DECEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014

December was a busy month mainly continuing to move lots of dirt from the northern end of the hole. I eventually got the hole back to where I consider the cut-off of opal bearing dirt should be according to the drill results. It was then time to put a ramp in at the northern end so I could get down into the hole and start organizing to get to the bottom level. The photos below show the progression of the hole with the ramp in.




The hole is finished for now with the ramp in.

Nearly back to where I want the hole to end



another nice pendant stone on the website.

The temperatures were very high during this month with readings of over 40 degrees C on many occasions and highest reading was 46 degrees in the shade so it has been very hot down in the hole. I was mainly working only from early morning to around lunch time as the machines start to get too hot. That then gave me time to continue slicing and cutting during most afternoons and then into the airconditioning to cool off later on in the day. The heat doesn't seem to worry me too much as long as I drink plenty of water but trying to keep the water cool during the day is most of the problem. There has been no rain at all for most of the last year and the country is very dry with stock on the property getting very poor. This adds to the heat when there is no vegetation and the ground is exposed to the elements and when the temperatures are over the 40 degrees for a number of days the nights also stay very hot - only getting down to mid 30s. Anyway, I don't have to work under these conditions but do so because I continue to enjoy it every day.


I finally got the hole ready to start on the bottom level just before Xmas - had a small trial run and have reached the level easily as shown in the photo. The level is only band where I went down but it shows how thick the level is going to be and when it hardens up it will be a lot of slow work going through it - I am looking forward to starting as soon as it cools off a little.



Looking from the ramp down to the working area

The hole showing the machine ready to take
the bottom level at 40ft ( 12m )
 




The bottom level with clay underneath

Lyn and I enjoyed Xmas at the mine as we do every year and the temp was very kind with a cool 35 degree day. Our feature Gidgee tree in the middle of the camp has died much to our disappointment - we enjoyed sitting under it most afternoons. I cut it back in the hope that it may reshoot and Lyn spent some time hanging lights on it for Xmas night.

Our favourite Gidgee tree looking very sick

We gave it a good haircut

Sitting under the lights on Xmas night.

We then headed for the Sunshine Coast for New Year with my family and enjoyed a week or so there. It was great to see Mum and Dad looking so well - both are in there 80's, Dad turning 88 this year and still playing golf 3 days a week. It was then off to Agnes Waters for a few days with Simmo and Kelly, miners from Koroit. They have a beautiful spot on the coast and we enjoyed our visit there as we always do. They do the turtle research on their local beach and are quite passionate about it - great to see as it is all volunteer work. It was then back to Toowoomba for some shopping before heading home to hot Cunnamulla around the middle of Jan. I have since visited a friend of mine in Tamworth for a few days and am now home and ready to start mining again.

Lyn and I having breakfast at Noosa with Mum,
Dad, brother Michael and his wife, Louise

Simmo and Kelly recording and marking another turtle lay
on their local beach at Agnes Waters.



This lovely specie now resides at Simmo and Kelly's -
a gift for good friends.

That is about it for this couple of months - hope to have plenty of news on the opal front next post.

I wish all those that take the time to read this all the best for 2014.

November 2013

Back at the Shallows.

Thought it was finally time to get the blog going again. I intend to do a monthly post to show what I am doing both with the mining and what I am cutting in stones and other interesting pieces.

I have finished mining on Gernot's lease after 5 years as the lease has been sold so it is now time to concentrate on our own lease  - The Shallows. I have had some up and down years  but every years mining brings more experience in both mining and processing, and with the purchase of a 9 inch auger drill, I have been able to narrow the percentages of finding opal more in my favour. As a result the last couple of years have been pretty good and I have a little stock of rough which I can process at my leisure as I get stuck into mining at home.

I have got back to putting some stones on the website for sale and intend to do much more of that and showing just what this great product from this very small but special opal field known as Koroit is all about. Check out the website - www.cooperopals.com . Here is a sample of stones and specimens that are on the website.


a lovely multi pattern pendant



eye catching green pattern pendant

 

" Opal Snake "



a nice specimen













I am working on my own again - have been for a couple of years now as Mitchell has left and is now working in Scotland. A lovely little English backpacker arrived in Cunnamulla working at the same hotel he was working at and that was the end of Mitchell! She went back to England in Aug last year and he followed in November and they have been working in Scotland this year - good luck to him!





