Opal Mining Newsletter July-31-03 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

After pulling the fumes I went back down and checked that everything was alright, but what a mess again, I hate opening up as every time I do a shot it covers the whole ballroom and is a lot more work to clean it up again and so I have a lot of cleaning up to do again, but I did find some colored trace in the level where I had put the 3 bombs under the level and it was between the 2nd and 3rd bomb, it was paper thin to start off with and did get a bit thicker as I went into the level, but I forgot the camera, yes I did, don't know how but I did, that was a sign straight away that I would find color.

But I did not chase it all the way the wall so I will be able to take a photo or two tomorrow for you all, it is a very nice blue green and I did see a couple of small pieces of green orange, but it is only about 1/8 of an inch thick at this stage, will it keep going and get thicker and make a pocket, if there is some still in the level when I have finished I will have to chase it further, as it is it will take me 2 more days to finish checking this bit of level and clean up before I will be able to do another shot.

Below you can see opal in the wall, what you see here is green blue and there is trace all the way along the level here as it comes and goes, but for the most part it is all very thin and small (chips) the color was right but the size is wrong, oh well one day!

This is as I have explained before, how I drop the level onto a bag after I have jack picked a few inches into the wall at the back, it is then like a ledge but upside down, then I put the pick in the roof just above the level and drop it down, as some of the opal is still stuck to the host rock (sandstone or bulldog shale) I then have to take it off with a knife, but almost all of this is small and will be chips for the best part.

You can see the marks the jackpick has left in the wall, above and below the level, between the arrows is where the opal was found and right next door is the full shot that I did, but now the plans have been altered again, I will have to continue with this place here, so when I have cleaned up and blown the roof down over both shots (4 bombs) I will have to drill and blast the ground under this shot, remember I only put 3 bombs under the level so beneath that is solid ground that I will have to remove before I can do a shot again and chase the trace that is still in the level, some is opal and some is potch.

This shows you how some of the dirt from the 3 bombs got blown across the ballroom under the shafts and it buried the big elbow which I put against the wall, here I have just pulled half of it out, this is what I mean about making a mess and taking time to clean up again, I took this just as I was about to leave for the day.

This is how I go through the all of the material that comes out of the tumbler and as most of it is small and a lot of chips it takes hours to sort through this lot, here I have already done some work, as you can see by the small bowls, the small yellow bowl top left is for the potch and color and I put the opal and chips in the green bowl to the right.

It turns out there was a bit more than 29 ounces of opal and potch and color in this last shot, so I have covered expenses for this week at least, but today I broke the hand pick while working, the head came off and hitting me on the hand causing a little blood but nothing serious, just for a moment I thought that some of the roof had fallen down until I realized that the pick head was on the floor next to me.

As soon as I got home I picked up some money and went to the hardware shop to buy a new pick handle, cost $25.00, then I went to the workshop where I get mud repair done when I have some to do and remover the old handle from the pick head and put the new one in, cutting it down to 21 inches in length, before I did so, it would seem that being under water for just over 2 months did not do it nay good, but I use it for banging on the bottom elbow when I get a blockage, so it gets a bit of a hiding and it is about 8 years since it was replaced, so I cannot complain, can I.

I also have just bought a new little compressor for $193.00, plus I have to buy the fittings for the hose which I have under the bonnet in the 4x4, I will put this in the back of the mining truck, I need this to blow up the tires on the front end loader and the blower truck, not to mention putting the diesel in the blower, until now I have had to take the 4x4 out to the opal field and blow up the tires as needed, but now will be a bit easier and less costly.

Had the day off, to give the old bones a bit of a rest and finished off the sorting of the opal, now I will wait to see if there is anymore in the next shot when I get to the level before I get it classed ready for sale, ended up in the pub playing darts this afternoon which I have not played for some years, did alright lost 2 games out of 9, so I might just take the sport up again on Thursday nights for a night out.

Drilled the holes for removing the dirt from under where I put the 3 bombs, also put 2 in the roof above the shot next door and 2 in the roof above this shot and 1 more under the level to widen the shot face when I get to it, so that it will 4 bombs wide.

What a job I had drilling these holes down the bottom, as I was standing in this drive where the pipes are kept and there is no spare room to move in with a drill and auger that is some 6.5 feet long and me as well so I have to turn around and drill the first half of the hole standing sideways to the hole and as the dirt is wet, this is very hard work until I can sit on the wall near where that small pipe is or was, then I can drill and clean out the hole better, remember that with wet ground after I have drill the hole in for about 18 inches I can only drill about 3 inches at a time after that and then I have to clean the hole out before I can continue as the dirt is like mud and sticks to the auger, this is why it is very hard work and takes a lot of extra time to do.

