Opal Prospecting

[sdf527]

My kids are here in sunny Reno, so we are going to give the Virgin Valley opal diggins a go. We've got our little RV ready to go, might be tight with 4 of us in a 24' class C.

I know Reno Chris had some info on his website about the opals, anyone else got any pointers? Talked to the guy at Opal Queen yesterday, $100.00 a head for all day cut bank digging. He says they found a few pockets last fall, but no serious diggers have been at it yet this year. The other virgin ground bank digging is $180.00 a head. Better find a bucket full of those black opals at that price.

[DigDeep]

My kids are here in sunny Reno, so we are going to give the Virgin Valley opal diggins a go. We've got our little RV ready to go, might be tight with 4 of us in a 24' class C.

I know Reno Chris had some info on his website about the opals, anyone else got any pointers? Talked to the guy at Opal Queen yesterday, $100.00 a head for all day cut bank digging. He says they found a few pockets last fall, but no serious diggers have been at it yet this year. The other virgin ground bank digging is $180.00 a head. Better find a bucket full of those black opals at that price.

Need pointers?...... I think an 8" mono and run in sensitive extra should work well. LOL - Jokin' Have fun and post some pics

DigDeep

[Reno Chris]

It's like putting money in the slots. You might hit it big, but odds are you will go bust pretty quick. I've dug in the banks, but with zero success. One time howere a guy about 60 feet away from me hit a very nice limb worth far more than all the fees paid by the diggers that day.

Be prepared, its pretty dang hot out there this time of year.

Chris

[sdf527]

Opal prospecting was a bust. We found a few small pieces of common opal and some decent crystallized wood, but no black fire opal. My son and I did a lot of digging in the virgin bank, just no joy. The claim owner was impressed with the Nuggethunting Hodan Pick. I have the big 36" model and it really moved through that damp clay. We talked to a semi-professional opal hunter who had found a 7 lb black fire opal this year. He is a young guy who came out from Vegas for a weekend of opal hunting, and never went back home. He's going on 3 years out there working on a 50/50 split with the claim owners. They're still trying to get an appraisal on his monster opal, but it's worth a ton. The claim we visited, Opal Queen, had found a pocket of opal last fall, took in about $400k for their efforts. Nice guy at Opal Queen, and about half the price of the other pay to mine operations. He was flexible on the hours so we didn't have to try and stick it out during the heat of the day. He walked the ground with us a couple times during the day and pointed out where opal had been found in the past. It's a bit frustrating because there are no particular geologic clues as to where the next pocket of opal might show up. Just a lot of pick swinging trying to find "glass" or color. I will probably go back and give it another go this fall when the weather is a bit more friendly.