The camp with the drill in foreground





The camp hasn't changed much over the last few years - just updated the solar system and we are now connected on mobile phone via a cable hooked to an antennae on a 10 metre tower on the roof. This has been a great addition to the satellite internet. Here are a couple of photos of the camp from on the lease with the drill in foreground and below -  the original hole as I left it 5 years ago.





the original hole

another great outback sunset over the mine.
 









I have started again in the original hole virtually where I left off 5 years ago. I have always wondered how far down the bottom level is and now with the drill purchased in 2010, I have been able to find out. The bottom level is at 36 feet where I am starting at the southern end and at the northern end where I have discovered the levels pinch out it is at 40 feet so it is reasonably consistent right through with a few ups and downs in the middle which I predict will give some nice material.
I have also discovered that the bottom level has a huge amount of  petrified wood mixed in which is really exciting for me. There are 3 levels altogether - the first at around 15 feet, the 2nd at 24 feet and then the bottom one with clay underneath - this adds up to a huge amount of rock to remove and break over the next few years. The total area I have to open up is a big area - about 80 metres by 30 metres and down to 40ft means a lot of dirt to remove, stack and then backfill into the hole. I can't really estimate how long it will take but many years of hard work with the usual amount of highs and lows. I have yet to drill all the area but will undertake this task soon and then I will know what I have to look forward to and it may mean some areas will be left alone if drill results are ordinary.

I have opened the hole up to allow me to get to the bottom level at the southern end ( closest to the camp ) and have benched down to around 25 ft and then dug a further 16 ft to the bottom level. I have found some nice wood there which I have cleaned up and sold. There was plenty of trace and a couple of small pockets of nice matrix skins which I have been busily cutting.


Starting in the hole at the southern or camp end.



part of the nice petrified wood found before being cleaned up.

I could only open up the bottom for a small area as the hole is not big enough at present so the last 3 weeks I have been moving the top 15 ft down to the first level at the northern end and this has been a slow process as I have had to truck it all to a new mulloch heap at the eastern end of where the hole will eventually finish. This entails dropping it in truck loads then pushing it up in a heap with the loader and also then taking the excavator up on top and doubling the size of the heap to ensure I have enough room. Very time consuming on your own but the least of my worries as time is not a problem.


the hole looking from the southern end showing the area in foreground dug to 36 feet and the steps taken to remove each level at 15 feet and 24 feet then the final level at 36 feet.



looking from the northern end with camp in background.

the mulloch heap I am carting all the dirt to from the hole - below with the Cat excavator on top moving dirt higher.

So that is where I am at present - I have another couple of weeks moving the top out then have to build another ramp into the hole and then it is down to business again removing and breaking rock.

I will be taking photos and hopefully for those who are interested, you will be able to follow what is happening and get a small sense of what happens in a small scale open cut opal mine. I have yet to work out the best way to present the posts but I will work that out as I go.

 Feedback - good or bad is welcome - at least I will know someone is reading this!

Yes, I am still in the land of the living - how time flies when your having fun or should I say when your not finding opal which has been the case so far this season. It is July already and this is the first couple of wet days since getting back to work. I haven't done a thing on the website as I have been reminded lately by a few people so that has to change too - opal or no opal!

On the family front there has been one major change - Mitchell is now a Cunnamulla resident. He and Zara have split up after 6 years of living together and he made the decision to move away from Toowoomba and with our urging decided to move out here. He is working in town 3-4 days a week and then coming out to help me for the rest of the week which is great - he is very keen to learn and I will be getting him mining here at the Shallows shortly. He is amazed with his health with the change as he has only had to inject himself once with insulin since arriving out a month ago - in Toowoomba it was every day - incredible what good diet and exercise can do for diabetes and, most importantly, getting away from a stressful situation. I hope he makes a long term commitment here as Lyn and I are enjoying having him around - one thing hasn't changed though - he is still bloody hard to get out of bed most mornings! Otherwise not much has changed - the gang in Canberra are all well and Noah is growing like mad and won't be long before he is up and away. Lyn has settled back into work in town and is flat out juggling her days between the two places she does the books for plus there are a couple of other smaller ones she does in her spare time - I do get to see her now and then!

