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Rainbow Ridge Mine,
Virgin Valley,
Humboldt County, Nevada 13-14 Aug 09 |
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My friend Scott
Northouse and I, traveled to the WORLD-FAMOUS Rainbow Ridge Opal mine,
in Virgin Valley, Nevada, located about 300 miles NNE of Reno, to try
our luck at sharing a virgin opal-bearing ore load!
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13 Aug 09- We ate dinner and
camped the night before our dig, at the free campground, located about
5 miles down the dirt road from the mine itself.
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14 Aug 09- Sunrise, breakfast
and off to the mine we go! The gates were opened at a bit
past 8am. Inside the property, four vehicles full of eager
opal-a-holics were lead to the mine shop, where we paid our fees
and were given handy tools to use for breaking up the tenacious,
clay-rich dirt clods,
in our search for amazing precious opals! |
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We got our virgin
ore pile (right off of the best part of the mine wall!)
and began our sweep of anything that was showing. Here's Scott Northouse in the depths of the pursuit, with the legendary Rainbow Ridge mine pit in the background- |
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Opals began
to show, but few displayed any real color-play fire. Then the sky
got a bit cloudy, blocking the sun, which didn't help us to see
any of the possible fire in the specimens, as we mined them. So,
we recovered anything that looked like an opal, to check later for
fire- (the results were good!)
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Here's a classic
limbcast, sticking out of a large clod of clay, but it didn't
show any precious
color-play fire |
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Then, wait
a minute, what was that flash... of fire?! Finally the
sun comes out and we start finding some goodies!
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We found
two, 8cm
long black limbcasts, that didn't show any fire right away, but both have potential for the future- |
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And
then boom! I scored our first real killer, fiery,
precious opal,
showing beautiful blue and green fire! The precious Gem nodule penetrated 5cm (2-inches) into the matrix! |
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And then
I found another! This one
is about 2.5cm (one-inch) tall and very fiery! |
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We worked our
butts off! Less than 3 hours later, we near finishing
our systematic mining of the 3 cubic-yard ore pile- |
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As we were digging thru the last quarter
of the pile, things really started getting interesting! First,
Scott N. found a pair of killers! Then, at the very bottom of
the pile, I found a loose giant fiery limbcast measuring over 8cm long
and 4cm wide!!! After showing the piece around a bit and stretching
my legs, I went back to work. Ten minutes later, I FOUND THE OTHER
HALF!!!! Together, they form a complete, AMAZING fiery limbcast
over 16cm long (6.5 x 1.5-inches)! This is the finest precious
opal
I have ever collected! |
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Here are some pix of the spectacular
half I chose for myself,
while Scott N. rightfully received the other half. This alone made our trip extremely worth-while! |
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Before it was noon,
we had finished our clay ore pile. Then, Scott and I worked
the nearby tailing for a few hours and filled a tray with nice dry
pieces showing color-play fire-
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At about 3pm,
the people that had a double-sized load next to us, left for the
day. This entitled anyone still digging at the mine to give
their pile a look-sie. Scott and I started digging in and
amazing opals began to show-
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Within 10 minutes of digging
in this abandoned pile, I found an absolute KILLER, GEM, AWESOME,
AMAZING limbcast measuring
3.7 x 3.0 x 1.5cm, RAGING with da' FIRE!!! SUPER-WOW!!!!! |
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We
worked and worked and dug and dug, not taking any real breaks
until they closed the mine. I estimate that Scott
and I each mined (processed and shoveled) at least 6-cubic
yards of clay clods and dirt apiece. After hanging
out with Glen Hodson for awhile, Scott and I had to face
our 300 mile drive back to Reno. Many beautiful sights
abound on our drive through Nevada, on the way home-
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After
eating a rack of ribs at the "Flying Pig" BBQ
in Winnemucca, we got back to my house at 11:30pm. Then,
we took some showers and got to work(!), eager to play
with our new treasures. We were up until 3am cleaning
opals! Here's my share of the smaller killers. I
call this my
"Jelly Jar", and it looks AWESOME!!! |
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I am now soaking and
cleaning my pieces. Fiery opals abound in these
jars!
It looks like it's time to shop for some good domed glass display jars! Virgin Valley opals are known to improve their quality of fire and clarify optically as they soak in water and other cleaners over weeks, months and even years. So, opals that do not show any color-play fire when they are first collected, may later on, as they soak! |
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White veins of opal from this mine will rarely show fire, but I will soak these specimens for years, if it takes that, in the hopes that a few might fire-up some day.
I think that this trip was a huge and very enjoyable success, and I highly recommend a virgin ore load of opal-bearing clay at the Rainbow Ridge opal mine to any and everyone!
I can't wait to get back and do it all again!
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