September 30, 2007 Opal Mining Update - No 77 Electrical Problems & Blasting a Rock out of the Face.

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Well here we are in another month, will soon be Christmas at this rate and no opal to talk about this year so far, that breakdown that I finished up with at the end of last month and had a few days off waiting for another RCD switch unit to come up from Adelaide turned out to be a fizzle, when I finally got out to the field to put the new switch on which was on Wednesday as I had some more days on the web site again putting jewelry in. When I got to the field I thought I would start the generator to warn the engine up for a few minutes while I got a the items I needed to fix it with, so when I got back with the screwdriver and the lead light, so I would know that it was working when I had finished, so I plugged the lead light into the winch socket and went to take the cover off the RCD unit and then found that I needed a Phillips Screwdriver to get the 2 screws out so I went and got one and then took the cover off, now the unit itself was exposed, I tried the breaker switch again and the reset button but nothing worked it was dead. Then I noticed that in the little window that shows that shows RED if it is working and GREEN if it is off, was showing RED and was supposed to be working, so I gave the unit a good hit on the top with the handle of the screwdriver expecting it to click over to GREEN and to my surprise some dust fell out which would be normal but the lead light came on, so I switched off the RCD unit and the light was still on as it should be, as this switch I put there for the winch so if the RCD unit gets tripped out I can still use the winch to get out with. I have blow a light on the machine several times now and it trips the RCD switch out which is what it is supposed to do as it is a safety switch to strop me getting electrocuted but the winch will s till work, but this time everything went out including the winch so that meant that the phase that the single phase is taken off has gone just like the last time it happened 2 years ago to the month or so I thought, so somehow maybe the dust had stopped a phase from working, lucky for me I decided to give it a good knock. So I put the cover back on and parked the truck at the shaft and went to work, but I put the winch on the petrol generator and went down, no climbing the ladders for me today should the diesel generator stop again or I should say this RCD switch also had the small torch in my pocket this time just in case and went down, I would for about 3 hours and with not a problem, so looks everything is good for now, have to stay home again tomorrow as I am waiting for someone to come to the house but will be back on Friday the 7th to continue. Here below you can see that I have put a lead light up front on the side wall to help me see the bottom level on this side and the big plug that I have the cable plugged into stops some of the light going down that far, so have to move it forward every 18 inches or so.

At the moment this level is split in two, have seen a little bit of potch but not enough to stop and have a pick at just yet and looks line another level is starting to come in at the top will know more in the next couple of feet.

This shows you how I am in relation to the drive going up above, wont be long before I have a full face again in front of me then I will be happy, also going off at an angle to the right to head towards where I think the shaft in front of me will be, did not connect to it up above and to the left so it has to be to the right, I must have just missed it, if the ground says dry enough for me I will hit it this time for sure, there was potch half way round this shaft on the right hand side at the 73 foot level, so interested to see what else may be around that area.

Here I am showing you the level at 76 foot and the Alinite that is above it at the moment, always seems funny when I do this as there is a lot of head room above me so it just fells different in the drive but that will soon change as I go forward a few feet more and get under this drive going up and if this Alinite continues I will have no trouble in reaching the shaft which is 96 feet away from the shaft behind me with the pipes down.

This is a level on the right and it has also split and has dropped right into the center where I cannot see it at the moment, will have to keep checking it by pulling the machine back about 6 or 9 inches so I can go up front and have a quick look to make sure it has not started to make any opal, this is what we look and hope for, a falling level like this as it can on many occasions throw a pocket at the bottom of it, I had one like this in the drive right behind me and the one that I walk back down to get to the winch but it only made potch if you can remember.

Here I just want to show you the 3 different levels I have had the machine on, first time I have every done this had 3 drives together but at different heights off the main  ground level, I may even do another dive yet, in-between the one I am in and the last one I just came out of, as I was on material in the last one but did not make anything out of it except those 2 shells I got, so there may some money in there yet, wont leave until I check it out, only takes one good pocket to put a smile on the old dial.

And this is where I am at the moment, again you can see how higher I am compared to the drive on the left I have just finished.