After I had fired the shot and again pulled the fumes out with the blower, remember that I have to come up top now to fire as I have no where to hide right now, I went down and checked the shot and as usual checked the roof making sure that it is safe for me to work under, well the dirt of course is everywhere again, but the shot came out well and I was just supposed to pull the dirt which will take me a couple of days I should think to get the face ready for the next shot and as I could not drill in deep enough when I have pulled the dirt there will be at least a foot to 18 inches that I will have to jackpick out to make the face straight before I can drill again.

To my surprise when checking the roof I saw a bit of green shell up there and on closer inspection there was a few skin shells around, so I will have to be careful when I start pulling the dirt as when I get to the alanite that has been blown down there will probably be some skin shells in there if I can find them.

Below is what we call a skinny skin shell, it is still in the sandstone and this is what it looks like after I have tumbled it, after this I have to remove the sandstone with care as the shell itself is in different pieces, this is where I use tile snipers to remove most of it and then the Dremel to finish the cleaning, in this case what I have shown you here is of no use to me as there in hardly any color at all present, the piece next to it on the left is a piece I found the 2 weeks before it has no color what so ever but is a very good specimen of the shell as it still has the lines in it and is quite thick as well.

The different types of shell we find here are, (1) a skinny skin shell, thinner than above may have brilliant color but is of no use because it is to thin to do anything with. (2) thin skin shell, may be of use to make a doublet with if thick enough. (3) thick shin shell, can cut solid stones or doublets out of them. (4) full shells, hopefully it is skin to skin color, ie; color all the way though or as opal has a skin on the top and bottom of it, if this is full of color we call it skin to skin. TYPE OF SHELLS, (1) most common is the pipi or called the clam shell. (2) the mussel shell. (3) rare, the scallop shell (4) snail shell and I am sure there are a couple that I don't remember.

Below is a couple of pieces of thin skin shell, still with the sandstone on them.

Below is a part of a shell, as you can see it has color on the face of it, but the most interesting part of this shell is how it died between 85 and 120 million years ago, you can see the round hole in the shell, this was caused by the Cone Shell as it positions itself on top of the clam shell and drills a hole in the shell killing it and making the shell open so it can eat it and this has not changed in all these years as this still happens today.

This is what I have cleaned so far, there is 1 ounce here and for the most part they are all skin to skin color, I have a lot more to clean yet, I would estimate about another 2 ounces and if I am lucky I may find some more next week or in this case tomorrow, as I will concentrate on the roof as long as I have this shot dirt that I can stand on, if I clean up and pull the shot I will not be able to reach the roof, as it is between 8 and 9 feet high and now I know where to look for them, so there is a large area that I can take down which will take a couple of days at least I should think.

The saying here is that shells make good color, when they make color, and the shells that I have found above are all semi crystal and crystal, so by the time I have finished I should do all right, and if any of my Subscribers reading this is interested in buying some skin shells, just send me an email and we will discuss the matter.

This is the spot where I put the shots under the level and now have blown the solid ground that was under those bombs, also blowing down the roof as well, you can see that it has created a bomb crater like effect, as there is a big dip in the middle, I lit the roof bombs first followed by the bomb under the level on the right side, making the level 4 bombs wide for the next shot as there is still trace and a little green blue opal in the level.

The shiny pieces you can see in the wall is gypsum that is mixed in with the sandstone, this makes the roof strong and hard to get down, but on top of this is a bit more Alinite and then some more gypsum, this makes it dangerous as you will see later.

This is where I found the skin shells in the roof, I will have to start to blow the roof a bit higher as now there is a chance I may find these skin shells, and they come in pockets as well so they can be anywhere, this pocket did not last long, I only got a couple more today, but I did find a vertical in the roof that produced a some small opal stones.

As I was jackpicking the roof chasing the trace in this vertical, the roof just to my left started Raining as we call it, in other words tiny bits of dust and small partials of dirt start falling down in places, this is a sign the part of the roof is going to come down and soon if not immediately and this came down with 30 seconds, lucky I knew which part it was, but I did not know how big it was going to be so I just stood against the wall, as it turned out it came down about 3 feet from me and the wind that it made as it hit the ground blew dust up into my eyes, had this fallen on me it would at best seriously injured me and at worst I would not be here writing this for you.

