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• Black Opal Pairs (40)
• Black Opal Parcels (134)
• Black Opal Specimen / Carving (150)

About Black Opal

BLACK OPALS are considered the LUCKY stone.

BLACK OPALS -are gemstones that had been known to symbolise truth,

happiness and Hope.

Black Opals come in different colors like black opal which is highly sought after.

Black Opals can be yellow, sunset orange, blue, purple and red. And has all the colors of the rainbow.

Black Opals are well known for its play of colours, depending on how the flashes of

colours are viewed from different angles caused by the light that is infused into

the stone.

Black Opals in the olden times have been considered to enhance faithfulness

and self confidence.

Black Opals are gemstones known to protect one from evil when worn near the

heart as a pendant or brooch.

Opals are unique as there are no two opals alike.

BLACK OPALS, predominantly red on black. The black forming the base of the red

colour.

Black opals can also be dark grey, dark blue, dark green, red, gray black, purples

sunset orange.

Testimonials for  opals.

Very beautiful! I am always so excited to get the packages from Australia because I know I will find true quality opals inside! thank you. A+

Just received my beautiful pendant. The colours are more beautiful than the pictures. Thank you! Great service too!

Nice pieces , just as pictured . Well worth the price ..

BLACK OPAL MINING

Australia producers 97 % of the worlds black opal with most of it found in a 79 kilometre area around Lightning ridge. Many people are surprised to find that only a small percentage of Black opal is found when you mine. When a miner tails out his wash he will get a mixture of black ,crystal and grey rough. The black rough can vary from 10 to 50% of a wash. Some claims only produce crystals while others may only yield shell fossils. The rarest colour is red on  black which is below 1% of production on the field. Many other fields produce red stones but on a grey or lighter base so they are not as rare as a true black opal-check out the body tone chart in the opal section of OpalAuctions.

At the ridge you find Nobby opal or seam opal gem black opal. The highest prices are achieved for Nobby opals as usually the body tone is higher and there is a good dome on the stone. Seam opal  usually has a thinner colour bar but it can have some amazing patterns in them. Each opal field usually has its own character –some fields have gypsum or inclusions in them.

The depth a opal is found is important as usually opals mined at deep depths have a high water content. Black opal is also found in Virgin valley USA –This material is very pretty but mostly unstable. The theory here is that is was a volcanic area and the hot water table rose to fill the vegetation voids. There has also been some black opal has been found in Welo Ethiopian. While not a true N1 blackness it would rate N3 of the body tone scale.

Small pockets of black opal have been mined in Coober Pedy which is known as white opal only, but these pockets are small in size.

Black opal is from Lightning Ridge, Australia. Solid natural gem  black opals are the rarest opals in the world. It is very rare to get two opals of the same colour and brightness.

Red fire is the rarest colour followed by orange, greens and blues. Opal varies in different shades and patterns making this one of the most unique gems in the world. The more cabochon the stone and more unique pattern, like harlequin or mackerel, the more expensive the opal.

Black opal is graded in colour density  as Body Tone from N1 to N5, N1 being the darkest and N5 the lightest.

The Lightning Ridge Opal Show, home of the black opal is held every August. Every second year a jewellery competition is held.

Only a few black opal mines are open cut as it is very expensive. Most mines are worked by teams in traditional methods with vacuum blowers, agitators and jack hammers. Old opal fields such as Cochran and Glengarry have been completely worked but there are still miners looking for opal pockets of that elusive black opal gem!

Worlds largest black opal. Many opals have been marketed as worlds largest black opal, In reality the thickness of the potch on the black opal can add extra weight  and some of these large black opals have had large base. Some recognized large black opals include FLAMINGO a 800 carats gem black opal, Glorious Jubilee a 755 gem black opal,HALEYS COMET a 2000 carat black opal.

Free Opal Screen savers are available on OpalAuctions as black opal grading and pattern and body tone charts and also a beautiful rare opal fossil screen saver .

Images include some of the rarest opal patterns including Harlequin pattern, Ribbon pattern, Floral pattern, Chinese writing, Flagstone pattern, Chaff pattern,Broadflash pattern, Rolling mackerel pattern.

An opal miner would be lucky if he found one harlequin pattern opal in his lifetime!

Gem  black opals are so rare and more scarce than diamonds. Red fire gem colour opals will always be highly collectible as they are just so rare and magnificent to own.

Source your black opals direct from opal miners, opal wholesalers and dealers on Opal Auctions.

Black opals are also known as rarest opal, Semi black opals, Lightning ridge black opals, solid black opal. Gem black opals are also known as fire opal, fire black opal, red fire opal, multi fire opal.

