Welcome Back to SmarterEveryDay.

When you think about

gemstones people typically have their favourites.

I happen to think that opal is one of the most fascinating stones there is.

Think about it:

If you think about a diamond or a sapphire or even a ruby

it's just a coloured rock.

Opals are different.

Opals are created by specifically stacked hydrated silica spheres

that would defract light as it enters the rock

and it'll exit as blue, green, or even red.

This is fascinating and in order to create something so specific,

it requires a very precise geologic condition in order for that to form.

So today on SED the question is simple.

How do we find an opal if it has to be created under very specific conditions?

The answer - we're going to have to to travel to the other side of the world,

to one of these specific places that opals are created and find an opal prospecting expert.

To find the guy, I flew to Coober Pedy, Australia, which is the opal capital of the world,

It looks like Mars - like straight out of 'Mad Max'

In fact it is where they filmed 'Mad Max'

It's such a harsh environment that people live underground

and this sounds like a joke, but you're not supposed to walk backwards at all in the town.

Seriously, someone died by falling in a mine shaft a week before I got there.

I had no plan when I arrived

so I walked straight into the visitors' centre and asked for an opal mining expert.

Destin: I am with George... George: Kardeş, kardeş! (brother)

Destin: Gar dashy? George: kardeş - means brother!

Destin: Kardeş! I'm sorry! George: lol

Destin: So he came to Coober Pedy in 1969 and he's been mining his entire life.

Today he has agreed to take us out. We're going to go to a working mine?

George: Yeah, we'll go to drill for opals with a Caldwell drill, American drill.

Destin: Ok, we're going to go use an American drill to drill a shaft down into an opal mine.

George: Jawohl! (yes, sir)

Destin: This should be awesome, let's go give it a shot.

What does that sign say? Hold on, back up. Let me look at that sign.

George: That sign says 'Shafts; Danger; Don't walk backwards'.

Destin: So everywhere there's a pile of dirt there is a shaft into the ground. How deep will the shaft be.

George: This area will be 20 metres (66')

Destin: So everywhere I see a pile of dirt there is a 20m shaft?

George: Yeah, definitely. Destin: Oh my goodness.

But there's also horizontal shafts at the bottom of the vertical shafts right?

George: Sorry? Destin: Aren't there also shafts that go side to side?

George: No that's tunnels not shafts. Where do you live, Alabama?

Destin: Alabama. George: Ahh that's why you don't know...

Destin: So if somebody hears you have struck opal, they will come at midnight and try to steal all your opal.

George: No no no no, that's another thing, but they try to peg the claim.

Destin: What's that word you're using? Pack? George: To peg! To peg! To put the pegs down.

Destin: Peg! George: Peeeeeeg!

Destin: So they're pegging the claims. George: I am from Greece, my accent is a bit funny.

Destin: I'm from Alabama, my accent is a bit funny too. I get it. *brofist* Yes!

George: Two tough guys. Destin: Two tough guys in Coober Pedy.

George: That's it, we're approaching the drill now. Destin: Oh, this is the drill.

George: Ahuh Destin: Oh wow.

George: Caldwell. America. It's a bit old but nice, does the job.

Destin: Georgie is 70 something years old and he's nimble as a cat. It's crazy.

George: Okay! ... Good luck!

Destin: Good luck!

Destin: Oh, wow. I think I get it.

So he only, the butterfly only moves down the length of one bucket every time?

Oh, it's hydraulically driven! I get it!

Destin: So this drive wheel is called the what? Lady: This one is the ring gear.

Destin: So the ring gear drives the butterfly,

and these pistons on the side support the weight of the butterfly which holds the bucket?

Lady: Yeah, and it lifts up and down giving you the length of one bucket.

Destin: That's genius. George: American.

Destin: Americans came up with that? That's awesome.

The neat thing about how this drill works is that it's very hands-on.

As the bucket comes up to the top, George taught me how to connect one cable so a winch

can pull the shaft to the side and a second rope so you can release a trip mechanism

at the bottom of the bucket to dump the material out.

You've got to love people like George - he's mastered this art for himself,

and even though there's money in it he's still not stingy with the knowledge that he has gained.

For example, in this field he said there's two known depths that contain opal,

and the locals know exactly how far down it can be found.

They remove the material one bucket at a time and constantly measure the hole

to see how far from the opal they are.

Once the dirt pile changes from brown to white the depth is confirmed,

and then they swarm the pile looking for evidence of opal.

Then you actually go down in the hole and you start looking for opal.

That's the interesting part. Lets go do that.

Destin: The middle of nowhere, must admit I'm a little bit scared that we'll fall in a hole.

George: Nah. If you talk so much I get upset. Destin: Haha You get upset?

George: Hahahaha Destin: I don't believe that :)

George: No, you're my friend; I don't get upset with my friends.

Destin: No way.

George: Over!

Unknown: How 'bout that? George: That'll do. Alright.

Unknown: We're good? George: Turn it off. Yeah, very good.

Destin: Ok I understand the purpose of the safety rope, it's for if your winch doesn't work?

George: I drop it in; I come up. Destin: Yeah you climb up.

Wow

Destin: Have you ever had to do that?

