June 30, 2006 Opal Mining Update - No 62 Found a Little Opal also Been a Very Hard Month.

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I have found a little opal this month and also had a hard time of it as you will see below, this is a big newsletter with 48 photos this month so plenty has been happing in the short time I have worked in the month, so we ill continue where we left off at the end of the last update, enjoy. Now I have got the ballroom below finished and the machine in place ready for starting the next dive, now I have to pull the pipes and move the blower over to the next shaft, then put the pipes back down again, but pulling the pipes is the easy part, the cable for the tunnel machine is the problem for one man, this man anyway, is quite heavy as there is about 100 foot of it between where it connect to the generator and the bottom of the shaft and although I can lower it down by myself it is better if there are two of us, then one can take the cable's weight while I tie a rope to it and disconnect it from the generator, then I will let it down to the floor below. After the cable has been lowered and the blower moved and put in place, I then have to go down below with a flashlight as there are no lights below because the power cable's are being moved and then I have drag the plug end of the cable up the drive to the other shaft and then coil it nice and neat, then retie it on to the rope and my friend will start to pull it up using the hand winch. I will make sure that the plug doe's not catch on the corner of the roof as it goes up the shaft, in this case there is a drive above as well so I have to make sure it does not get caught on that as well, when it has cleared all of this I then come up top, by this time the cable is up top and waiting, then reconnect it to the generator and I will have power to the machine and lights again underground.

I had a accident today when putting the pipes back down the shaft, don't really know what I did wrong, but got distracted, must have thought that I had put the bolt in place to lock the handle in place so I could repair another pipe and then put it on, anyway I let go of the handle and down they went, freefalling, the handle was going around like crazy, but at the start I tried to stop it by grabbing the handle which did not work and I got one finger on each hand hurt, one just got a bruise on the end and one on the right hand got some skin torn back and bleed a bit, lucky for me it was not worse, after getting banged a couple of times I just let the thing go and stood back and watched.

I had 4 pipes on at this stage and they went down pretty quick and the hand winch was jumping all over the place, so as you can see above how it ended up, as I was hurting some on the right hand and bleeding a little I packed up my tools and came home, now I am worried that they may be some damage to the telescope that is sticking out about 3 feet on the end of the first pipe and also the cable may be laying directly under the shaft as I have not been down since we pulled it up, so when I get back on the field I will have to go down and check what damage has been done before I can do anything else. Well it was my lucky day, today that is, not yesterday, the pipes did not reach the bottom, so instead of falling 40 feet they only fell about 25 feet and got caught on the lip of the drive above, and on impact only shoved the telescope back up the pipe to the handles with no damage being caused, the cable was lying under the shaft in two places so was very lucky this time, and this is the first time this has happened to me and the last I hope, if I had a partner with me this would not have happened at all, but as I work by myself this is the risk I take, must pay more attention to what I am doing and only do one thing at a time, my mind must have been on the next job, this is how accidents happen so easily.

As I was coming home form the bad day above I came across this idiot of a  truck driver who got bogged trying to do a U-Turn in a tourist parking bay just across the main highway from town, I have no idea what he was trying to do as he did not have to do this U-Turn, he could have driven out the way I have just driven is to take this photo, he has got bogged in a small ditch which is soft ground, had he kept going he would have tipped the house off the boggy, not the only one to have a bad day, will cost him some money to get this pulled out and they must have lost a few hours waiting for some one big enough to do the job, the people with him are looking for opal on the ground while they wait, good luck to them, they wont find any.

This is my first 10 foot pipe I use when starting a new drive, it has to be the first as it has a ring on the other end that I clamp to the elbow, after that they are all like what you see here, female one end and just plain pipe at the other, (male) this pipe got knocked at an angle on the last drive and I did not notice as it was some 60 feet away and the dirt started getting under the edge and lifted it, now I have to repair it before I can use it again.

I have removed the steel end, now I have to cut the bad end off using a wood saw, then I will put the ring back on and re-drill the holes only this time I will put a lot more bolts in around the edge so this cannot or I hope it cannot happen again, then we are back in business, I also have a shorter pipe to fix because of this, not as bad, but will be if I don't fix it now.

Here the machine is now ready to start the new drive, got a few of the pipes etc up here ready for use, still have more bits and pieces to bring up, but will wait until I have finished this drive and one more then I will have some where to put them so they are out of the way, I have to keep walking up and down the drive I have taken this photo from as that is where the ladders and winch are, so this is as much as I can put in it without blocking it to much.

