Australia contains the most opal in the whole world. About 95% of all Opal comes from Australia and the rest comes from Mexico, Brazil, Idaho, Ethiopia, an Mali.
Opal is made out of stone sediment and silica that was deposted along the Australian shorline during the big flood about 6 thousand years ago. (Noah's Flood) During this flood, waves of silica stone rich water poured into the nooks and crannies of sedimentary rocks and there the silica turned into opal. Opal is the gell from silica with a 3% to 20% of water.
Opal was first found in 1849 in the Australian cattle stations in Tarravillia, where the first opal "prospectors" in 1890 were at the White cliffs.
The best Australian opal fields are called White Cliffs, Lightning Ridge, Andmaooka, Coober, and Peddy. The most famous mine is the Lightning Ridge mine and mainly produces black opal.
Anadamook is the mine were crystal opal and light opal is mined in 6,843 kilograms. Because of this, the mine is named "Andamooka Desert fame".
In the last few centuries, Opal was mined in deep holes or caves and the miners would sleep in the caves to protect themselves and their families from the scortching head of the day and the icy cold winds at night. The miners used tools such as the pick and shovel. They would lower buckets down into the deep holes and would pull up a bucket of dirt and go through it hoping to find some opal. These shafts were often 5-40 meters in depth. Opal mining was not an easy job until modern technology lent a hand with big machines like trucks and conveyor belts. Opal is known as Australia's outback gemstone.
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