On the mining front - Graham and I started in a new area on Gernot's lease, an area that there hasn't been too much done and we have found out why - the top 10ft or so is like concrete but we are getting through it. We have moved lots of dirt and there has been some terrific trace with lots of lower grade material - the signs have been fantastic but it just hasn't made good opal. There has been lots of shallow boulder levels and it has been a slow process breaking all the rock, especially with poor results - luckily we have had Gernot's brother, Willy, to help us and he has been a great help ( none of us ignorant Aussies can pronounce his German name so Graham called him Willy and it has stuck ). The levels are deeper than a lot of the rest of the lease with the bottom level being around 24 to 28 ft for a start but that has now stretched down to nearly 40 ft where we are now. This all looks good as we started on the shallow side and are following it down and I am sure we are near the bottom of it now - we can't go any further anyway as we are right on the boundary of the lease. There has been a lot of digging on the next lease and some terrific opal found so things are looking promising now. The thing is we have to move so much dirt to open up a hole big enough to move even my smaller machine around in - the first lift is to 24 ft then it is down into the hole to bench down another 6 ft or so for the 12 tonner to reach the bottom easily. The Mack has been invaluable moving a lot of dirt away but we have had to replace the fuel pump so it has not been working for the last month or so but, it is going again now which will be a big help. We have been getting a few exploratory drill holes put down and they have been very promising with good colour coming from the area we are now at - so, hopefully the drought is about to break on the material front. I was able to start the afternoon just before it started to rain and got some quite nice colour in a level at 27 ft and there is still 10 to 12 ft to go to the bottom - you can see in the last photo the different ground and to us mug opal miners it looks very, very good.

The worst part with not finding any good material is that it just drives you on to finding it and both Graham and I have just kept going non stop - this has not done either of us any good especially when we started nearly a month before any other miners got here and most of them have been getting some nice material since starting. We both have had a bit of a break to recharge the batteries and know that our turn is just around the corner. I know that I have neglected the website badly as well as this blog and that is not helping the cause at all. The worst part is I haven't had fresh material to work with so there has been no processing for the website - Tammy is also onto me looking for more rough parcels to put on Ebay as she has just about sold the lot. Anyway, I feel sure that all will be changing shortly and with Mitchell starting here as well, we will be giving it our best shot. The next blog won't be so far away and will be full of good news - guaranteed!

I have just put in mining photos this time showing from where we started until now.

It is great to finally be home at Koroit - I feel like Lyn and I have been halfway around the world over the last six weeks.

We were in Gosford when I did the last post - from there we went to Sydney and visited my other brother Andrew, his wife Annabelle and the boys, Nicholas and Charles. We haven't seen them for a year or so and they are all looking terrific and the boys growing like mad. They are very busy with Nicholas now at Scots as a dayboy and both boys into every conceivable sport and juggling it all around work as well. Lyn and I never really experienced that after primary school as both our kids went away to boarding school so it was all pretty easy. We had a lovely few days with them and it was great to catch up over the odd bottle of red.

We then moved over a suberb or two and visited one of Lyn's brothers, Graham and sister in law Anne in Turramurra and stayed with them for a couple of days. Again, it was great catching up with them as it has been a year or so since we have seen them as well. Unfortinately now, the only time all the family seem to get together is for weddings and funerals, so Lyn and I decided that because we only get away once a year we would make the effort to catch up with all the family that we don't see regularly. While we were there with them we visited Mal and Margaret Ferris, a lovely couple we met at the Cliff Richard concert and spent a lovely morning with them - it was great to show off some opal as well. We hope to meet them next year at Tamworth for the Country Music Festival as they are mad country music fans and have never been up there.

We finally got away from Sydney and headed to Canberra to see the kids - this was all uncharted territory for us as neither of us have been to Canberra. We stopped for lunch at Berrima, a little place off the highway and had a job getting away as the history of that little place was amazing. We wandered around there for a couple of hours and had lunch in the pub there - built in 1834 and has the longest continuing licquor licence in Aust - it has been built onto now but the old original stonework and bar has all been restored, it was a fantastic place and we ended up stopping there again on the way back - definitely worth a look if you are going down that way, and a terrific feed as well. Finally got to Canberra and see Tammy, Trent, Bailey and Noah - they have settled in there well after the move from Toowoomba and are in a very nice Defence Force home with Bailey's school only a few minutes walk away. Trent has settled back into work down there and is enjoying seeing some of his old mates as he was originally based in Canberra before going to Toowoomba. He is on shift work now and includes night shift as well - all 12 hour shifts so it has all been a bit hectic for them trying to get into some sort of routine with Noah, but they all look terrific and and are enjoying settling in.

Tammy and I got into setting up the Ebay selling as she is going to do that for me for a while before going back to work. She is pretty smart on all of that and got it all going in half the time it would have taken me. She is also selling other peoples stuff on Ebay as well - that came about from a casual conversation with one of the other mothers at school and she now has others ringing up every day wanting her to sell unwanted items for them. There is a little business in the making there for her while Noah is a baby and child care is scarce. Anyway, we got things going on Ebay with the rough opal and have sold a few lots so far - the main aim in selling on Ebay is to get buyers to the website and that is starting to work already with some enquiries coming in from all over the place including Germany and Switzerland.

