suppresses the reaction and the rubies do not fluoresce. I wish it was true that only Burma rubies fluoresce, since I have quite a few that do, but they came from junkTV, and did not cost anywhere near Burmese ruby prices, so I don't see how they could possibly be Burmese.

John, as I sit here reading what you wrote, I'm looking at a video on Steve's screen that's titled Bombshell proof the BLM, and FBI, other another abc group are private corporations, and NOT government entities, and it's true but it's too bad they left out that the IRS is a private Puerto Rican trust, and not an arm of the United States government. This is what Bundy was going up against with the BLMs claims, and they got away with murdering him in cold blood because we have been taken over from within, by pirates who claim to have authority over us and the land, that We The People never gave them.

[SwordfishMining]

Hey..Are you trying to tell me that Spanish Corporation (last I heard)is not counting the electronic voting machines results correctly??? Change is afoot and the happier person in the pinch will have had an eye toward preparing for the greater likely knowns, like fresh water, vittles and warmth. I figure Blacklighting as entertainment more than detective. Sure don't find much around here at night. I've looked and not much is greater than common.