Opal mines in America where one can work the walls.

Dear Mr. Monnett, Thank you for your response. Your comments about the Peacock mine in Nevada were fascinating. Do you know of any other opal mines on America where one can 'work the walls'? Sincerely, Ramon

Thank you so much ,I only hope it is as good as it looks, when I lived in Las Vegas, I would go up to the peacock opal mine in north east Nevada, for precious black opal , I found some great gems there ,and i miss it , I could go for 5 days at a time ,and stay in a cabin, the miller's and i became friends , at that time it was 75 dollars a day to work the walls, now he tell's me it's up to $175 a day now, but opal is a grand gem . Ken

The best mines are in north eastern Nevada , there all have the precious black opal ,and it is by far the most beautiful opal you will lay your eyes on, there was a man who I met several times there he had found a saber tooth tigers tooth in solid black opal , a priceless find I have seen people walk out of there with $ 40,000 to 70 ,000 in opal in one day ,its just the luck of where you want to be on the wall , you get a 4-6 foot stretch of the wall to mine ,most use a screw driver ,a big one of course ,

Since the wall is a clay type of soil, you go at medium speed till you hear class or something solid ,then you work around it till you get the piece out, now the opal is formed from a large heavy forest area that was flatten by volcano's, there are some flosses in opal mostly from wood, it is very to get hung up on it ,as I said I would go for 4-5 days at a time and i always made arrangements to stay in a cabin, they have t.v. fire places stoves for cooking and refrigerator and real good beds, you can hear and see all kinds of wild life from antelope, wild burros, coyotes, snakes ,

But you find a lot of other minerals there, I would trade some emeralds and emerald rough , for a extra day and night, the peacock mine I believe is the best there but there are about 7 mines in the area open for mining all with different rules , but the peacock is one of the few that you can work on tailings or the wall , I do not believe the others have a wall, some just bring out a front loader of tailings and you work on that.but for the best time and greater chance to get opal is at the peacock and they treat you right it's been in there family about 100 years, they have showers bathrooms,

But just a great place, now if you find a good spot you can flag it and got to the same place the next day just have your own tools ,if not you can rent them there, and the opal there is the states mineral or rock.,you can go to reno nv. rent a car drive 3 hrs to winnamucca nv, head north for 50 miles and see the signs, the whole area is not that big only about 4miles wide 11 miles long , but it is the only place in the world to find this kind of precious black opal, expect to stay, several days call in advance about lodging, trust me it is easy to get hooked and the owners the Miller's will treat you right, you can find them on the INTERNET. hope that helps. Ken

Last Update: 16 Jun 2010