We didn't get much time to do the tourist bit in Canberra but the Paris masters artists were being shown at the Art Gallery so we did go and see them - it didn't do much for me but Tammy and Lyn loved it. We will be back down there in October for Noah's christening and I will definitely be spending time at the War Museum while we are there.

It was back to Diamond Beach for a couple of weeks on the beach which we both enjoyed immensely. On the way back we had to make a detour out to the Hunter Valley Gardens to drop of some opal to a little shop there and we ran into some old friends from our early Wanaaring days - Steve and Karen Lofts were there when we first went there in 1985, Steve was the teacher at the little school. It was a great surprise and we spent a night with them at their lovely spot in the hills out from Clarencetown before heading back to the beach. Steve is still teaching at the local school and Karen is now an accountant with an incredible job with a huge American mining company - they both look great and are enjoying life and we enjoyed our short time with them immensly.

We have made the decision to sell our little spot at Diamond Beach - it is a long way away and we seem to be only spending a short time there each year and we both feel we can have a similar holiday each year here on the Qld coast somewhere - it is a reluctant sale as we both love it down there but the fees are going up every year and it really is quite expensive for the short time we are spending there. We have met some great people there and will miss seeing them each year but life goes on.

We finally made our way back to Caboolture for me to pick up the ute, Lyn headed back to Ipswich to visit her sister Kay for a couple of days. For me it was into brisbane to pick up parts for the Catand other bits and pieces I need for this year. I then went down to see Graham at the Gold Coast and loaded up a generator and a heap of other stuff - I sure had a load to go home with but the six wheeler handled it with little effort as usual. Lyn and I met in Toowoomba and after a monster days shopping for groceries and meat we finally headed home.Milo was sure excited to see Lyn again even though Mitch and Zara looked after him like he was there own.

It was amazing to see the amount of green feed on the way home - being away we missed all the rain and flooding that has happened out west - there was water still laying everwhere and feed up to the fences - it is truly amazing to see how the country out here changes with some constant rain, you just wonder where the seed has come from after years of drought and the place looking like a desert - nature is incredible and I have seen it many times living in the outback but it never ceases to amaze me - it really is something that you have to see to believe. I finally got back out here to the camp - there has been quite a lot of damage on the road and still plenty of water in places but everything at the camp was terrific - plenty of green grass around which is a change but on the whole it was easy to settle back in after 3 months away.

Graham arrived out with a semi load of gear over Easter so we have both been busy doing maintenance on our machines and checking over an old Mack tipper that Graham bought to help us move some dirt - it had been standing for 7 years without turning a wheel so we had a couple of days going over it but it seems to be ok and hope it will do the job. We will be moving the two excavators down to Gernots this week and hope to make a start shortly so by the time I get around to the next post we should have some opal out - that is the plan anyway!

Lyn and I had a great Easter out here with some friends from our Wanaaring days - Mal and Judy Howchin had the Post Office and telephone exchange for a number of years and are now based in Gulgong and are heading off for a 6 month stint on the road around the Top End and called in for a few days over Easter. It was great to spend the time with them and I think Mal just might spend a bit of time up here mining- he wanted to stay longer but they are meeting other friends in Mt Isa and had to head off. It was great to see them and good luck to them on their trip - it is something Lyn and I would like to do and probably will if and when we sell Diamond Beach.

This post has been a little long winded but I wanted to catch up on what we have been doing - we are now back to normal with Lyn busy catching up on her work in town and I will be back into the mining and enjoying the year out here - it really is nice to be back amongst the peace and quiet in my little spot in the bush. The days just don't seem to be long enough though with plenty to do but if I can't get it done today then tomorrow will do - it certainly is a lifestyle that I have come to enjoy.

Photos this time include a couple that Jan took at Gosford when she and Lyn visited their parents memorial and the four of us enjoying a red one night.

At Diamond Beach the resident carpet snake visited quite often and a lovely sunrise over the beach.

Sure had a load on the ute as usual when coming out from Toowoomba and plenty of green around the camp.

Mal and Judy Howchin at Easter and heading off on the road for 6 months.

The Mack tipper that Graham bought out and the machines ready to go to work.

Here it is the end of Feb already and the trouble with being on holidays is that you tend to put off the things you are meant to keep up with - well I do anyway, but the pressure is on me again so here is an update of what we have been doing since spending Xmas with the kids.

