Coober Pedy was a surprise. In Broken Hill, the whole town revolved around the big BHP mine, but here it felt like any man and his digger could just peg a claim and start a small mine. And by the looks of it, they did! It felt like true cowboy country.
The whole town was surrounded by fields of mullocks (dirt piles left over from sifting for opals), and being the true middle of nowhere, doesn't look like there was any requirement or effort made to rehabilitate the land.
The opal is a hangover from when the area was a vast inland sea, so there are also many cool fossils of pre-historic sea-creatures to be found. The mining process is fascinating. The rock is soft and stable, so no explosives needed. They drill a pilot hole and record the contents of the drillings at each depth until they hit opal. After that, the drilling goes horizontal to pull out stones from the same sedimentary layer, which is likely to hold an opal seam. The drillings are vacuumed up to surface and run over a conveyer belt in a dark room with a blue light to pick up the opals.
By the looks of it, as long as you can buy a digger and one of those vacuum bucket things, you can basically start your own mine (called a claim) by applying for a permit with the Dept of Mining and Energy. It all feel very egalitarian. Although also by the looks of it, there doesn't seem to be huge money in opals anymore hence the lack of big players.
Because temps get above 40 in summer, and quite cold in winter, about half the town live underground in “dug-outs”. We were able to rent one for a night and can confirm they are a very comfortable temperature with no heating!
We also had a go at “noodling” for opals at a public field. I found a couple of tiny ones which I might one day get cleaned up.
