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Peter Blythe, the owner of Mineshaft, has had many years of professional mining experience at Mintabie Opal Fields where he discovered many pockets of opal. These pockets contained black opal, crystal opal and semi black opal. This was followed by several years of mining boulder opal in the area north west of Quilpie in Queensland. Most of the opal on display on this site has been mined and cut by Peter.

In addition to the famous Australian Opal, Mineshaft has a large range of other gemstones, gemstone jewelry, crystals, fossils and collectables.

Mineshaft, the store, was opened in 1978 in the Cooleman Court shopping mall in Canberra. Since then it has moved to the major Canberra Centre shopping mall in the heart of the central business district and is located on the ground floor. Opening hours are 9 to 5.30 Moday to Friday, 9 to 5 Saturday and 11 to 4 Sunday.

The website is a glimpse into the business and will continue to grow.

Due to the fact that every opal is individually unique and most of the collectables are one off items, the actual product shown on this site may not always be available for purchase. If you see something you like, please send us an e mail and we will let you know the availability or send you pictures and prices of current similar stock. The postage fee is the actual postage rate we have to pay and there are no handling charges. We accept Paypal.

You will see constant additions to our website particularly as our product section evolves. We aim to have a section dedicated to the various types of opal rings, pendants and other opal jewellery. Another section will show many of the special collectables we have available. And finally there will be a section highlighting our other gemstone jewellery.

Mineshaft is a unique store and it's products are special. This has happened because the business is run with a passion. This website will be only a glimpse of the product available and a hint of the passion behind the business.

To contact us move the mouse over the "About Us" tab and click on "Contact Us."

Shop Front

Serving counter

Part of shop interior

Case of opal jewellery

Another case of opal jewellery