Lyn and I spent New Year with Mum and Dad and brother Michael and his family at Noosa which is a great spot to have a few days. It was great to catch up with the family as we only see them a couple of times a year. Both Mum and Dad are looking very well as they head into their 80's and are both very energetic for their ages - Dad playing golf at least 3 times a week and Mum going for her walks every morning with her mates, ending with the usual coffee break at their favorite spot. Dad had a hip replacement 17 years ago but is still going strong at 83 years of age and still hits a very good golf ball - only hope I am doing the same at his age.

After New Year, Lyn headed back to Toowoomba to see the kids again before Tammy and Trent moved to Canberra then went back to Cunnamulla to continue her work. I stayed with Michael through until the end of the first week in Feb, doing what I have done the last few years for him on his macadamia nut farms. I have put a photo in again to show the process of cleaning under the trees to allow the easier harvesting of the nuts once they start falling. We had pretty good weather for most of the time this year so I had a good run and got nearly all 4 farms completed. It did rain right at the end but the boys soon finished off what I couldn't complete, so Mick was very pleased as the nuts seem to be maturing earlier this year and harvesting will be starting sooner than normal - usually the beginning of March, so they are probably into it as I am doing this post.

It was great to see Lyn back and we headed off down the coast for our usual stint at Diamond Beach near Foster. We called in and saw Graham Paul at the Gold Coast and stayed the night there, spending the time making a few plans for this years mining. It was then off down the coast - me wanting to get to Diamond Beach and Lyn wanting to call into every little place along the way looking for markets and old shops. We got to Iluka that night - about 100 kms down so obviously I lost - nothing changes much no matter how long you are together! The next day was my turn though and we hit Diamond Beach just after lunch on the 15th Feb. It was great to be there again as we both enjoy our stays there a lot - everything had survived ok since last years visit and our big paint job still looks terrific. We had nearly a week there then we hit the road again on Friday 19th as Lyn had got tickets to a Cliff Richard concert in the Hunter Valley at Hope Estate winery on Sat night. We got accommodation in a B&B at Lochinvar not far away and had a great weekend in all with the concert and having a look around the wineries as well as meeting some lovely couples at the B&B. The concert was fantastic to see and Cliff Richard at nearly 70 years of age was truly amazing. I even sold some opal at a shop at one of the many tourist places so that was a bonus and will be a new contact for the future.

We are now at Gosford at Lyn's older sister Jan and her hubby, Peter and will be here for a few days before heading to Sydney to visit more family - Lyn's brother Graham and family and my other brother Andrew and family. It is then off to Canberra to see Tammy and Trent and grandkids - we are both looking forward to this time as neither of us has been to our nations capital. I certainly want to see the War Museum - I have been told it is a fantastic visit.

While we are in Canberra Tammy and I have lots to do as she is going to take over my selling on the internet. Tam want to go back to work but child care for Noah is very difficult to get with the smallest waiting list being 280 - unbelievable but true. She is going to stay home and concentrate on her studies to be a naturopath and offered to do my selling on auction sites for me. I most certainly agreed as Tammy is much more up to speed with the internet than an old miner like me so we are going to give it a go. All I have to do is keep the material up to her but we will give it a good go as many people are selling opal on the web and doing quite well so there is no reason why we can't do the same.

For anyone that has checked out the website, there are quite a few SOLD signs especially on the rough page - yes I have finally been selling some material mainly to Germany and America, which has been terrific. I was intending to have had material for sale on Ebay by now but that hasn't happened, but once Tammy gets going that will change very quickly. I know that once I start mining again it would be difficult to do the internet selling properly as it does take a considerable amount of time. If this works well with Tammy it will save me a lot of time and I can concentrate on producing material for sale.

Graham and I have decided to attack one of the deeper areas on Gernot's lease this year - I was going to concentrate on my own lease but Gernot has put the pressure on me to continue there and so Graham and I will team up as it is certainly easier with 2 machines where the opal level is deeper, we are looking at levels at 35ft and deeper, so a lot of dirt has to be moved. Anyway, we will give it a go and see what happens.

That is about it for now - next post will probably be when I am back at Koroit and hard at it.

I only have a few photos and they are -

- the New Years dinner with Mum and Dad, Mick, Louise and Ali

- Lyn relaxing at Diamond Beach once again

- cleaning out under the trees on Mick's macadamia farms, and

- some great views of one of the Glasshouse Mountains down the rows on one of the farms.