Interesting Bits

Australian Precious Opal is the best quality opal in the world. It has supplied the market with an abundance of unique and exquisite gems for over 100 years.

Sometimes an opal cutter comes across some rare opal that has an unusual pattern. These opals are both rare and unique. Peter cut one of these rare opals recently. The rare opal pictured below, weighs 14 carats and measures 30 mm by 20 mm. Rare opal patterns in large stones are not cut often and for a cutter…

Tucson Show 2010 The Tucson gem and mineral show is a pilgrimage that anyone interested in gems, minerals, fossils or jewellery should make at least once. I have been more then 25 times and spent over a year of my life at the show. In that time it has grown from being held in 3…

Should the Australian Opal industry be worried about the influx of Ethiopian Opal onto the world market?

Mineshafts’s participation in The Story of Australia…..documentary aired in China to 21 million viewers. Peter  (Owner of Mineshaft) was invited to be part of this documentary. One of the six parts was on mining in Australia and a section of this was on opal. Peter was interviewed in the shop and later filmed cutting opal at…

In the past few months I have been approached by two separate opal miners for help in selling two unique but totally different opals. As yet both are unsold and still on the market.