Black Opal
Jump to:
Black Opal History
Highly prized and covetously sought after by kings, emperors, maharajas and sultans, the majestic opal has been desired throughout the ages. Its intrinsic beauty intimates the ever-changing mystery of loveliness; the secret of which is so jealously guards and holds spellbound those who possess it. Yet, with all their pomp and wealth, many of this elite were denied the privilege of ever possessing the unique ‘Queen of Gems’: Lightning Ridge black opal.
Lightning Ridge, the home of the beautiful black opal, is nestled away among high ridges covered with scrub and pebbles . It is here that nature eons ago hid the earth’s rarest gem, black opal. The beauty of the green trees, blue sky and red pebbles is reminiscent of the ever-changing colours of the magnificent opal found deep below.
Lightning Ridge, however, was not the first place to report black opal. It had been found in Egypt in 1899, two years before Jack Murray sank the first hole at the Nobby in 1901, at Jundah, in Queensland in 1891, and later at White Cliffs. But Lightning Ridge opal was different, and it is this difference that has made it famous. Until that time, the world had never seen such incredible patterns in opal on such a beautiful black back. The supply of black opal from Lightning Ridge dramatically changed the way gem merchants evaluated opals, setting an unprecedented hallmark for the gem.
Black opal is the rarest and most valuable of all opals and is generally found as a bar of various colours in a dark body. In addition, there is also Semi black and black Crystal.
Lightning Ridge in New South Wales is the worldwide home for black opal and is widely regarded as producing the best black opal in the world.
BLACK OPAL MINING
Black opal is getting harder and harder to find. Not only have fuel prices and lease fees made it very costly to mine for opal, but the scarcity of black opal is now a reality. This trend has been emerging for years, and it is now rare to find quality red fire black opal.
The majority of opal being mined at Lightning Ridge is now seam opal, which is formed in bands similar to opals from Cooper Pedy . Black opals that have formed as nuggets are now rare to find. Even the colour base of black opals is different to years ago; the natural base is now more of a grey black colour rather than dark black as it used to be. Miners are finding much more semi-black opal.
Black opal colour guides can be used to grade the darkness of a black opal. N5 is the darkest, and Hi the lightest.
BLACK OPAL INVESTMENT
Black opals have always been the informed buyers top choice when selecting gemstones for investment. Black opals that have strong red fire and a dark black base are considered extremely rare and are an investment that will generally appreciate by at least 20% per year. Many black opals sold on Opal Auctions have increased in value between 20 and 30% per year, and some black opals valued at $1000 per carat have now increased to $3000 per carat.
Investors in black opal should always look for top opals that have a black base. Other factors include;
- cabochon shape (domed tops are ideal for Jewelry)
- Uniqueness of the pattern
- Colour. Red is most valuable but some orange and green fire ribbon patterns can also make for excellent investments
Black opals have always been the favourite type of opal for serious collectors, but boulder opal has increased in popularity as well.
The Japanese market tend to prefer black opal cabochon and have helped moderate an ongoing value increase for this opal type.
AVAILABILITY
There are a few spectacular opal collections in Australia but none that include a large black opal collection because they are so rare.
This trend is repeated overseas, where large opal collections can be found in several countries including the US, Hong Kong and Germany but a large collection of black opal is very rare indeed.
Opal mining report October 2009-09-12
The good news is that production in all opal fields has stabilized and is now slightly increasing. Australia has experienced a mining boom the last few years and due to the high wages being offered many miners have left to work in these gold coal and gas fields.
Now that this boom has ended some miners are returning back to the opal fields. The Lightning Ridge Miners Association has seen a explosion in members. This is due to there new bond scheme in which miners can now leave one bond with the association which can cover other claims. Other wise they would have to spend thousands if they have a few claims. It appears that government regulations have caught up with the opal mining industry and you have to do several courses to have a claim in your name. There are safety and environmental courses that have to be done. Miners are meant to keep a log book on who works there mine ect which is a far cry from a un regulated industry most miners are used to. At Lightning ridge quite a few miners are now mining closer to the town. This saves on travelling costs and the material closer to town is mainly Nobby material which is of a higher quality then the seam opal found further out. Mining costs have increased due to fuel costs and goverment regulations. Some miners are using all electrical machinery powered by generators and doing away with the blowers [these suck the opal dirt to the surface]that use huge amounts of fuel. The cost of production to miners is always unknown as some miners can work for over a year with no decent opal find. I do remember one discussion i had in the pub with four successful miners and they agreed[after a few drinks] that the cost for a good commercial stone would be app $100 a carat. When you consider that most of the production is well below this price you can see why the miner needs to get thousands per carat for gem material to make a decent living.
Coober pedy has experienced a similar loss of experienced miners and prospectors to the other mining areas as they have some gold and gas fields close by. Most people are quite surprised to find that app 60% of production is from noddling and not under ground mining.Noodling is where you process the top opal dirt that miners left search for material that they missed. Some of these noodling machines cost up to $250,000 and even work a 24 hour shift. The opal dirt comes up a conveyer belt and ultra violet lights light up the opal and a automatic machine then picks it out. There is still large areas to work but this material is usually not large chunks. The Chinese opal buyers love this material as it makes good small stones and doublets. To give a idea of production levels there used to be over 50 resident Chinese buyers but now there is app 6.Many more buyers do come and go on short trips.
Queensland-The worry about land right claims appears over and there have been some good opal finds recently. Some of the material has magnesium under the opal bar which gives a beautiful black opal appearance. A lot of the production is sold straight from the mines. The production in the Yowah Koroit area is down but there is still some good quality material around at reasonable prices.
There are still a few good months of productive mining to do before the summer temperature arrives-its too hard on machinery once the temp is over 100 degrees.
Prices on the field have stabilized and it is hoped there will be a small increase in the field price to encourage more miners to return to the industry.
President Opal Association
Paul Sedawie
Seda Opals
MARKET TRENDS
With the ever increasing cost of opal mining mainly driven by oil prices and dwindling availability, the opal mining industry is coming under more and more pressure.
In Lightning Ridge all the “easy” mines have already been exhausted, and miners are facing very tough and dangerous mining conditions to extract opal in the more dangerous mines.
Low grade black opal is steady and available so the common laws of supply and demand are in force.
Opalholics - now is the time to buy investment opal because the supply of high grade black opal is thinning, and the mining community of Lightning Ridge as a whole is not finding much opal, which can only mean one thing for prices .
Black opal is found primarily in the opal fields of New South Wales. Read up on them in our opal mining section: Opal Fields of New South Wales
Buy Black Opal
Try the below searches to see our examples of our opal search engine:
We also stock rough and fossilised black opal.
How to Polish Opal
Thanks to the priceless work of one of our members, we have a great guide in our opal forum about how to polish opal.
Last Update: 25 Jan