Went into work with the intention of pulling some of the dirt, but before I started I could not remember if I had checked the roof in the shot (below) to the left of where I found the shin shells, so I check with the black light and found another small, thin vertical above the level, I already had found the one on the right and it had only very thin potch in it and this 2nd one was the same, but it led up into the Alinite you can see on the back wall and it started to make some opal stones in there along with some potch, when I got to the brown spot marked by the arrow, after picking in for a few inches just under this brown sandstone which we call Concrete , because is as hard and rough as Concrete, it made some beautiful opal, just about right on one ounce in weight.

I will have to put a couple of bombs again above the Alinite where I found this bit of opal as I did not go high enough if I am to see if there could be any skin shells there and I will also put one baby bomb in the knob that is left where the large lump fell down from, again to make it a bit safer and also to see if there could be any skin shells up there.

This a four of the pieces from above, nice stuff, been lucky this last couple of weeks, but I will have to do some hard work now in removing the dirt before I can look for more.

Had a bit of a wog (bug) hit me yesterday afternoon, thought I was coming down with a cold and during the night I was getting hot and cold shakes so I have stayed at home, written some of this and cleaned some opal as well.

Pulled some of the shot today and it took me a while to finish breaking up the rest of that large lump that fell down then I drilled that part of the roof where the big piece came from, the hole was 18 inches deep and I put a baby bomb in there, lit it and went up put the gear away and came home, after I had got cleaned up I started to clean opal again, what a pain that is, cleaning opal, some of the opal is found in amongst very strong sandstone and of course some of it sticks to the opal even after it has been tumbled.

So it has to be cleaned off before it can be classed and sold as the buyers do not like to see sandstone or ironstone or anything else on the opal as it will make the price go down, so I have to clean the opal with the Dremel and if I have enough of it, as in this case I have, I will put it back in the tumbler again for about 4 hours to really give a good clean then its ready to be classed and for sale.

Pulled some more of the shot, I have removed about 2/3 thirds so far, it is a lot more when you take into consideration what has fell down and what I have blown down and I hope to finish the rest on Monday so I can drill and fire a shot on Tuesday.

I have had some people move in right next to me, one of then checked out a very old claim with a square shaft and thinks that there might be a chance for them as there is a fault nearby, good luck to them, but when they have finished, which I don't think will be long I will peg that area so I will not be bothered by anyone being so close again.

I have not seen this type of drill before, just shows you how much different type of equipment is here in this town, this drill has to add lengths of shafts as it is needed, not like the Calweld drill which has a telescope type of Kelly and can drill to 100 feet, also it has a normal bucket which is used if it needs to drill a shaft for a tunnel machine to go down and this Auger type of bucket which also I have not seen before.

Here is a close up of the bucket, funny looking thing, not very good in this type of ground as there is a lot of rocks in the top 25 feet or so, some of them quite big, this type of auger bucket disturbs them to much as it goes up and down the shaft it is drilling causing them to become loose, as happened just before I took this photo, the bucket was caught down the shaft as big jasper rock fell down on top of the bucket and he could not get the bucket back up and so had the work the bucket up and down with a lot of revs on the motor up till the rock managed to get past the bucket and fall down to the bottom.

What they are doing here in actual fact is they are open up with the bucket, when they drilled this shaft they connected to a old drive and there is a man down below working with a air operated jackpick and a shovel, the bucket is lowered down the shaft and sits in the ground so the top is level with the guys feet below, then the guy fills the bucket with dirt that he has jack picked down and taps on the pipe when it is filled so it can be brought up and emptied, this is a very hard and slow way to do this.

But they said that unless they find something in the opening up around the shaft they will not put a blower there and will be gone in a few days, so I hope they are gone in a few days and I will peg it as I feel that there is opal over there somewhere, should have pegged it before as I like the hill that is there but never thought that it would appeal to anyone else, I was wrong, so I hope they do not find anything worth while for my sake.

Well again we have not done a lot of footage this week but have found some opal and that is what it is all about, it is not how far we tunnel but what we find in doing so, I have known some miners here and just recently who tell us about how much footage they do in one day with there tunnel machine, between 50 and 80 feet a day and one guy told me who has a round tunnel machine that he did 105 feet in one day.

They are not finding any opal when they do that type of footage, me I would just as soon as do 4 foot and spend the next 2 days picking opal out, but there will be times when I will do quite a few feet and find nothing, that's for sure and it may not be that far away.

Keep Tuned as I will have another shot or 2 to talk about next week and who knows what we will have found..................

Again I Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes.

Until the next issue.........

and wish me lots of LUCK.

Cya Later, Stuart Bird.

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