Some of you may wonder why the machine is going one way and the elbow is facing the other, the reason is that when starting off new drives the machine is too close the elbow and I cannot connect the flexible hoses to it in a direct line, so it has to be put in any position I can get it into until the machine has got far enough away from it and the elbow and the rear of the machine are in a straight line with each other, then I can put the small telescope on, but as it is now as the machine goes forward. I just turn the elbow a bit at a time until it is facing the other way, easy, if I was to leave those black flexible hoses would not last long at all, but as they are only on for a short time they last for quite a while and do the job very nicely where stiffer and stronger ones could not be used like this.

The drive is just starting right in the corner as it turns out, you can also see the running board on the side, what a good idea that turned out to be, wish I had thought about then a long time ago, now I can stand on the side of the machine and keep my foot flat as only one is on the board the other one is standing on the floor cutters, before my foot was always on a angle stuck between the side of the machine and the side wall and my ankle was giving me a lot of trouble when I got home and I was always walking with a limp and had to take pain killers, now all that will change.

This photo is to show you the highly technical way we get our direction underground for tunneling to the next shaft or in any direction we want to go for that matter, after I decide where I want to make a drive to up top I put a board across the shaft pointing in that direction, I can also use a compass but the metal from the hand winch effects it and although I can do a reverse reading from the shaft I want to go to back to the shaft with the pipes are there is a difference of about 10 or 11 degrees. Not that this is a problem if I could take a reading from the same direction underground, but as the ground in front of the machine has not been tunneled I have to take a reading from the pipes which are at the rear of the machine so again the metal from the telescope and the elbow and of course the tunnel machine throws the reading out, but must admit that what I get up top (viewed here) and what I get down here is the same, so the wood up top is another back up just to make sure and if all is well I will hit the shaft right smack in the middle of the drive, but so long as I hit it with the drive is all that matters.

Here I am going between two faults that are only some 28 feet in-between them and as it turns out the ground is turning out to be very disturbed so there is very little chance of finding opal until it settles down, it should be reasonably clean sandstone below the level with none or very little else in it other than plain sandstone, can contain some gypsum but not look like this below, so when I get past this and the ground settles down again there may be a chance for a pocket of some opal, from the shaft it is 36 feet to the end of the next fault and then it is 60 feet to the shaft which I am hoping will be good ground, so from shaft to shaft it is 96 feet and a lot can change in the distance.

As I have been on this shaft before when I was doing a few drives on the level above, you can see there is big difference in the color of the ground, its a lot darker sandstone on the bottom level, what is called a definite change of ground, even when we are drilling prospect shafts, this change of ground indicates that we have cut a level below, now if we can only cut opal as well all would be great.

I have had to bring the machine back a few feet as I have hit very hard Alinite and had to quit, it was to hard for the floor cutters to handle, was just wasting diesel trying so I figured it was better to put some small shots (bombs) in and break it up, instead of wasting time and diesel which I have just been doing for about an hour before I pulled the machine back.

Here you can see the Alinite in the floor on the right side of photo, it is very hard, for a bigger square tunnel machine and a normal round tunnel machine this would not be a problem, but for mine with the floor cutters it is to hard, there is no great strength in the cutters as they are driven by a very small hydraulic motor with a single chain, not designed for this type of ground, the front cutters that revolve cut it very well, but have to slow down the cutting rate to give them chance to cut through it. The bigger machines have more weight to them, also use roof jacks to hold them in place while they are cutting and of course use a bigger round cutting head driven by a big and powerful reduction box and a big chain and so this is no problem to them, but there running costs are greater them mine also, not to mention the cost of the machine and the blower to run them.

As you can see I have drilled 4 holes, the hole at top right is only 9 inches deep, this Alinite (not even sure if this is its right name, just what they call it here in Coober Pedy) is the hardest I have ever encountered in 14 years of mining, it rings when hit with the pick, could not even make a mark in it for starting the drill off, the other 3 are drilled under it and go 3 feet in, so they are small bombs only some 5 to 6 inches in length, could have been smaller but want to make sure they do the job.

After the shots have gone off, walking up the drive as the fumes are getting pulled by the blower, just make a mess with the dust settling everywhere and on everything, used to having kept clean now I am using a tunnel machine, not used to this anymore.

