Precious Opal
October's play-of-color birthstone. Australia supplies ~95% of world opal: Lightning Ridge black opal, Coober Pedy white opal and Queensland boulder opal. Ethiopian Wollo hydrophane and Virgin Valley (Nevada) flesh out the map.
Known origins & mines
Coober Pedy Fields · Australia
"White man's hole in the ground" — the opal capital where half the population lives underground to escape desert heat; white and crystal opa…
Lightning Ridge Black Opal · Australia
Only place on Earth producing precious black opal — dark potch backing makes play-of-color explode. Noodling fossicking fields welcome visit…
Queensland Boulder Opal Fields · Australia
Quilpie-Winton boulder country: opal seams in ironstone matrix found nowhere else on Earth, mined since 1870s.…
Wollo Province Opal Fields · Ethiopia
The 2008 Wollo discovery revived Ethiopian opal: hydrophane play-of-color often in neon patterns, absorbing water when soaked — careful sett…
Opatoro Opal Fields · Honduras
Honduras' La Paz department opal diggings in rhyolite terrain - Central America's best-known water opal source.…
Virgin Valley Mines · United States
Humboldt County opaled wood and limb casts in clay diatomite — Nevada black opals are spectacular but craze-prone; public fee digs operate a…
White Cliffs Opal Digs · Australia
Australia's first commercial opal field (1889) whose pine-replacement opalized wood fooled London buyers — now a quiet fossicking town.…
Yowah Nut Fields · Australia
Boulder opal grows inside ironstone "nuts" — cracking open a Yowah nut is Queensland fossicking's lottery; pattern names like koroit chaos d…