Hello Virgin Valley Precious Opals world!

by | Jan 11, 2019 | Opal News | 1 comment

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.

Virgin Valley Precious Opals and Jewelry

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 producing mines of Virgin Valley have been the famous Rainbow Ridge, Royal Peacock, Bonanza, Opal Queen, and WRT Stonetree/Black Beauty mines.

The largest unpolished black opal in the Smithsonian Institution, known as the “Roebling opal”, came out of the tunneled portion of the Rainbow Ridge Mine in 1917, and weighs 2,585 carats (517.0 g; 18.24 oz).

The largest polished black opal in the Smithsonian Institution comes from the Royal Peacock opal mine in the Virgin Valley, weighing 160 carats (32 g; 1.1 oz), known as the “Black Peacock”.

1 Comment

  1. Virgin Valley Precious Opals and Jewelry Commenter

    Hi, this is a Virgin Valley Precious Opals and Jewelry comment.
    To get started with moderating, editing, and deleting comments, please visit the Comments screen in the dashboard.
    Commenter avatars come from Gravatar.

Submit a Comment