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[Jhon P]

Went out the the Kokopelli Opal mine. I did the fee dig for two days and collected about 3 lb of opal mostly blue and white. Don’t know how much fire intill I clean it up.
The best find was a 2 1/2” blue opal pine cone (very rare and valuable). I still have to clean it. The mine owner said that there has been only about 6 found there in the 20 years he has had the mine.
The opal from here is the most stable in the valley. Most the fire is directional and is pin fire. A lot of the time the fire dosn’t show up for a while. Some of the clear blue jelly opal is showing fire

[Bluetangclan]

That's cool. I thought all virgin valley opal crazed and went foggy when out of water for any period of time?

[hummingbirdstones]

Very cool, Jhon!  Please post pics of the other opal when you have it cleaned up.

Bluetangclan:  Most of the VV will craze when it's taken out of the ground, but not all.  Haven't ever heard of it clouding up, though.  We have one faceted piece of black VV that we've had for years.  All stable.   

One of the mine owners told us once that whatever they find they throw on a tin roof for the summer.  Whatever doesn't crack by then is usable.

[Jhon P]

The Kokopelli has the highest elevation and the lowest moisture in the soil. The owner showed me a couple of lumps of hard clay with pieces of opal in it that he put on a piece of plywood last year. Setting in the sun and I could see no visable cracks. The fire is not as bright as others. More of a pin fire.

[gemfeller]

Your pine cone cast is a real find Jhon.  Probably a museum piece.  I'm hoping it stabilizes without crazing.  Years ago I had the privilege of spending a week mining at the Rainbow Ridge Mine with owner Keith Hodson.  He showed me several black opal cone casts, carefully kept in water, with the most incredible play of color I've seen in any opal.  I think they'd craze almost immediately after being removed from the water but wow! they were beautiful.

[hummingbirdstones]

Have never heard of the Kokopelli before.  I'll have to look it up.  Sounds like it might be a fun place to dig some opal.   

[rocks2dust]

Gorgeous cone - one of the best I've seen! Yes, very rare and valuable.

[55fossil]

  Are you really going to risk drying out that cone?????   I am a gambler but that baby would go in water in a display globe if I should ever be so lucky. My luck at Virgin Valley has been that every piece I left out has crazed. Beautiful specimen material and a lot of fun collecting.

[Jhon P]

No! The cone is in water. When I carefully clean the crud and off of it it is going into a display bell jar. I have plenty of opal to cut. The mine owner told me that he puts it in a jar of mineral oil and it slowly draws water out.  If it is dried to fast it will crack

[irockhound]

Whew, glad it is being taken care of as it is special.  I too have never heard of that mine.  I used to go out to the Barnett Opal mine in Red Rock here and a couple of rare occasions to the Nowak mine, great opal and very stable but it is nodule opal which I think is much more forgiving than the Northern Nevada material but that hasn't stopped me from wanting to go try my hand.