Comments by "Me Here" (@mehere8038) on "Why Black Opal Is So Expensive | So Expensive" video.

why does he "deserves huge"? I don't see anything in the story suggesting that, he's just a typical Aussie guy. What he & his family deserve is that he learns from those in nearby Coober Pedy & converts his mine into a living room & decorates it & makes it a much more pleasant environment to spend time in, so he hardly feels like he's "working" at all
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This is in Australia, so miners will get a decent amount or they'll sell elsewhere. I'm sure that's not the case in some countries, but those mining in Australia do if for the money & minimum wage in Australia is around $20 per hour, so they have to be making well over that or they don't bother! During covid, the Australian government offered anyone who would travel out of the city to pick fruit for 6 weeks a $6000 bonus, in addition to the pay they got for the job, less than 100 Aussies were temped into doing it, wasn't considered enough money to work a manual labour job in the heat
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"Lightning Ridge is on the edge of the outback" Struth, really? It's out past the black stump! hardly the "edge" of the outback!!!!!!
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I say he's mining wrong! I like the idea from Coober Pedy, dig a mine & make it your living room, so you can sit in there & relax out of the heat :) Would be a much more pleasant job if he had nice surroundings & a tv or youtube or whatever playing in the background to entertain him while he worked from his couch
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If worried about bringing opals or meds of anything into Australia, always just tick "yes" in the appropriate box on the passenger declaration card & you won't get into trouble for anything, customs will just check what you've got & in the vast majority of cases approve it. If you tick no though & do have something you were supposed to tick yes for, you'll be in serious trouble! Australian customs is kinda the reverse of the rest of the world in that regard & glad you enjoyed Australia :))
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In Coober Pedy, most people live underground. The opals found in digging out the areas that will become the house generally pay for all the costs of the house construction. If a person living there wants to extend their house, no problem, they just get a bank loan, which the bank happily gives, knowing the costs of the renovations will be covered by the opals found in digging out the extentions
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Seriously, go look at the Australian opal town of "Coober Pedy", you'll love it if you thought there were trees in this. They have churches & pubs & everything under the sun in "mines" there! whole town is underground in mines to keep out of the heat
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google tells me otherwise
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not really "old" opal mines, they just buy a plot of land & turn it into a sort of opal mine as they dig out their house, then close the "mine" again once they decide they have enough living space, with the opals found in digging out the house covering the costs of the construction :)
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mate, no negative impacts on those that find them in Australia, which is where the vast majority of opals are found! Try a different gem for that story!
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@-Secret Very rare with opals in Australia. Opals don't lend themselves to industrial level production, so it tends to be individuals, who tend to take care of their own safety. Coober Pedy is the main opal centre of Australia (although for white opal, not black) & people literally live in the "mines" there, they have electricity & plumbing & everything a normal house would have, except they build their houses underground, so as to avoid the heat & they can afford to do so, because excavating for the house finds enough opals to pay for the construction/excavation. There's churches, pubs, hotels, everything you can imagine found underground in "mines" in Coober Pedy & people can literally dig for opals while sitting on their lounge watching tv in their living room, so again, wrong gem to be talking about that with. Lots of gems & metals put people in danger, but Australian opals are really not one of those
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