Have not been working long this morning and already I have some material starting to come in this top level, and when I went up front to have a pick I saw that there was very small and thin green opal trace on the bottom level to small and thin for me to see from the rear of the machine, so hopefully there is better to come in front. But the worst was just after I had taken this photo about 3 or 4 minutes at the most everything blacked out again, that bloody RCD switch, so much for giving it knock and fixing it, lucky for me I had put the small torch in my pocket so seeing my way to shut the blower off was not a problem and taking my camera bag and all was easy, so I made my way back to the winch and sure enough I had to climb the ladders again, getting too old for this shit I can tell you. This time it took me 4 minutes gave or take a few seconds to get up top, but took me around 4 minutes to recover, man that gets the old ticker pumping I can tell you, not for the out of conditioned and one foot in the grave people like me, then I went and shut the generator off, packed up and came home again early, I could have replaced the unit right then as I still had it in the truck, but my shirt was wet with sweat and the wind was up and biting right though the jacket I have on as the weather is still not that hot as yet, so was not taking any chances like that better to came back in the morning and do it. I may as well also replace the hydraulic seals that I messed up, well one anyway, but will have to replace all 4 again while everything is still reasonably clean and get it over and done with, I have tried socking one in boiling hot water to soften it up some, but it would seem that will not work on this type of seal, did not soften up that much and went hard again within 30 seconds not anywhere enough time for me to put one in the unit an get it on the shaft, so will have to try another way or another method to slide this unit on one seal at a time and try to use something to help the seal lip[ lie down as I get it on the shaft, will be interesting for sure, just hope I don't stuff a seal up again, at $70 a time it can get expensive.

So I went out and replaced this switch (the new unit is on top at this time) and when I started the generator I still had no power so it was something else that I knew nothing about so I had to come back into town and go and see if my friend Boro was at home and if so could would he have the time to come out and check this problem out for me as I am not an electrician, I can do simple jobs but that is it, I do not play around with electricity.

Boro was at home and after we had a cup of coffee I brought him out to the generator, he found the problem in about 1 minute, I could not believe it, as the RCD switch was not the problem he went and checked this switch on the big black box on the right, it had a cover on it and I took it off for him so he could check the wires, I though it was a on/off switch for the power from the alternator to the power outlets, which it is but it is also a circuit breaker which I did not know and I have never touched it since I have had the generator, it had a loose wire, the blue one and it had not thrown out the switch so I had no idea this was the problem. I put some WD40 on the screw and he put the wire back in properly and retightened the screw and all was well, now all is back to normal, he is just checking the power output on the single phase to make sure it at the right output, here it is 240 volts, so now I can put the cover back on the circuit breaker unit, cover the top of the generator with my tarp I use so the Blacks here will not break any gauges as they do when they come to Noodle, not that I get them very often any more, but out of site is out of mind, they break everything they can see by throwing stones, all the windows in the truck have been broken by them but before I got it and Boro's generator he tells me has got all of its gauges broken on it by them, so thinks it a good idea what I do and I know it is as I still have mine in tack, including my Watchdog which is on the other side of the blower engine I have had that covered up for 13 years and never had a gauge broken. (Yet) So now its back to work, as today is Saturday I will have Monday off as I have to go into the town around 9am on business and then I have to go and buy this timber for putting the sun shade on the side of the car port, suppose I will have to start on that soon to keep Pat happy, always something to do, so will be back at work on Tuesday 11th, first I will have to change over this RCD unit when I get out there as the old unit is still good, no point leaving a new unit on if the old one is still working, after that I will go down and start tunneling again, see how long I can go before something else happens and brings me to a halt.

So here I am back at work and so far so good, have done a couple of feet so far and most of the top of the face has now turned to Alinite so have slowed the cutting head speed down, the top level has all gone right now as I suspect that I am going through a fault with this sudden and big change of ground so it may come back in when I get through it, but for now it is slow cutting again and a little bit dusty as I am not in a enclosed drive and some of the dust escapes above with this high roof, but will not be long before I will be under the drive going above.

