Category Opal News

We are Celebrating our 10 years of seasonal Opal mining!

After another successful Mining season this year and in response to the bad economy and Corona impacts we have drastically reduced the prices of our finished stock Woodopals.

After a few very good years we accumulated a lot of finished and rough precious Opals and Woodopals of all sorts. Also we are running out of Space, which is a good thing to have in this case.

https://virginvalleypreciouso...

There are several Opal mines in Virgin Valley, Nevada within the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. A Beautiful place to visit, not only for enjoying the view and wildlife but also for mining Opal. Some mines offer digging in theTailing, while other mines offer digging in the bank/wall(Virgin ground) or go through a Load.

To do tailing

You only need a small rake and a small trowel. Those are the main tools for tailing, I would say. Then probably a pole pick in case you find a bigger chunk of dirt in the tailing pile. You need zipper bag in case you find an opal, gloves to protect your hands from dust and the heat of the sun, hat, etc.

To do digging in the bank/Wall/Virgin ground.

You need several tools. We personally use one hand and two hands picks...

Flower Pendant with Opal in the center

In the very beginning of our journey to the United States, gold mining was our first goal of our adventure that we had in mind. Then we started to join a rock club to hunt and learn different kinds of semi precious stones with the hope to get information where we could also mine gold. Instead we caught another interesting stone that we could mine for… yeah that was Opal. We found an opportunity to look for opal in Virgin Valley, Nevada. Ever since we hooked and nuts about Opals. Along with Opal mining, I learnt and improved my wire wrap technique. My goal was “one day, I am going to wire wrap those precious Opals we found”.

There was a wire wrapping and beading lesson that I participated in the rock club back then and before that I did wat...

Hey Guys, right now we are working on slabbed woodopals. After about 6 years on the drying shelve, we finally work on some those Opal’s slabs. It looks like we have some conk pattern on the left bottom of the pictures below, though it has no color of play. On either side of the opal’s picture shown that all woodopals has no color at all, but wait until you guys see the next picture.

We should have known this.. but hey… Surprise….it looks better than we were expecting. While we stabilized one of those slabbed opals, it turns out they have some colors of play. What a great feeling!

After polished on self made flat lap polish machine, then wheels polish machine and the last part by hand.

Virgin Valley’s Wood Opals belong to the most unique Opals in the world. That drives us to the Valley every season. Our six years experience of mining and opals treatment shows us again and again, how beautiful Wood Opals can be.

We believe our opals have the brightest play of colors in the world. The combination with fossilized wood makes it even more unique. Perfect evidence what nature can do. A previous living tree or bush combined with silica that has been fused together.

We have many more pieces in variable sizes. Are you interested in buying? Please contact us for details and prices. Also check similar items on the link https://virginvalleyprecio...

It’s been tough for all of us, almost all year long now with this Covid Virus. We thought, first we were going to skip our journey to look for Opal this season. The Mine Board finally decided to open the Mine for Shareholders only without opening for public, fee digging and the new store that just opened last year.

New Bonanza Opals Shop

Since there are no many shareholder around, it was actually a very good isolation place during this pandemic. We dug in a Bank where we were pretty much separated from one to other, at least I did.

Geared up at Bank

Halloween is almost here

Don’t be afraid my dear

We have sale almost all year

So keep looking in here…

Boo…

Happy Halloween

click also https://virginvalleypreciousopals.com/product/silver-plated-broom-necklace/ for matching necklace

https://virginvalleypreciousopals.com/product/wire-wrapped-links-necklace-with-steampunk-owl-pendant/ https://virginvalleypreciousopals...

Following a short article, how to rescue ancient wood combined with precious Opal. It happens, that we are finding Wood that contains Opal in or around it. Some times it is very disintegrated, fibrous and very brittle.

To rescue it, we need to stabilize it with lots of Super glue. For that we usually use #Starbond Brand super thin, but first it needs to be cleaned with a brush as good as possible. Once the glue is cured, after a few minutes, we proceed carefully with digging it out.

Welcome to Virgin Valley Precious Opals. This is your first Opals post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

The Virgin Valley opal fields of Humboldt County in northern Nevada produce a wide variety of precious black, crystal, white, fire, and lemon opal.

The black fire opal is the official gemstone of Nevada. Most of the precious opal is partial wood replacement.

The precious opal is hosted and found within a subsurface horizon or zone of bentonite in place which is considered a “lode” deposit.

Opals which have weathered out of the in-place deposits are alluvial and considered placer deposits. Miocene-age opalised teeth, bones, fish, and a snake head have been found. Some of the opal has high water content and may desiccate and crack when dried.

The largest prod...