http://www.cooperopals.com/ - click here to check it out!
What a changeable month August was with record high temperatures everywhere and here as well, with one day getting over the 40 degree mark, then a week later we had the fire going again. It had all of us worried that an early start to summer was looming but it has settled down to normal temperatures again and the days are terrific at the moment. A lot of miners have packed up and gone for this year, and with the days getting into the mid 30s now, the rest are getting a little fidgety. I personally really enjoy from now to Xmas time - I have never liked the cold weather much and prefer this time of the year the most. There are a couple of other miners staying until the end of October this year and then I will be on my lonesome here on the field again as usual.
It has just been business as usual on the mining front - I have been continuing on the hole on Gernots lease and have been getting just enough material to keep me interested. My little machine digs to about 18 ft and a lot of the old hands have been telling me that there are two more good producing levels under that, so once I got the hole big enough, I put a ramp in on one side and ventured down. There were three more levels, the bottom one at just over 30 ft but unfortunately they were all dry as chips which was a little disappointing, but the ramp is there now and once I open the hole up some more I will have another look.
There are some very deep levels carrying good opal on Gernot's lease and Gernot made the decision to go after them with the excavator - the levels being at 40 ft, which means there is a mountain of dirt to move. The dirt can only be moved so far each time so it has to be shifted 3 or 4 times to keep it away from the working area. He had to make his working platform in the hole at 30 ft or 9 metres and when he got down there he could only move so much dirt then go back up and pull that dirt out of the hole and keep moving it away to make room for the next lot - a very slow and tedious business with one machine. I volunteered one day to save him coming out of the hole and pulled the dirt out for him - I have a mud bucket which moves quite an amount of mulloch in a short time. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it worked so well that I was asked to continue helping and did so for a couple of weeks. He did quite well in a level at about 40 ft and it was a thrill to be there to see some nice material come out. Gernot has returned to Germany and won't be back until next season, but he will be looking forward to a good one next year now that the hole is open.
An American fellow has a mine that is in an area of Koroit where the levels are very deep compared to the rest of the field and worked underground. Gene has been slaving away underground for a few years now and has been getting some nice material. He has put it to a couple of us with excavators to open-cut a big area, the opal bearing levels are from about 35 to 50 ft so this is going to be one big mother of a hole and a real challenge. I was thrilled when asked to be involved so my own mining has been put on hold again for a while. We have only just started in the last few days so I will take plenty of photos and have an update next post. Gene also has a blog and is much more diligent than I am so if you would like to stay updated on nearly a daily basis, you can check out his blog at http://www.koroit.blogspot.com/
I have been slowly updating the website - with the mining the way it has been and will be for another month or so, finding time is not easy. The idea was to mine in the morning each day and then process, cut and photograph pieces and keep the website and blog up to date in the afternoon - sounds good in theory but trying to put it into practice is another ballgame altogether. Lyn has been helping on weekends when she is here and I have finally got her onto the grinding wheels touching up slices of rough which is saving me a lot of time. I plan to start selling some rough on Ebay as well as I feel this will be a good way to build a customer base over time. The website is a long term venture for me, so I am not worried if it takes a while to build up business but I would hope that by this time next year I will be using it it as a major selling tool. For nearly half a year there are no miners here and therefore no buyers either and it is this off season period each year that I want the website to sell material.
It is getting close now for grandchild number two to arrive and Lyn is getting very excited. She is very good on the sewing machine and I have seen some terrific creations during our early years of marriage but with being so busy with the business at Wanaaring for so long, sewing was forgotten for a long period. The old sewing machine has come out of mothballs now though and has been very busy the last month or so. It is great to see her back at it because she really is very good at it, the quilt cover she has produced for the cot is terrific and I am sure there is plenty more to come. Anyway, I am sure I will be able to squeeze an odd baby photo amongst the mining photos next post.
Photos this time are - the ramp I put in on my hole, a couple of going through the level down in the hole, the rest are showing the progress on Gernot's deep hole from helping move the dirt out to actually digging the level of opal bearing rock and breaking the stone. The last two show Gernot with a pile of stone to break and the results of a couple of weeks very hard work.
www.cooperopals.com - don't forget to check it out!
