Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

The Spencer Opal Mines from Idaho at the Tuscon Show.
Pink Opal with Play of color. Dry, set, the whole shebang.

mining is special. You should see some of the stuff that goes by out of Virgin Valley every year.

It's really too bad that all the really good stuff was mined out years ago. Here's an example of what I mean. Chuck/Starbird gave me this one that he and I think his dad mined at Spencer back in the 60's, that's actually pink and has some good color.

20.5 carats and 1/4" thick.

Mined out? BWAHAHAHAHA. Maybe that pocket is finished off, These formations run for miles all the way into Montana if you want to know. I was shown a cab mined there that looked similar, but with a different colored matrix.
That pesky forest makes it so hard to see in the ground. Like the Louisiana opal mountain side was buried by Boise Cascade not wanting mining there. As in good stuff, thick enough to cab out instead of tripletts, each opal is its own little thunder egg like each limb cast is different. Granted there is only a specific play of color zone in most mines surrounded by 10 or 10,000 times as much potch.

Laugh if you will, but when I say the good stuff is mined out I mean at Spencer itself, and I mean the nice pink base with color. Whatever is down the pipeline and isn't actually in Spencer could be anything; they were mining at Spencer itself, so that's what he was referring to. I didn't see any that look like the one Starbird gave me in that video, but I would think (hope) they still have some of the older material on display somewhere.

I wont argue with that as i know how pockets are. Somebody has claims for sale next to it. underground. i havent even gone back and looked at all the stuff i quit taking for sale in the past.