How the Environment is used for Mining
Natural Environment: The opal mines in Coober Pedy are underground mines. The precious stones field covers an area of nearly 5,000 square kilometres. Majority of the area has yet to be mined. Within the 5,000 square kilometres of land that is mined there are over 70 different mine fields. Opal was first found in Coober Pedy on the first of February 1915. The mines are dug randomly in areas known to contain opal deposits. By 1999 there was over 250,000 mine shafts in the area and new ones are being made on a regular basis. The miners will use a calweld-type drill to sink a vertical hole with a one-meter diameter and to depths of 25metres using an auger bucket. In order to move all the waste material out of the shafts and drives power winches or automatic bucket tippers are used. Miners will then Asses wither or not the area contains any signs of opal dirt. If opal dirt is present Miners will dig sideways on the level at which signs of opal were shown. They do this by using tunnelling machines, which have revolving cutting heads and small underground front-end loaders. Even though most of the process of creating the opal mines is now done using machinery the actual extraction of opal from the rocks is done by pix axe, as opal is very fragile. Opal mining is usually done by individuals not a large mining company. This is because there aren’t many Opals and they are very hard to find.
Cultral: Coober Pedy is an unusual town with most homes or dugouts being underground as well as churches and bars. Coober Pedy does have roads above ground. To access the town you must drive as there are no airports. Coober Pedy also has hotels, hospitals , over 30 local stores and a golf course. Most miners mine independently only bying and renting equipment as it is needed. Therefore there is no specific infrastructure for the opal miners as most prepare and sell the opal they find to maximise the amount of money they make. However near any available water by a mining site there will usually be concrete mixing trucks to agitate/wash and sluice the material containing opal. At some mining areas there are Blowers which suck the opal dirt into trucks above ground. The trucks will then transport the dirt to the agitator for sluicing. Coober Pedy produces the most opal in the world, a huge 85%. The population of Coober Pedy os around 2,000 people with over 45 nationalities. Majority of the population has some kind of involvement in the industry. For example even fossicking, known by locals as noggling. It is hard to determine the exact number of miners in Coober Pedy as many are self employed. Nearly anyone can walk into the mines and there is no real formal system to count the number of miners working there.
Why people use Coober Pedy to mine opals
Availability of Workers in Coober Peddy: The availability of workers in Coober Pedy relies on the time and size of the last notable opal find. The average population of Coober Peddy is approximately 2,000 and most of their population will work in some area of Opal mining/production. However this number can fluctuate to 4,000, if people from around the world decide to travel to Coober peddy to try their luck in finding Opals in the mines. Coober Peddy is the most diverse town in Australia with 45 different ethnicities.
Laws and Regulations allowing mining in Coober Peddy: In Coober Peddy there are no protocols or safe guards to protect any potential impacts of mining on Material, Aboriginal culture. Even if an opal mining site is registered with National parks or Wildlife services there is still no protective regulations. In New South Wales Wild life and National Parks act in 1974 protects all Aboriginal relics in New South Wales, regardless of their status. They are also not allowed to deface or damage relics. There is also a code of practice for landholders and opal miners and prospectors. This gives information on reasons for the code, what the code is and on completion of mining or prospecting for opals.
Why Opals are found in Coober Peddy: Coober Pedy is in the Artesian Basin. The great artesian basin or GAB contains water held in a layer of sandstone laid down by erosion during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. In this era the area known as the Great artesian basin was below sea level. This caused a confining layer of marine sedimentary rock to form over the sandstone which resulted in the water being trapped in the sandstone. The sandstone is an auquifier
During the Tertiary Period 1.8-70 million years ago rocks in South Australia affected by weathering caused minerals of the country rock to break down and produce a c clay called Kaolin and also a soluble silica. Soluble meaning the silica could be dissolved. Another result was that cavities were created in the rock by dissolving the fossil shells and soluble minerals. The faults in the rock and the cavities resulted in a pathway for underground water to travel through which contained the soluble silica. Due to the periodic lowering of the water table. This may have been due to climate change which caused silica rich solutions, e.g. water carrying silica to move downwards to deposit opal in the rock cavities.
The water that was trapped in the sandstone by the marine sedimentary rock was now carrying soluble silica due to weathering on rock. This water containing the silica would travel through faults and fractures in the rock. Due to the water table lowering the water carrying silica was carried downwards into the cavities which would later become a opal deposit.