Have struck a small problem, I have come across what is called a Lucky Stone, I had one a about three weeks ago about 5 inches x 3 inches by inch deep, but this is bigger and I have tried to dig it out with the jackpick but did not have enough room to work in as it is near the center of the face and below the center line and the cutting head was in the way so I have brought the machine back about 3 feet so I can get in front which is where I have taken this photo from and get stuck into it, as the cutting head has already jammed on this twice now and as it made of jasper and not the good kind, this is very hard and will break teeth quite easily, this at the moment is about 6 inches round.

Well it has turned out to be one big rock, why they call them Lucky Stones I have no idea, you can see by the arrows how it has grown in size and the ground around it is very hard, in fact there is some concrete there as well and they call it that because it is like the concrete you know, I have dug around it and in for about 3 inches, but the jackpick is now to hot to hold at the front, this is hard going and I have quit and I have also noticed now I have brought the machine back some 5 feet from the face that I have lost a tooth and it has also broken the tooth holder that it was in and I have broken the Tungsten Tip off another, so I am out 2 teeth $26.00 these were new when I stared this drive so did not last long at all. So believe it or not I am broke down again, hard to believe the run of luck I am having right now, fix one problem and get another straight away, I was going to quit this drive and pull the machine back and start another drive from the beginning of this one but just turn the machine about 6 inches to the right and by the time I got to where this rock is I would miss it on the left and still be going in the  general direction for the shaft, I was thinking of blasting it out but changed my mind as the ground is so hard and I could break the tungsten tips on that and that would cost me $45.00 to fix. But Pat has changed my mind again tonight she recons I should try and blast it out and so I will have a go at it tomorrow, so will have to get the drill out in the morning and get it ready for action, also get some det's and fuses ready to take with me I have enough Ammonia Nitrate underground to make the few bombs I need or so I think right now, I will need to use about 7 I think, I will try and drill in the softer ground around this stone and 4 foot deep and hope that I can blow it out first time. So I took all of the stuff that I needed to blow this rock out, the Drill, Fuses, Cordex, papers for the bombs I already had underground and the ANFO I have sold old stuff also underground so all is right now for me to go and do it, when I got there and got all this underground and to the face, I started to drill the first hole about 5 inches to the right of the rock but dead center and I started to dill the hole slowly, did not want to go in at the normal rate just in case I hit this rock and I did hit it, turns out 7 inches in. So the rock was still slanting outwards, so I quit and brought all of the equipment back to the ladders and then bit by bit brought it up top along with the cutting plate that I had gone back and removed and I brought that up last of all, now to go to Ross's and fix it and I will also repair the old fan and hard face the blades as well this time so it will last me a bit longer.

