And a lot of the black opal is found here, at Lightning Ridge. It's located on the edge of the Outback, with a population of just over 2,000 people. Miners have been searching for opal here for ...

Nestled in the sunburnt plains of New South Wales, Australia, Lightning Ridge is a place where the ordinary and the ...

Those who choose this as a living are as rare as these opals,” said Hays, who has visited Lightning Ridge several times. The 21.65-carat "Pharaoh," which displays a "Flag Harlequin" color ...

Lightning Ridge is well known for the black opal, for its multicultural community, for its can-do approach which built an Olympic-sized pool from community donations, but it's not so well known as ...

Common opal can be found all over the world, but the precious, coloured opal of Lightning Ridge is exceedingly rare. The traditional owners of this land have a longstanding relationship with opal.

C loaked in white dust and surrounded by expansive plains, the town of Lightning Ridge produces the bulk of the world’s precious black opal.This rare gemstone, prized for its dazzling play of ...

Down a crumbling black hole, Ormie Molyneux lays into the dirt with apick, ... Opal miners say proposed Lightning Ridge fees could kill industry. By Nicole Hasham. January 18, 2014 — 3.00am.

Bernard agrees. Back in her store in The Rocks, she hands me a ring set with a huge Lightning Ridge black opal pegged at about the same value as a one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane’s CBD ...

Rich life in Lightning Ridge opal shanty towns. LIKE any other town they ... struck the jackpot and went into the Guinness Book Of Records for finding the largest black opal weighing 11,340.95 ...

Common opal can be found all over the world, but the precious, coloured opal of Lightning Ridge is exceedingly rare. The traditional owners of this land have a longstanding relationship with opal.