What is Potch and What Colors Is It?

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When opal buyers visit the Australian opal town of Lightning Ridge, they will be offered buckets of Potch and colour by opal miners or opal runners. Runners are people who pick up opal rough from the miner and show it to buyers around the town. Most of these buckets will look just like rocks to the untrained eye

What is Potch?

Potch is what precious opal is formed on. It can be grey, black or even white in colour. The majority of common opal mined is called Potch, so it is basically common opal with no colour. Potch is a hydrated amorphous form of silica and is known as a mineraloid. It is not classed as a mineral.

Potch mined in low depths of around 10 meters are drier than potch for deeper underground. Potch mined down as deep as 30 meters has more loose material or chunks of opal dirt around them so it looks more like rocks with potch veins in them.

It is generally thought that if the opal miner is at shallow depths than the opal is more stable. If buyers see potch that’s full of opal dirt and if the opal dirt is muddy it tells the buyer it was mined at a lower depth. When the miner is digging in opal dirt and he finds traces of potch he will change direction and follow that vein hoping to find precious opal. It may even be in the roof of the tunnel.

When opal miners are testing a new opal field they will drill small holes in a grid formation. They are pleased to find potch as it is good indication that precious opal is close by. If a miner finds potch it is not guarantee that he will find precious opal.

Earthquakes or shifts in level can make many veins of potch come to a dead end or produce no precious opal colors. If you ever get the chance to visit Lightning Ridge you will see lots of people out specking on mullock heaps after the rain. As the rain clears the dirt off the potch and if there is any opal colour exposed it is easy to see. This is called specking similar to fossicking. People look at potch to see if any color veins or colour flash in the piles left over from the opal mining called mullock heaps

Other Uses For Potch

Potch is also used in the making of Opal doulbets. The balck potch is glued to a thin layer of precious Opal to create a doublet. the darkness of the potch makes the fire of the Opal brighter while also adding stability to the stone.

Color

Opal color is formed in the internal structures of precious Opal. Precious Opal will diffract light creating a spectrum of colors whereas potch has no diffraction and no opal color. Scientifically precious opal is known as SiO2·nH2O. Opal is made up of tightly packed minute silica spheres only 0.00001 inches’ wide. If these spheres are aligned correctly and just the right size they will produce flashes of opal color. If they are randomly sized and arranged they will be called potch.

Potch at Lightning Ridge is generally a grey color to black. Seam opal fields have more veins of grey potch where as other opal fields have more nobby and rock like formations. Some specimens may look like grey potch on the outside but on the inside display black color.

If the black potch is under the precious opal colour it will result in a rare black opal with body tone of N1 to 4N. But as many opal cutters find out this is rare so the rough black potch might not be anywhere near the precious opal colour resulting in a semi black or grey opal with body tone N5 to N7

But What is Potch and colour?

When the opal miner has a bucket of rough opal the opal miner will sort through the parcel and take out the king stone or rub down the rough that shows the most potential. As the opal miner knows his mine, he knows which way to cut or how the opal will face. In the opal mining industry now nearly all miners rub down the parcel potch and color to value it and to find the king opals. Lots of rough potch will not be touched and offered as virgin rough. The miner sells the bucket of potch and color after he has graded it.

Many buyers enjoy the chance of buying potch and colour buckets in a chance he will snag a top gem opal. This is one reason why potch and colour is so popular. There is always a chance of finding a gem that the miner has missed but you do a pay premium for the chance to take a gamble.

Many professional buyers buy opal potch and color that has been rubbed down and these are called rubs. Buyers can see the opal colour and estimate what size opal it will cut. This is by far the safest way to buy expensive black opal rough instead of chancing a find of a gem in potch or opal dirt.

We all seem to like to take a gamble and we see so many disappointed results in buying potch and color and losing money or breaking even. Then again some people make a killing by finding a gem opal in potch parcel.

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Kada kupci opala posjete australski opalni grad Lightning Ridge, ponudit će im se kante Potcha i boja rudara opala ili trkača opala. Trkači su ljudi koji skupljaju opalnu hranu od rudara i pokazuju je kupcima širom grada. Većina tih žlica izgledat će kao stijene za netrenirano oko

Što je Potch?

Potch je ono na čemu se formira dragocjeni opal. Može biti siva, crna ili čak bijele boje. Većina zajedničkih opal minirana se zove Potch, tako da je u osnovi zajednički opal bez boje. Potch je hidratizirani amorfni oblik silicijevog dioksida i poznat je kao mineraloid. Nije klasificiran kao mineral.