Today is the 17th and I have repaired the cutting plate last Friday and today I have done some repairs to the fan, I have welded up the wear on the blades and have hard faced 2 of the blades, but the hard facing rods causing so much heat to everything, it takes more current to make these rods flow and the fan in general gets very hot to get hold of, so welding 16 blades 2.5 inches wide and 6 inches long and about 5 rods to a blades, the blades are bigger than that but this is the area that I am hard facing where most of the wear takes place all of this hard facing takes quite a few hours work I will do them over 3 days, so two more morning to go. So tomorrow the 18th I will be taking a friend of mine with me underground to help me with the replacing of the hydraulic oil seals again that I did not do a good job with last time, I need another pair of hands that can push the seal unit on as I try and get the lip of the seal turned in and started in the right direction before it gets completely screwed up like last time as I could not do both and it cost me money and time as it has to be done again, so hopefully this time I will get it right. I tried that putting the seal in boiling water for a few minutes and is does not work, does not get that soft and also does not stay like that long enough to put the seal in the unit and get on the shaft, so what I am about to do tomorrow is the safest, Dave will hold the unit in position with the seal next to the shaft and I will with the help of a special long pointed Scriber try and ease the lip of the seal backwards so it is facing in the right direction, as actually pushing this seal on pushes the lip outwards or backwards and this is why is not sealing and leaking again, if you understand this French. I also now realize that as this type of seal is made to be in hot oil and will not respond to heat, so that trying of boiling water was a waste of time, I went down with my friend Dave and started pulling the machine apart again, thinking it was about a 15/20 minute job and the 6 tapered allen key head bolts that I had trouble getting out last time would be no trouble this time as they had not been in long, but I was wrong there also they would not budge, not even a fraction, so I had to come back home with the job not finished. Went back the next day with my little blow torch and put heat on the heads one at a time to cook the Locktite and then had to hit them again with the small piece of Allen Key like I did last time to break the vacuum seal that is created and they came loose one by one the last 2 gave me a bit of a hard time but I finally got them out, I pulled the unit just off as it was only the rear seal that was damaged, so when that was off far enough I removed the old seal and put the new one in pushed it back on to where the seal was just touching the shaft and now could not do any more by myself, so went home. I went and showed Ross the seal as it had turned itself over for almost half the way round and was the reason it was leaking, I had mentioned to Ross at the time we pulled the old seals out that the gap they were sitting in was a lot wider than the seal itself and I thought it should have had a spacer, but he did not pick up on that or did not hear me properly, now he says that this has happened because the seal can move too much and needs spacers to take up the extra gap, so I had to go back down on Thursday the 20th to bring the seal units up and take them back to Ross's so we could measure the width (where the small seals sit will be hard to do) so I can try and get some spacers to take up the gap, the big seal area was easy, but the small one we could not do with any accuracy. Ross rang the people we got the seals from and explained everything to them and asked if they could help they said they would have a look for us and on Friday morning some white spacers arrives here for me the width may be right but the diameter and depth is a lot bigger on them so I have to try and grind them down to the size I want from the inside, then cut them in half and remove a small section so they fit in  the seal grooves, so this is going to be a time consuming job again, I will do this in the cutting room on Sunday with the Dremel as I have brought home the seal housing so I can keep trying the spacers until I get them to fit.

Here I am in the cutting room, not that I do much cutting these days in it, I tried the Dremel and I had only one kind of grinding wheel that would cut this type of material and that was not very successful as it was taking too little off too slowly and in general was not doing a good job, so as I had cut this spacer and had now put it in to try it to see if it fitted right, it was perfect and I could not get it out again without some trouble so decided to leave it there and try to trim the excess off with a hobby knife which is like a Scalpel and it worked like a charm, just trimmed the excess of without cutting any of the seal, this spacer has to be level with the body of the aluminum housing or below as there is not much clearance between this body and the shaft it is going on, anyway this one is now finished and ready for going back on.

I have also had made 2 new mud guards for the trucks rear wheels as one was missing when I bought it or at least it was ripped off when I arrived home from Sydney with it and the other was all bent and buckled where the last owner had reversed back into something, so I picked them up on Friday the 21ft and have now marked and drill the holes in them for fitting on the truck, bought new bolts and now need to cut 2 pieces of rubber to fit on the bottom of them, I am also repairing the old worn fan of mine as well, working on it bit at a time when I can and will be working some more on it this morning at Ross's (Saturday) until it gets too hot again, then I will leave it, as soon as I get the spacers and the seals in place I will make an arrangement with Dave again to come out with me and help me get them back on, not going to be an easy job for sure.