This is after the photo above, hardy looks any different, I left the head like this to protect the front of the machine where the hydraulic rams are and the lights as the debris from the shots would have to travel in an upwards and outwards direction, but what I did not expect was for the concussion to break the globes in the lights, I have replaced both of them before I took this photo and also a biggish rock had ricocheted off the roof and come down on one of the leveling rods I use for the floor cutters. It is sitting on the machine net to where it was, but cannot be seen here, if I have to do this again I will remove the quartz halogen globes as they are worth $7.50 each and also take the leveling rods out so they are out of the way, should have done it this time, but never thought they would get hit, just shows you cannot predict anything when it comes to explosives, apart from that all was and went well.

This is the result of the charges, 2 foot of the Alinite has been taken out, hopefully it will not go on for much longer and or get a bit softer, now to bring back the machine back in and clean up the floor and get on with the drive, see what happens in the next few feet.

The things we see on the way to work, this is an Army Helicopter, it has parked itself in the car and truck bay not far from the Airport turn off, glad I was not here when it landed as it would have stirred up quite a dust storm on this very dry and loose gravely ground, have no idea why there are just sitting here, maybe training a learner, if so, should put L plates like on a vehicle learner so we would know.

Here the ground is still mixed up some but traces have been coming in here and there, nothing exciting.

No sooner started the machine again after I had took the photo above and some more potch came in the so called level, but as you can see there are lines all over the place, still very unsettled ground.

Here is a close up of the potch, so you see how it forms on the level, no reason or logic as to how and when it makes, where it came from and most times it is gone as soon as you pick it, below this there is also lots of little bits on material, where the arrows are, all came to nothing.

Here you can see that that hard Alinite that was on the floor and that I had to blast has risen up off the floor, it is still very hard but the front cutting head manages it all right, as long as I cut down on the rotation of the head so the cutters can have a chance to cut through it, this day I got the outside teeth caught on that Alinite at the top, as this is also very hard and I was cutting a bit to fast for it, this put such a load on the generator it almost cut out on me and would have if I was not quick enough to disengage the cutters and the rotation of the head (2 different controls) this happened 3 times and when I finished for the day and went up top there was oil on the ground from under the generator, it had leaked from the front oil seal on the diesel engine that runs the generator and some had also leaked from the real oil seal as well. So I was left wondering if I had developed a oil leak or if it was compression blow-by because of the load that was put on the diesel engine through the overloading of the Alternator as this is an old engine and has done over 18,000 hours, so the next day I went to work I check the oil level as it does use about 2 liters a week, then I cover up the bit of oil on the ground so I could tell if it leaked again, then went to work, at the end of that shift when I came up and checked it had not leaked any oil so the oil that had leaked was pushed out by compression blow-by caused by overloading the generator, now will have to pay more attention to the hard ground and slow the cutting down.

The rubber I had glued on the Hopper before has not done the trick again, this is the second time I have tried this with 2 different glues, I was told that this last one was the right stuff, but as you can see it did not work, for the long term anyway, so I have another idea to make this stay on, as I need to have something up here to fill the gap and stop losing some vacuum.

And this is the answer, Rivets, I figured that as it is rubber, a tire inner-tube rubber in fact, that the rivet with a small washer on it, would just pull the head of it into the rubber enough to be below the surface and as the rubber strips (3 glued together) is just over 1 inch wide there would be enough flat surface around the rivet head to create the seal I need and it works perfectly, so this will now be a permanent fixture and will last longer than I will be here mining, another job that will not have to be done again, this photo is upside down so you can se what I have done.

The ground is on the change again and getting better, but it does change by the inch almost, here I have Alinite above and some hard Gypsum has come in, so the ground is getting better but still mixed up below what is supposed to be the level which is not good, I still have not reached the fault yet where I hope the ground will change.

Now it really is on the change, I have to show all of these photos to show how quick the ground changes as I am going forward, never know what to expect next, but below the level is clearing up so anything can happen from here on.

Only gone a few inches from above and I have got some potch come in the level, due to my experience in this ground I do not think it will make any opal as yet, I still thing I will have to get past this fault as all of the ground I have covered so far from the start of this drive has been bad for opal due to being unsettled ground, but that is just my opinion, opal will always make us a liar no matter how much experience we have, but I still say that I will not find any yet.

Here is a close up of the material, again it did not make any color and did not last long, no pocket here, not that I am bother if there is no color, but have to stop and check every time I see something in the face as it can turn to color and just because I don't feel confidant here does not mean it wont.

Again a bit of material has come in and almost in the center where the arrow is, but this time with a touch of green in it, who knows, looks small and it is, but I can see all that comes in the level, I don't miss even the smallest piece, this is the beauty of a round tunnel machine, as it leaves the face so clean you can see everything that comes in the face, so is this it, can it be true, is there is opal here?

