Boulder Opal Information

加工...

Boulder Opal is a beautiful and unique opal that has the brilliance of color not found in any other gemstone. It is a unique form of opal because it is found as a mixture of precious opal and iron stone together. It can be found in matrix form where the opal and iron stone are mixed together or it can be found as a layer of opal with an iron stone backing.

This magnificent Boulder Opal is found only in the vast arid regions of Western Queensland. Boulder opal is considered to be one of the most versatile opals because it has all of the color and patterns of expensive black or crystals opals but it is mixed with iron stone which makes it extremely durable.

Boulder Opal is a solid Opal that occurs as thin veins of precious Opal in cracks and cavities of ironstone. To cut the rough into a polished stone, it is cut leaving the natural iron stone as a backing. The precious Opal is then either a solid solid piece of color on top of the ironstone or it can be mixed with the iron stone showing as flashing flecks of color throughout the stone.

Boulder Opal also can display Opal vegetation from timber to plant vegetation to make a unique mother nature’s creation wood fossil. It also makes impressive specimens to display the true color of the opal.

These opals are also known as fossil wood replacement opals and some top specimens do actually show the veins or structures of the plant or tree. Boulder opal wood fossil is found over large area Queensland opal fields known as the Winton plateau . But is rare to find good specimens and when the rain forests died it requires certain conditions for the opalization to occur. Not only is this rare but also opal colours to form is also rare

Boulder ironstone vegetation is more common and can have many fossils plants or trees but no opal colour is evident
Boulder opal wood specimens polished make good display for conversation as you can view opal colours plus fact it is replacement wood vegetation
Boulder opal pairs are popular for earrings, as most are specimens split in two to expose the opal colours matching, and if split is even it looks like the opal has been polished, but in fact is natural sheen from split.
Yowah opal pairs and Koroit opal pairs make stunning earrings as hard to get matching opal earrings
Boulder opal carvings have also been popular recently artistic carvings following the natural grains have been popular a swell as traditional carvings of butterfly’s, Buddha, fish shapes and skulls. Even natural boulder opal that has an undulating surface need dremel drill to polish

A History of Opal Mining in Queensland

The Queensland Opal fields are famous for their unique Boulder Opal. A Boulder Opal will have a natural brown ironstone back and at times can come with interesting “hills” and “valleys” on the surface (meaning that the surface is often, but not always, undulating). People who are more “progressive” in their jewellery tastes prefer these stones. Often Boulder Opal has ironstone inclusions in the foreground and all sorts of odd shapes, which makes them a designer’s delight. Queensland is considered as one of the three main mining states in Australia. Opal was originally discovered in Queensland on Listowel Downs in 1869.

The first recorded mine began in 1871 in Quilpie though it was abandoned a few years later. One of the most famous mines ‘Opalton’ was discovered in 1887. This field is famous for producing the largest Opal ever recorded being 11 foot long and apparently took four men to carry it.

Queensland is also home to the famous Yowah nut. The Yowah Opal Nuts cannot be found anywhere else in the world and are exclusive to the region. These Opal Nuts range from about 5mm to 200mm and tend to be found in a spherical shape. The Yowah Opal fields also produce other kinds of Opal such as Pipe Opal, Opal Matrix, Seam Opal, and Yowah Nuts. Yowah is famous for its fossicking sites which are not far from the main road. In addition to, every year the small opal mining society of Yowah Australia celebrates an Opal festival. This usually features several opal collections including the famous Yowah Nut.

Opal Mining Fields in Queensland

Queensland generates Boulder Opal, a distinctive kind of Opal which is usually attached to the ironstone. Boulder Opal is exceptional to Queensland and takes place in deposits in most weathered sedimentary Cretaceous rocks along the western part of the state. Most of the Opal mining in Queensland is open cut (above ground mining) different from the under ground shaft mining in NSW.

Queensland’s Opal mining fields are mostly found along southwest and western part of the State, which includes:

Yowah Opal Field

Yowah is the well-known for Ironstone Matrix Opal as well as, the Yowah Opal Nut, an Australian Opal stone found only in this part of Queensland. Yowah is mostly located half-way between Thargomindah and Cunnamulla, especially in south west Queensland.

