Where Our Opals Come From
Reviewed by David van Niekerk FGAA — Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Australia, qualified valuer.
In short: every opal we sell is natural Australian opal — never synthetic, never imported. We buy directly from miners and from dealers who cut their own stones, from all three of Australia's main opal regions. Some stones are cut in Sydney by the cutters we work with. We can tell you which region an opal comes from; we do not claim to trace it to an individual mine.
Where do your opals come from?
From Australia's three main opal fields:
- Lightning Ridge, New South Wales — black opal.
- Coober Pedy and South Australia — white and crystal opal.
- Queensland — boulder opal.
Who do you buy from?
Directly from opal miners, and from dealers who cut the opal they buy themselves. Buying close to the source means we know who we are dealing with, and every stone has passed through very few hands before reaching us.
Where are they cut?
A mix: some stones arrive already cut by the dealers we buy from, and some are cut for us in Sydney by specialist cutters.
Can you trace my opal to the mine it came from?
To its region, yes; to an individual mine, no — and we would be wary of anyone who claims that for everyday stones. Opal changes hands as rough parcels between miners and cutters, so mine-level records are rarely kept. But opal types are regional by nature: boulder opal forms in Queensland ironstone, and black opal of this kind comes overwhelmingly from Lightning Ridge — so a stone's type, and its matrix, tell you its region.
Do you sell synthetic or imported opal?
No. We sell only natural Australian opal. Where a stone is a doublet or triplet — natural opal bonded to a backing — we always say so. See Solid, Doublet & Triplet Opal — What's the Difference?
Why does this matter?
Because a tourist area is full of opal that is not what it seems. Knowing where your stone came from, and exactly what it is, is part of what you are buying. See also How to Value and Choose an Australian Opal.
It's an honour to be part of your story — and to be able to tell you where your opal began.