George: Oh, many times

Destin: You can still do it?

George: So why is the rope for? Destin: lol

George: You're joking...

D: lol

D: Oh man...

George: If you're not here I'm by myself.

Destin: Nonono, lets go, lets go.

George: If we don't come up we stay here all night. Destin: I get it, buddy. Lets roll.

Destin: Lets roll, man. I get this.

George: Hold this, please... Thank you.

George: Hold. You're holding? Control your body with your toes.

Destin: Ok. I've got it.

Destin: haha, wow.

Holy cow,

Ok, to review: I met a guy yesterday who took me to a secret hole in the middle of the desert

and now he's lowering me into it... on the premise of finding buried treasure.

This was approximately the time I realised I should have told any one of these details to my wife.

Holy cow, look at this. It's opening up.

Oh my gosh,

And of course, there's a beer bottle down here.

Ok so he said unhook this, then wave the light. That's what he said.

So I'm going to wave the light...

George: You out!? Destin: I'm out!

George: Ok I go.

Destin: Once George got to the bottom of the shaft with me,

he explained that the drillers ream out the bottom to increase the surface area of the shaft.

He then started to legit pick his way through material in different spots based on the colour of the dirt.

After about 20 minutes of me being confused, this happened...

Do you want me to ah, do you want me to pick for a while?

George: (muffled) Yes, if you want to. Destin: I don't know what I'm doing bu-

George: Huhuhuhuhuh!

HAAH!

Destin: what?

George: HAAH!

Come have a look!

You see the colour there,

Destin: Where? George: and you tell me...

if you see some of the colour.

Destin: Right here?

Nope, I don't see what you're talking about.

George: Ok... Alright... look- Destin: Right here?

George: Yeah, spot on! Destin: Are you serious? Right there.

Destin: So that's green? George: Yes.

Uh

Destin: I'm just going to be straight up with you right now,

This is pretty dang crazy.

We are in the middle of Australia,

How far underground are we?

George: Not much... Destin: 50 feet underground? (15m)

George: Yes.

Destin: We went down this hole, and we're excited about this little bitty trace in the ground.

Man, people are weird

People are weird.

Destin: We do this so that - I see green there btw, George: Where?

Destin: Right here. There's green right there. You see it?

George: Yep.

Destin: People are so weird.

We're doing this because women like pretty things on their ears.

Destin: What do you think? Tara: Yeah they're pretty.

Destin: This doesn't make any sense at all.

George: Looks a bit of colour there, can you see colour or not?

Destin: Ohhhhh. My gosh. I do see it!

George: You know what I'm going to do? Destin: What?

George: I'm going to get jackpick. You busy?

Destin: You're going to go get a jackpick? Lets do it. Bring it.

Ok, don't leave me here.

(nervous laugh)

George: Keep digging. Destin: I'm digging... Ok, I'll dig.

annnd...

yeah

There are moments in your life where you stop and think about how you got to this point

that you are, at that moment. This is one of those moments.

There's 700 holes that I passed on the way in here, I'm in one of those.

The only person who knows which hole I'm in is George, and he just went up that shaft on a rope.

This is ... This is dumb. (more nervous laughter)

Destin: There's a big one right here. George: Yeah, colour.

Destin: Colour, George: Another one - colour. (x2)

George: You see the colour there? There is that one. Destin: Yeah.

Destin: Oh my goodness! George: And this one, look.

George: Look.

Destin: Maaaaaan, look at that!

It's an actual - it's an opal.

We found an opal.

Destin: George, you're crazy man.

There are some things in life that you can only do if a master in the topic shows you how to do it.

Finding a little bitty opal underground is one of those things.

That leads us to this weeks sponsor...

AD

Thankyouvm. Lets get out of the hole and go say goodbye to Georgie.

George: Hold this rope.

George: I got you. Alright. Don't worry, I'm here.

Destin: That was awesome!

Alright so that is it today here on SED. That is how you go find opals in the middle of this.

When you see a woman that has opal earrings or an opal pendant, or anything, just think of Georgie,

Right Georgie?

Georgie: Thank you :)

George: Especially the good looking -

Destin: If it's a good looking woman especially think of Georgie... hahahahaha

Ok so this is what raw opal looks like, so George has brought us here to Yanni

who is showing us this stuff,

Yanni: A stone that was next to that, here,

Yanni: I cut it and this came out. Tara(in background): oooooooooooh<3

Destin: Wow. George: Expensive opal btw.

Destin: This is very expensive? George: (???)

George: For example, ok correct me Yanni,

For this one here maybe

10,000 (AU$)

Destin: 50 years of mining opal.

George: 40. Destin: 40 years?

George: uhhh 60, uh 40... Destin: A lot of years.

Destin: Georgie, thank you so much. George: Thank you, my boy.

Destin: I appreciate it, I feel like you're my friend now.

George: I am your friend, man, Destin: Very good!

George: I am your friend! Destin: Very good!

George: I could be your grandpa, doesn't matter - I'm your friend.

Destin: Anyway I'm Destin; you're getting smarter every day :)

Have a good one

Destin: Have you ever had your generator die when you're down there?

George: many times. Destin: You just climb up the rope?