Black Opal Stones

Buy Black Opal StonesBlack Opal stones For Sale Online Direct from black opal miners and wholesalers in Australia.
Opal miners search for this illusive gem in the deserts at lighting Ridge NSW where temperature can hit 50 degrees, so mining takes place during the winter months and many miners leave the Ridge and live in Melbourne, Sydney or the Gold Coast to escape the summer heat.This gem has grading system to help buyers. It is called the Body tone grading. Black opal stones have to be a N1 to n4 with N1 being the darkest black hues to N4 the lightest.Brightness is also graded from B1 to B7 with B1 the brightest and B7 the dullest with 3.5 average brightness.The Ridge also produces other opals that locals call semi black, fire opal or grey opal. These are classed as Dark opals with a body tone of N5 to N7.Today there is great demand for N1 black opal stones with gem colour of reds but production is low for these gem black opal stones that sell for thousands per carat.
N1 opals are now rare and many opal fields have been mined out so these stones are getting rarer and harder to find.To have good cabochon is also important and the miner needs to find nobby opals instead seam opal to get this thick colour bar
Pattern is also very important so the more unique the pattern the more the opal is worth. You can have two similar stones but one has an interesting pattern it can easily be double the price of the other stone. Top patterns are harlequin, Mackerel, Floral, Flag and broad pattern. Broadflash pattern is popular as in ring the fire colours will jump out.Our opals are natural untreated black opals but please be wary of black opals at cheap prices offered online and at markets as these are only smoked Ethiopian opals called black opal stones. Please enjoy viewing our range from the deserts of Australia.