Again nothing to report about, got a bit of green trace from here, not worth taking a photo of.

Here I also struck green trace, I am past the fault now, so things are starting to change real quick as far as the ground settling down goes and for the better I hope, I will soon will see if the ground has changed for the better or not if not, well I have to drive to the shaft anyway to move on further up the claims.

Between the 2 arrows is the area that the ground is starting to change, so the fault that finishes (all done with the wires, divining) above me has been crossed and if you look at the ground in the side wall under the level you can see how it has not cleared up and is now settling down, this is what is needed for the ground to make pockets of opal, common (potch) or precious.

Now you can see what the face looks like, its beautiful from where I am looking, under the level is clean and already have had some small pieces of potch come in the level, looking good so far.

Material starting to come in on the left side now, in fact there are bits and pieces all over the place, most of the time they are not big enough to stop and have a pick at, the ground looks like it is going to produce something.

Potch in two places where the arrows are, was a touch of color in here, it all adds up, soon may have some potch and color to sell.

Now material; has come in on the right side as well as the left, this is in only a few inches, so the ground is starting to talk to me and they was some trace of color on the right as well, but not very thick and did not last long, so no pocket here.

Now I am starting to get a decent line of material in the face, 2 lines in fact, the top one is potch and the bottom is showing signs of color, have had a go with the pick in one spot and there is some color starting to come in, when I pick like this and dig material out of the face I just throw it in the tray that I have sitting on top of the machine so I don't know really what I have until I get home and tumble it.

Dug in the bottom line some more and have got some opal out of here, you can see that the top line is untouched at this stage and I am digging under it, there is still more in there to dig out.

This is the best I could do in trying to show some of the opal with color that was left in the pocket from the photo above, I will now dig the rest out and then I will tumble it when I get home along with all of the other material I have dug out over the last few feet and see what I have got that's worth any money, marvelous how and where it comes from this opal, I never get sick of seeing the difference in the ground in front of me as I an tunneling through it and trying to work out if any opal will come in, but how it forms and was there a space here, a crack perhaps for it to seep into and the iron stone where did it come from as where it is laying was once a ocean floor, keeps the mind working.

I have finished for the day and you can see here between the arrows that there is long line of material, (or was as I have pick at some already after I took this photo) I will drill under what is left here next Monday (26th) and knock it down before I start the machine and have a look at what is here, when I say drill, for those of you that are new and don't remember what I have done before (once) I have what is called a prospect drill, it drills a 4.5 inch diameter hole, with this I will drill under the level with it and you will see the result of how I do it in the photo I take on Monday.

This is the opal as I have found it and after it has been tumbled and cleaned, there was just over 8 ounces, not all of it came from that pocket, some of it is what we call trace, bits and pieces that I have told you about as thy come in the level and I do not always know that I have picked color out of the face until it is tumbled, as I don't look at what I have dug out unless it is big pieces and I cant miss them, most of the material has a lot of dirt along with it when I pick it out, so I just throw it all in a container that I have on top of the machine and then empty it when it is full or time to come home, now to class it (split it up into its category, Tops, Seconds etc and Potch & Color) and have it priced then I will put it up for sale after this newsletter has been released, some nice color in here along some nice pieces, for those of you that get the newsletter on Opal Parcels as they are released, you will see it in 4 different parcels along with the coin.

This is what the prospect drill does, as you can see I drill the 2 holes next to each other so that the top of the 4.5 inch diameter hole is underneath the level or material, then knock out the pillar that is between them with the hand pick, this leaves a nice floor for what ever I jack pick down to fall onto, then I just pick it up and put it in the container or bag, this way I can drill in as far as 2 and a half feet if I want to, but normally would only drill about 18 inches, then cut up to the bottom of the holes again with the machine and do it again with the drill, I have only once drilled right across the face, 13 holes in all, looking forward to doing it again, real soon I hope. This drilling is a bit easier than digging in deep with the electric jack pick, I use the hand pick probably more than anything for a quick pick when something presents itself in the face, if it turns out that the material starts to go in, I will start to use the electric jack pick to dig under it and then knock it down but will start to use this drill more in the future, it is a bit quicker in the long term if the material starts to make a pocket , but is harder on the wrists as the drill has a lot of Torque and the 4.5 inch Auger really grabs if it hits anything hard, like Gypsum or hard ironstone.

