Australia to display world’s finest opal stone at museum

Author: Junaid Javed

SYDNEY – AnAustralian museum said Monday it would exhibit what it believes is the best opal stone ever found – a6.0-centimetre (2.4 inch) multi-coloured gem unearthed in the Outback named the Virgin Rainbow.

The South Australian Museum said the stone – valuedat more than Aus$1.0 million ($730,000) – wouldgo on public display for the first time in September to mark the centenary of opal mining in the country. “It’s of unequalled quality, it’s a fully crystal opal,”said Brian Oldmanthe museum director.

“It’s almost as if there’s a fire in there; you see all different colours. As the light changes, the opal itself changes. It’s quite an amazing trick of nature.” Dug up in the South Australia desert town of Coober Pedy in 2003 by local miners, the Virgin Rainbow came into the museum’s possession about 18 months ago and will be part of an exhibition opening in Adelaide next month.

Some 90 percent of the world’s opals come from South Australia, once covered by an inland sea which over millions of years provided an ideal environment for the formation of the stone. “I think this exhibition will have the finest collection of precious opals that we believe have been brought to one place in the world,”Oldman added.

Opals were first discovered at Coober Pedy – widely-known as the opal capital of the world – in1914 by a boy named Willie Hutchison who was on a gold mining expedition with his father. “The story goes that Willie set out in search for water one day, rather than staying at camp as he’d been instructed to do by his father,”Oldman said.

“He came back to camp with water, but also with precious opal gemstones,” the director said.

Share
Leave a Comment

Recent Posts

  • Business

SI Global Solutions becomes first Pakistani company to get membership of IALA

KARACHI: SI Global Solutions, a leading maritime and fastest-growing ICT system integrator and consultancy company,…

2 hours ago
  • Op-Ed

The Alarming Rise of Urban Pollution in Lahore

  In recent years, Lahore has been in the grp of a growing crisis that…

2 hours ago
  • Pakistan

PTI urges mass movement for judicial independence

The PTI has urged the public to unite beyond political divides and launch a movement…

2 hours ago
  • Top Stories

Pakistan congratulates Donald Trump for winning ‘second term’ as US president

Donald Trump was elected as the 47th US president on Wednesday, marking a notable comeback…

2 hours ago
  • Pakistan
  • Top Stories

PIA Denies Allegations Raised by Aircraft Engineers’ Society

  The recent accusations by the newly elected body of the Society of Aircraft Engineers…

2 hours ago
  • Cartoons

TODAY’S CARTOON

9 hours ago