Turns out with this smaller unit that the machined seal area was done wrong by the machinist at the time is was made, they should have machined the space to suit the seal, in diameter which they did and also in width to suit the seal which they did not, this smaller unit has been machine with the same tool as the big one so the gap is the same with, but the small seals are a lot narrower than the big ones so the gap left is huge, I can get 2 of these small spacers in there to fill this gap, which means I have had to waste another 2 days and ordered 2 more small spacers, to finish the job so I can fit it back on, so back to Ross's and order some more and wait. Tuesday the 25th, I went to Ross at 9am but hew was not there so I came home and dug a hole for a square pole I have to put in for the carport and went back down to Ross's at 10:15am but again he was not there, looks like I should have rang but he did not mention to me that he was having the morning off yesterday when I was in there, so that was 2 trips wasted, so again came home and cut this pole to length and fitted it in place with a couple of brackets I had to make, in the meantime I kept ringing the workshop about every half hour, Ross finally picked up the phone at 1:15, thankfully the seals had arrived so I went down when Pat came home as I had my 4x4 Landcruiser in getting a new window screen put in and Pat had to give me a lift down so I could pick it up, after that I went to Ross's and picked up the spacers, came home and cut them and put them in and trimmed them like the big ones, so it is now ready for fitting back on the machine. As we are now into our 2 windiest months of the year, this and next month, today was bad with a high wind, but after I got home from Ross's it got even worse, came up real strong and became a dust storm that lasted more than 7 hours, was still blowing at 1:40am when I got up to go to the bathroom, had blow itself out by morning, they had forecast a thunder storm for us between 3 and 4 that afternoon but no rain came just the wind and dust, I do not think that we will go out on the field tomorrow if its like this in the morning. Wednesday the 26th, My mate Dave came around at 9am and the sun was shining with very little wind at that time, so we went on the field to fit these hydraulic units back on the machine, I was also given some Seal Grease, which I had never heard of before, but will give it a try as I just used the hydraulic oil last time, when we got underground there was a bit of a mess from the dirt that had got blown down the shaft and as the back of the tunnel machine is almost right next to the shaft it got covered in dust etc, but no big deal in cleaning it up and getting it ready for putting the units back on. So when I started to put the big one on to try and hold the unit straight in line with the shaft so the first seal was lined up square was a bit of a problem at first when we started to try and push it on, funny how you need a hand but then you are working against each other, but we got the hang of it and al of a sudden it slid on with very little effort, but I was telling Dave that the second seal was the worst as the lip was facing in and wanted to catch on the shaft as it was going on and I pushed the unit on right up to the second seal and gave it a push and it also slid right on, could not believe it had been so easy this time, seems like the spacers and the grease had worked, pity I did not know about it the first time around. Then it was the small ones turn, this gave me the hardest time I can tell you in getting it on the shaft, but again I put this grease around the seals and put the unit in place so the first seal was up against the shaft and gave it a push and it also slid right on, so I pushed it all the way forward to the second seal and that also slid straight on, I could not believe that the job had been so easy and was glad that it had been easy, now I will have no oil leak as there is no damage to the seals this time and I should not have to replace these seals again in my working lifetime with this machine, the others had been in for around 20 years. Then I reconnected everything back up and was ready for action, but I have to go back down again tomorrow and do a couple more things to the machine first, I have to replace the cutting plate with new teeth on it and I have got new bolts to put in it, I think the old ones need a change so for $5.00 for 6 bolts not expensive, then I have to put a liter of oil in the box that has the chain in it for running this cutting plate, also need to top up the hydraulic oil that has been lost do the oil leak and what got wasted in undoing the hoses and removing these units, would have lost around a liter just from the 2 shafts when these units were removed. Also I have found out why this type of big rock is called a "Lucky Stone" it would seem from talking to a few miners that I know and have just met over the last few days that these rocks are not very common nor are they rare either, seems like a few have over the years found opal around them or behind them or near them, one friend of mine told me the last one he came across he found $10,000 behind it, as this rock is sitting just above the level in the middle and just touching it on the right hand side, but the way my luck has been just lately I do not expect to find anything around or near this pain in the ass rock. So having been told that information I have decided that I will get this River Rock out sooner than later after I had done what I had to do to the machine today I got started to get the equipment ready for drilling and blasting, it was then I remembered that I had not brought the gas torch that I use to light the fuses, in the old days I used to have sparklers and a cigarette lighter kept underground in a container as a back up, but as I do not use explosives much anymore I did not have this underground now, so I was unable to do the shot today, I did however drill the holes ready for doing it tomorrow, the first ones I tried to drill I had trouble  getting the drill in as I hit what I think is the side of this rock and hit another in the other 2 holes, but managed to get 5 holes drilled, I did want only 3 in the beginning but as I could not get the first hole drilled where I wanted it, that changed the pattern, so this below is what I have done and hope for the best, you can see in what order will fire the shot, this should get the rock out but as I do not know just how big this thing is I just hope this is enough, if not I will be drilling again.