The level that I have been following as split in two and the top one that was producing material has started to rise up to the roof and is now producing nothing at all for about the last four feet and the lower one has now taken over producing some material where the arrows are pointing, I was going to take the machine up on an 5 degree angle to chase the top level one until this material started to come in, looks like this is now going to be the main level, you never know what to expect in this ground and what it will do from foot to foot, just love this job, if only I could make my Million's at it.

Same photo as above only a front on shot so you can see the full face, the bottom level on the right side came over to about the middle of the drive, now it is just starting to come in right across the face, it is still faint on the left, but should get stronger and thicker in the next few feet. (I hope)

Here is the level now, nice and strong right across the face, also it is rising slightly and the top one is dropping, so there two may just join up again somewhere in front of me, not sure, who knows what it will do but the top one has also started to carry some material as well, including some potch skin shells (thin) not worth taking a photo of at this stage, but if a few more come in and they are worth it I will take a photo for you.

And here is the drive some 4 foot later, I was right the level did come back down to join up the other, why it split in the first place has got me beat, hard to understand why some things happen like they do underground, must be a reason for it as something must have happened to the ground for it to do this all those millions of years ago, the level is still making material and I have been on it for the last 4.5 feet but nothing worth stopping and having a pick at it, it has all been rubbish, not even decent potch. I am still some 30 feet out from the shaft and the ground is getting very wet, the elbows (2) plus the telescopes (2) and the hopper are starting to block up in a very short time and it is hard work digging out the wet ground as it does not have a chance to dry out in this winter weather, also it is very slow work tunneling in this type of ground and with the cost of fuel now also getting expensive. So I have decided to quit this level, I have had enough of it, I am sure there is opal around somewhere, but there is opal around some where else as well, so I am now left with 2 options, one is to drill another shaft in front of me, which I was going to do anyway, if I was to continue mining this claim and take the machine up to the level above and do a few drives to see if I can cut any material up there, but I do not feel confidant with the level above here in this spot. Or I can look for another spot to set up on, this will take a bit of time to look around, checking dumps for material that has been put up on them, that is if the area has been worked, some miners may have tried a spot and found material and did not do a lot of work, we call it chasing, a lot wont chance potch to far, if they don't get on color real quick they pack up and move on, does not meant that opal is not around and then you get companies, which is what we call a group of miners (3 or more) that find a spot and start to argue between themselves (quite often) then they pull the pegs and pack it in, this I would not mind finding, lost out on one before that a lot of opal was found on it. I can also check some of the virgin ground that is a round the 11 mile field and drill some shafts, but that eats up the money real quick and if you don't hit opal, which is the most likely case as opal is not hit very often (rare in fact) by drilling right on it, so I will most likely check around where some work has been done but not a lot as I like to have a lot of virgin ground to work in, don't like looking for leftovers, called Pillar Bashing with a Machine, that's not me. So thinking on it now the most likely scenario will be that I will go up to the next level above again and give it a try as all of the equipment is here and it is a lot of work pulling everything out of the claim and moving it to another spot, that's why when we have tunnel machine we like to stay in one spot for a long time if we are in opal bearing ground which I am right now, but first I will spend a few days perhaps checking around and have a look for a spot just in case. This month seems to have been a very long month for me for what ever reason, hard to put a finger on it and the newsletter has also been a long on this month, but hard not to take photos when things are happing, so I hope you do not mind all of the photos as I am trying to show what happens in front of me and it is always changing. Also at the time of writing this 07/01/06, Patricia and I had a phone call last night from out youngest son Jason in Western Australia, where we came from before we ended up here to Coober Pedy, he told us that one of his Daughters the youngest at 11 had been diagnosed with a Brain Tumor, just yesterday the 30th of June which also happens to be his birthday, some birthday present for him and that she is going to be operated on today and he will ring us this afternoon with the result. If it is bad news Pat and I will be heading for WA tomorrow real quick, so I hope for Blinda's sake she comes thought it all right, with no side affects or anything else, as she is a beautiful kid, boy I tell you the shit that happens in this world and it always seems to be the innocent that gets the raw deal, when you have all of this other scum giving the world a hard time and don't deserve to live, here I am listening to Andrea Bocelli with a tear in my eye at 64, must be getting old, still family is family. Well another Financial Year has come and gone, not much footage under the belt nor money in the bank (none) so I hope this next one will be better for me and Pat, hope that out family recovers well from this tragedy and all will be well for the future and that you, all of my readers do well yourselves this next Financial Year also. 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, but only time will tell, 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. Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue......... and wish me lots of LUCK. Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

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