Natural Environment: The opal mines in Coober Pedy are underground mines. The precious stones field covers an area of nearly 5,000 square kilometres. Majority of the area has yet to be mined. Within the 5,000 square kilometres of land that is mined there are over 70 different mine fields. Opal was first found in Coober Pedy on the first of February 1915. The mines are dug randomly in areas known to contain opal deposits. By 1999 there was over 250,000 mine shafts in the area and new ones are being made on a regular basis. The miners will use a calweld-type drill to sink a vertical hole with a one-meter diameter and to depths of 25metres using an auger bucket. In order to move all the waste material out of the shafts and drives power winches or automatic bucket tippers are used. Miners will then Asses wither or not the area contains any signs of opal dirt. If opal dirt is present Miners will dig sideways on the level at which signs of opal were shown. They do this by using tunnelling machines, which have revolving cutting heads and small underground front-end loaders. Even though most of the process of creating the opal mines is now done using machinery the actual extraction of opal from the rocks is done by pix axe, as opal is very fragile. Opal mining is usually done by individuals not a large mining company. This is because there aren’t many Opals and they are very hard to find.
Cultral: Coober Pedy is an unusual town with most homes or dugouts being underground as well as churches and bars. Coober Pedy does have roads above ground. To access the town you must drive as there are no airports. Coober Pedy also has hotels, hospitals , over 30 local stores and a golf course. Most miners mine independently only bying and renting equipment as it is needed. Therefore there is no specific infrastructure for the opal miners as most prepare and sell the opal they find to maximise the amount of money they make. However near any available water by a mining site there will usually be concrete mixing trucks to agitate/wash and sluice the material containing opal. At some mining areas there are Blowers which suck the opal dirt into trucks above ground. The trucks will then transport the dirt to the agitator for sluicing. Coober Pedy produces the most opal in the world, a huge 85%. The population of Coober Pedy os around 2,000 people with over 45 nationalities. Majority of the population has some kind of involvement in the industry. For example even fossicking, known by locals as noggling. It is hard to determine the exact number of miners in Coober Pedy as many are self employed. Nearly anyone can walk into the mines and there is no real formal system to count the number of miners working there.
Why people use Coober Pedy to mine opals
Availability of Workers in Coober Peddy: The availability of workers in Coober Pedy relies on the time and size of the last notable opal find. The average population of Coober Peddy is approximately 2,000 and most of their population will work in some area of Opal mining/production. However this number can fluctuate to 4,000, if people from around the world decide to travel to Coober peddy to try their luck in finding Opals in the mines. Coober Peddy is the most diverse town in Australia with 45 different ethnicities.
Laws and Regulations allowing mining in Coober Peddy: In Coober Peddy there are no protocols or safe guards to protect any potential impacts of mining on Material, Aboriginal culture. Even if an opal mining site is registered with National parks or Wildlife services there is still no protective regulations. In New South Wales Wild life and National Parks act in 1974 protects all Aboriginal relics in New South Wales, regardless of their status. They are also not allowed to deface or damage relics. There is also a code of practice for landholders and opal miners and prospectors. This gives information on reasons for the code, what the code is and on completion of mining or prospecting for opals.
Why Opals are found in Coober Peddy: Coober Pedy is in the Artesian Basin. The great artesian basin or GAB contains water held in a layer of sandstone laid down by erosion during the Triassic and Jurassic periods. In this era the area known as the Great artesian basin was below sea level. This caused a confining layer of marine sedimentary rock to form over the sandstone which resulted in the water being trapped in the sandstone. The sandstone is an auquifier
During the Tertiary Period 1.8-70 million years ago rocks in South Australia affected by weathering caused minerals of the country rock to break down and produce a c clay called Kaolin and also a soluble silica. Soluble meaning the silica could be dissolved. Another result was that cavities were created in the rock by dissolving the fossil shells and soluble minerals. The faults in the rock and the cavities resulted in a pathway for underground water to travel through which contained the soluble silica. Due to the periodic lowering of the water table. This may have been due to climate change which caused silica rich solutions, e.g. water carrying silica to move downwards to deposit opal in the rock cavities.
The water that was trapped in the sandstone by the marine sedimentary rock was now carrying soluble silica due to weathering on rock. This water containing the silica would travel through faults and fractures in the rock. Due to the water table lowering the water carrying silica was carried downwards into the cavities which would later become a opal deposit.