At last I am about to get the shot underway, I have made the bombs, cut down by 4 inches but they still made to strong for this depth of 2 foot 6 inches, but as the ground is so hard a round this rock better to be stronger than weaker, as I said I was only going to use 3 but could not get the first hole where I wanted it, so made it even with 5, here I am trimming a 1/4 inch off the ends of the fuses, as I always do to make sure there is no dust or moisture in the ends that might hinder me lighting them straight away.

Now to light the fuses, I have already lit the one on the right and the left and have just lit the middle one and if you look closely you can see it spiting sparks, which it does when first lit until it has burned in about 1/2 inch or so and only lasts about 4 seconds as that is how long I take in-between lighting the fuses, now to pick up the light off the side wall and the camera/tripod and head for cover, I have about one and a half minutes before the first will go off.

I an just around the corned from that drive, you can see the back of the tunnel machine next to the elbow, the last bomb has just gone off about 10 seconds ago, just took my fingers out of my ears and grabbed the camera as I had it at the  ready resting on its bag on the pipes and switched it on, the shot even blew some small stuff all the way back in front of this drive and I always wear the safety helmet when blasting, just never know in this game although I do not wear one when mining, the head sweats too much wearing it.

As you can see I am now at the machine, I pulled the plugs out of the lights and coved them over with some old carpet, one of which I use to lean on and is on the machine now at the bottom of photo, then I put a piece of timber on them to try and hold them in place, so the concussion would not break the globes like it did last time and it worked, just pulled the carpet off and plugged them back in and both worked. Fumes are everywhere now, not that bad behind the elbow as I have the blower running, went up top and started it before I lit the bombs, never stay down unless the blower is running, too dangerous as these fumes will kill you if you breath enough of them in you, the person who worked my blower before me, not the person who I bought it off, died from these fumes when opening up and made a mistake, his last unfortunately, anyway I want to have a look at the shot before I go so will try to get some of the fumes out of the drive before I go in, but will not be able to stay in long.

Now I have placed the 500 watt light at the front of the drive to throw a bit of light up in there and as you can see it is full of fumes, no chance of me going in there right now, so will try and get rid of some for a while and then have another look.

This putting a pipe into the end of the elbow gets some out but not very successful as the pipe is a bit short  and the fumes tend to stay up on the roof  or the top half of the drive so not a lot are coming down to this pipe as that ridge between the 2 drives is stopping most of them, I am getting some of the fumes that have spread out from the drive, so I will do this until I have got rid of some of them, enough for me to go and have a look at the shot and see if the rock is out.

Lucky for me the nail I left in the side wall was still there, hurried in and got the light in place real quick, had a quick look at the face and the rock is out, cannot see it on the floor so it is buried in the rubble, I saw a couple of large lumps of Alinite, you can just make one out on the far left of photo, after that I was out of there and even with that I still breathed some fumes in but not enough to worry me, but the lungs know it has had a taste of them I can tell you, I grabbed the camera bag and put the helmet on and got out of thee, will be back tomorrow Saturday the 30th last day of this month and start the clean up, will have to shovel some of the small stuff back up the drive so I can get the machine in a few feet so I can connect the telescope behind and start the floor cutters and pull this dirt out, will take a while but should be ready for tunneling again next Monday all being well, of almost forgot I have to dig the rock out and get it out of the drive before I can put the tunnel machine back in there or I will not be able to get it out, it may be to heavy for me to lift, have no idea at this stage.

Saturday the 29th, so here we are, all clear and no smell as I thought, now to start picking out the big ones and getting them down and out of the drive, I have located the big rock marked with the arrow, so now on with it.

This is the biggest piece as far as I can see, it is of Alinite and fell off from the top left hand corner of the drive going up, far to heavy for me to lift and it is solid stuff, the hand pick rings on this stuff, so I will just roll it down the drive on out, will stick it round the corner in an old drive.

Another large piece of Alinite, thin but wide so I will roll it also out of the drive and save my back then put it with the others when I get them all down, the first one is still in the photo bottom left, not quite out of the drive yet.

This is the Rock, it has some concrete still attached to it, this I think I can lift but not in here better to roll it down the drive, don't forget there is a 20% slope just in front of where I am with this rock, so will not chance trying to carry this or any other that is not a pipe, I will later on try and bring this up top, but not today, I did not measure the width as yet but I did measure the depth and it was 8 inches and a piece that I have already taken down the drive is a piece that has broke off the back of it, after I get this out I will inspect the shot face.