Koroit Opal Mining Field

More than 90% of all valuable Opal is produced in the waterless and sandy Opal fields of Australia’s Outback. These valuable Opals display a vibrant “play of colors” considered exceptional and can only be found approximately 1% among all Opal. Koroit is located just about 1000 kilometers along the east coast of Australia, exactly in the center of the Outback Queensland.

SHOP FOR BOULDER OPALS

Boulder Opal

Matrix Opal

博爾德蛋白石是一種美麗而獨特的蛋白石，具有其他任何寶石所沒有的色彩鮮豔。它是蛋白石的一種獨特形式，因為它是由貴重蛋白石和鐵石混合而成的。可以發現蛋白石和鐵石混合在一起的基質形式，也可以發現它是帶有鐵石背襯的蛋白石層。

這種宏偉的巨石蛋白石僅在昆士蘭州西部廣大的干旱地區發現。博爾德蛋白石被認為是用途最廣泛的蛋白石之一，因為它具有昂貴的黑色或水晶蛋白石的所有顏色和圖案，但與鐵石混合在一起使其非常耐用。

博爾德蛋白石是一種固體蛋白石，在鐵礦石的裂縫和空洞中以細薄的珍貴蛋白石脈狀出現。要將原石切割成拋光的石頭，將其切割後留下天然鐵石作為底料。然後，珍貴的蛋白石要么是鐵石上的固體實心塊，要么可以與鐵石混合在一起，在整個石塊中顯示出閃爍的色斑。

博爾德蛋白石還可以展示從木材到植物的蛋白石植被，從而製成獨特的大自然母親創造的木質化石。它也使令人印象深刻的標本表現出蛋白石的本色。

這些蛋白石也被稱為化石替代蛋白石，一些頂級標本確實顯示出植物或樹木的脈絡或結構。博爾德蛋白石木材化石遍布昆士蘭蛋白石大片領域，被稱為溫頓高原。但是很難找到好的標本，而當雨林死亡時，則需要一定的條件才能進行遮蓋作用。這不僅罕見，而且形成的蛋白石顏色也罕見

巨石鐵礦石植被較為常見，可以有許多化石植物或樹木，但沒有蛋白石色
拋光的博爾德蛋白石木材標本可以很好地進行對話，因為您可以查看蛋白石的顏色，而且它可以替代木材植被
巨石蛋白石對非常流行，因為大多數標本都被一分為二以暴露出與蛋白石顏色匹配的顏色，如果分開，即使看起來像蛋白石也已經打磨過，但實際上是自然的。
Yowah蛋白石對和Koroit蛋白石對製造出令人耳目一新的耳環，因為很難獲得匹配的蛋白石耳環
博爾德蛋白石雕刻最近也很流行，因為天然穀物作為蝴蝶，佛陀，魚形和頭骨的傳統雕刻已廣為流行。甚至具有起伏表面的天然巨石蛋白石也需要使用dremel鑽進行拋光

昆士蘭蛋白石開采的歷史

昆士蘭蛋白石領域以其獨特的博爾德蛋白石而聞名。博爾德蛋白石的背面會帶有天然的棕色鐵石，有時表面會帶有有趣的“丘陵”和“山谷”（這意味著表面經常但並非總是起伏不平）。珠寶口味更“先進”的人更喜歡這些寶石。通常，Boulder Opal的前景中有鐵石夾雜物以及各種奇怪的形狀，這使它們成為設計師的榮幸。昆士蘭州被認為是澳大利亞三個主要的採礦州之一。蛋白石最初於1869年在昆士蘭州的利斯托韋爾唐斯被發現。

第一個有記錄的礦山始於1871年的基爾皮（Quilpie），但幾年後被廢棄了。最著名的礦場“ Opalton”之一於1887年被發現。該油田以生產有史以來最大的蛋白石而聞名，它的長為11英尺，顯然需要四個人來搬運。

昆士蘭州也是著名的Yowah堅果的所在地。 Yowah蛋白石堅果在世界上其他任何地方都找不到，並且是該地區獨有的。這些蛋白石堅果的範圍從大約5mm到200mm，並且傾向於呈球形。 Yowah蛋白石領域還生產其他種類的蛋白石，例如管蛋白石，蛋白石基質，接縫蛋白石和Yowah堅果。 Yowah以其動蕩的地點而聞名，距主要道路不遠。此外，澳大利亞Yowah的小型蛋白石採礦協會每年都會慶祝蛋白石節。它通常具有一些蛋白石的收藏，包括著名的Yowah Nut。