Opal pricing is undertaken by the Lightning ridge miners association and they value opals most weekends for opal miners. Black opals are considered as an investment gemstone and museum grade opals are highly collectible.

Opal is the Birthstone for October.

More about Black Opal.

Black Opal

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  Collectors Puzzle ...
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	0.93 ct LR oval Bright Green Blue Purple 9 x 6 x 3mm K9 kilnbrookopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$60.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	NICE BRIGHT FREEFORM LIGHTNING RIDGE LIGHT OPAL SPARKLES 14.5 x 9 x 1.5mm ExoticOpal	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$188.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTING RIDGE OPAL- STONE 0.9 CTS [LRS15] 14.9 x 4.1 x 2.5mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$200.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	(LO) BLACK OPAL ROUGH untouched nobby 15 CTS FJL 1464 LIGHTNINGOPALS INC	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$17.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL- CARVING 14 CTS [CAR16] 33.5 x 13.2 x 5.6mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$86.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL- CARVING 0.7 CTS [CAR15] 13.9 x 6.9 x 1.6mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$55.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL- CARVING 3.85 CTS [CAR14] 14.7 x 13.9 x 3.1mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$160.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL- CARVING 32.7 CTS [CAR12] 41.7 x 25 x 7.1mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$780.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LR Oval GREEN FIRE N7 body 1.27 cts 9x11mm opalfireinfo	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$55.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LR Crystal Opal Oval Green purple FIRE 6.5x9mm 0.81ct opalfireinfo	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$60.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	Lightning Ridge Crystal Opal Blue Green Fire 8x11mm BRIGHT opalfireinfo	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$100.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	BLACK OPAL L RIDGE GORGEOUS PATTERN 2.2 CTS NC-418 NiceOpals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$660.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	1.03ct Lightning Ridge freeform Red Blue Yellow Green A317 15 x 5 x 2mm kilnbrookopals	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$85.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	SOLID OPAL CUT STONE L.RIDGE 2.10 CTS FJ 8744 (TBO-S) SOLIDOPALS	- 12 hours 17 minutes	$210.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTING RIDGE OPAL- STONE 2.06 CTS [LRS14] 12.3 x 8 x 3.2mm Twentyfirstopals	- 12 hours 27 minutes	$355.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	STUNNING COLOUR FIRE BLACK OPAL STONE 2.30CTS A202 22 x 4 x 3mm opalplus	- 12 hours 37 minutes	$900.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	BLACK OPAL STONE 1.45 CTS A200 11 x 7 x 3mm opalplus	- 12 hours 37 minutes	$350.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	RED FLASH FIRE BLACK OPAL STONE 1.10 CTS A204 9 x 6 x 4mm opalplus	5 Bids 12 hours 38 minutes	$38.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE BLACK OPAL 5.12ct MB/37 Australian-Opals	- 12 hours 47 minutes	$230.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	TRICOLOUR STONE FROM SEDA OPALS [JT6] 1.70 CTS sedaopals	- 12 hours 57 minutes	$86.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL 2.02ct p1-016cr Empress Opals	- 13 hours 7 minutes	$248.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LIGHTNING RIDGE OPAL 1.62ct p1-023cr Empress Opals	- 13 hours 7 minutes	$248.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	VIDEO BLACK OPAL FIRE 1.45CT BRIGHT RETAIL $2800 B447A 9 x 8 x 3mm opalplus	- 13 hours 7 minutes	$580.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	BLACK OPAL FIRE CABOCHON 1.25 CTS RETAIL $1800 B417 10 x 6 x 3mm opalplus	- 13 hours 7 minutes	$206.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	INVESTMENBLACK HARLEQUIN SOLID OPAL L.RIDGE 9.5CTS A4139 30 x 18.8 x 6.2mm trueblueopals	- 13 hours 12 minutes	$12,000.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	LR Oval CONFETTI multicolor flake fire 8.5x15mm 1.88cts opalfireinfo	- 13 hours 17 minutes	$45.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	4.3c BIG LIGHTNING RIDGE GEM GREYBASE PASTEL MULTICOLOR OPAL ExoticOpal	- 13 hours 17 minutes	$428.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	BLACK OPAL L RIDGE BRADFLASH BLUE 12.50 CTS INV-43 INVESTMENTOPALS	- 13 hours 17 minutes	$2,400.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	N -1 BLACK OPAL L RIDGE GEM GRADE 13.50CTS INV-41 INVESTMENTOPALS	- 13 hours 17 minutes	$2,700.00 USD View / Buy This Item
	NATURAL SOLID BLACK OPAL Natures Art 1.58ct 11PS/144 12.4 x 8 x 2.8mm Opals-NaturesArt	- 13 hours 17 minutes	$48.00 USD View / Buy This Item
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