Just as well I inspected the face real good, there is another rock imbedded in the side, so will dig it out, the ground is not that hard right here, just hope its not another big one like the first one.

Got it, just a small one,  cannot see or feel any more with the pick in there right now, so will call it a day here, not to clean some of the drive up so I can walk the machine back in, all I will do is to shovel the rubble back towards the front of the drive, then the machine can take it out on Monday, may take a little while as there may still be some small jasper rocks in this dump, I have already pulled some out that was laying on the surface just were my feet are, the machine does not like them and the floor cutters teeth jamb as they cannot break them up, hope I do not break any of those when I am cleaning out the drive.

This as they say is a chip off the old block this is the piece that broke off the back of the big one when the shots went off, A friend of mine Dick in the US wanted to know about the color in the jasper rocks so I took a couple of photos to show him so may as well show you all what it looms like close up, the color does change some between the rocks, this is not a good Jasper, this is reddish in color one but the main color that I have seen on the ground around the shafts that have been drilled by other people and by me is a Gray color, that are some that are really red in color.

Not a good rock, bit grainy, some of it even looks like it has crystallized, not this rock in particular but a couple of the others, this rock is 7 inches wide, so gives you some idea of the full size of it, a first for me in 14 years of mining, not that I wanted it at all.

So here is the pocket so far, 7 of them and the biggest to come yet, normally I would leave these down below as they are useless and a waste of my time, but as this is my first time and a bit of a novelty I thought they would be good for the newsletter as you have to see what can happen in the type of mining here, always expect the unexpected, but I did not expect this, but some miners have found fossil bones, with and with being opalized, bit of wood , even a tree trunk that has got opal in it, all sorts to be found and I have to finds this bunch of rocks.

So here at last is the mother of that cluster, at last first time this has seen light of day in more than 90 Million Years, hard to believe, I took the photo like this so you can see how I brought it up top, hanging on a rope from the hook and so it was just under my feet coming up, if I could not have lifted it I would have left it down there.

So here is all of the cluster, I also brought up another 2 rocks with the big on in a bag, the 2 that are in the far right hand corner, bother are somewhat flat, one was right under the floor cutters and stopped them working right  from the star, missed that one on the floor and when I got in front of the machine to pick it up I saw the other lying there, so it was 10 in all, the big one is not all rock or I would not have been able to lift it, you can see the rock running across the middle of the mass, on the top and bottom is very had sandstone, and some concrete along with a little bit of gypsum, everything but opal with color,

As of today the machine is now back at the face where it was before I brought it back and blasted, there may have been some more small rocks in the dump but if there was they went through the floor cutters teeth up the pipes with no problems, so now to continue tunneling, it is possible that there may be more of these in front of me, I hope not but only time will tell. Again this month has not been a good one for me, but I must admit it has been different for a change if nothing else so I cannot say that I get totally bored with it all, but would be nice to find a small pocket of color just to keep the interest up. So what is the next month going to bring, well all I can say is that your guess is as good as mine, probably better. Again though I have brought you some photos that you will not see anywhere else in the world, the only way to get closer to the action is to be here with me or doing it your self, but as you can see month after month is more heart breaking than Party Time, to the average person who wonders how we or I make a living from it, well the answer is that I don't, Pat works as you know and she saves up for the holidays and if I have done well during the year I add to it and my web site pays for the expense of the opal mining, as this gets in your blood it is hard to leave alone and of course one day, that Magic One Day I hope to find that pocket that will put me on the map, so we live in hope. Like buying the Lottery tickets, every week we do not win or just scrape in a small win and get your money back or still win and loose at the same time, well this Opal Mining is no different, find a small pocket and get some of the expense's back maybe more than it cost for the month, or find a small pocket and still not cover all expense's for that month, its all a gamble, only with us we have to work and not get paid, but would not do it for long if we did not love it, some come and try for a while couple of years then quit and move back to where they came from, richer for trying but poorer in the bank book for also trying. 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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