Potch minirana u niskim dubinama od oko 10 metara suša je od potcheva za dublje podzemlje. Potch miniran dolje kao duboko kao 30 metara ima više labav materijala ili komada opal prljavštine oko njih tako da izgleda više kao stijene s potch vene u njima.

Općenito se smatra da ako je rudar opal na plitkim dubinama, opal je stabilniji. Ako kupci vide potch koji je pun opalnih nečistoća i ako je nečistoća s opalom blatna, kupcu se kaže da je minirana na nižoj dubini. Kada rudar kopa opalnu prljavštinu i pronađe tragove potcha, on će promijeniti smjer i slijediti tu venu u nadi da će pronaći dragocjeni opal. Možda je čak i na krovu tunela.

Kada rudari opala testiraju novo polje opala, probušit će rupe u obliku rešetke. Zadovoljni su što pronalaze potch jer je dobar pokazatelj da je dragocjeni opal blizu. Ako rudar pronađe potch, to nije jamstvo da će pronaći dragocjeni opal.

Potresi ili pomaci u razini mogu učiniti da mnoge žile potcheva dođu do slijepe ulice ili ne proizvedu dragocjene opalne boje. Ako ikada dobijete priliku posjetiti Lightning Ridge, vidjet ćete puno ljudi koji se probijaju na mullocku nakon kiše. Kao što kiša čisti nečistoću s krumpira i ako je izložena bilo koja boja opala, lako je vidjeti. To se naziva probijanje slično fossishingu. Ljudi gledaju potch kako bi vidjeli jesu li bilo koje boje u boji ili boja bljeskale u gomilama koje su preostale iz rudarstva opala koje se zove mullock

Druge namjene za Potcha

Potch se također koristi u izradi opalnih duplica . Balck potch se lijepi na tanki sloj plemenitog Opala kako bi se stvorio dublet. tama pothe čini vatru opalnog svjetlijom, a kamenu stabilnost.

Boja

Opalna boja nastaje u unutarnjim strukturama dragocjenog Opala. Precious Opal će difraktirati svjetlost stvarajući spektar boja, dok krpa nema difrakciju i nema boje opala. Znanstveno dragocjeni opal poznat je kao SiO2 · nH2O. Opal je sastavljen od čvrsto upakiranih sfernih kuglica od samo 0,00001 cm. Ako su ove sfere ispravno poravnate i prave veličine, proizvest će bljeskove boje opala. Ako su nasumce veličine i raspoređeni, zvat će se potch.

Potch na Lightning Ridgeu je uglavnom siva boja do crne. Polja s opalnim šavovima imaju više žila sive potcheve gdje druga opalna polja imaju više plemenite i stjenovite formacije. Neki uzorci mogu izgledati poput sive krpice izvana, ali iznutra crne boje.

Ako je crna krpica pod dragocjenom opalnom bojom, rezultirat će rijetkim crnim opalom s tonusom tijela od N1 do 4N. No, kao što mnogi rezači opala saznaju da je to rijetko, grubi crni zdjela možda neće biti ni blizu dragocjene opalne boje koja rezultira polu-crnim ili sivim opalom s tonovima tijela N5 do N7

Ali što je Potch i boja?

Kada opal rudar ima kantu grube opal rudar opal će sortirati kroz parcelu i izvaditi kralj kamena ili trljati dolje grube da pokazuje najveći potencijal. Dok rudar zna svoj rudnik, on zna na koji način će se rezati ili kako će se opal suočiti. U rudarstvu u rudnicima opala sada gotovo svi rudari utiskuju parcele i boje kako bi ga ocijenili i pronašli kraljeve opale. Mnogo grubih potcheva neće biti dirnuto i ponuđeno kao djevičansko grubo. Rudar prodaje kantu za boce i boju nakon što je ocjenjuje.

Mnogi kupci uživaju u mogućnosti kupnje potche i kantica za boju u šansi da će uloviti top dragulj. To je jedan od razloga zašto je potch i boja toliko popularna. Uvijek postoji šansa da se pronađe dragulj koji je rudar propustio, ali vi plaćate premiju za priliku da se kockate.

Mnogi profesionalni kupci kupuju opal potch i boju koja je obrisana, a to se zove rubs. Kupci mogu vidjeti opalnu boju i procijeniti koju će veličinu opal smanjiti. To je daleko najsigurniji način za kupnju skupog crnog opalnog grubog, umjesto da se pronađe dragulj u potch ili opalnoj prljavštini.

Čini se da svi volimo kockati se i vidimo toliko razočaranih rezultata u kupnji potcheva i boja i gubitku novca ili prekidu. Onda opet neki ljudi čine ubijanje pronalaženjem dragulj opal u potch parcele.

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