Opal mining - Past time to Profession!

Hi guys! My name is Justin Lang and I am just obsessed with Opal. My fascination with opal began at the age of 5 when my parents took me on a trip to Coober Pedy. Hearing stories of opal miners striking it rich and becoming multimillionaires overnight captivated me and my imagination went wild with prospects of finding bucket loads of rainbow treasure buried underground! The laid-back culture of Coober Pedy also resonated with me even at an early age. As time went by the lure of adventure and treasure hunting never wavered, it only grew In my mind. It wasn’t long before it became a burning desire to return to Coober Pedy and give Opal mining a crack for myself! In my early 20’s I returned to Coober Pedy to peruse my dream of Opal mining! I was simply a young man with a burning ambition to strike it rich! With little knowledge or skills but bucket loads of enthusiasm I tracked down some old timers to learn the basics. I also read any book I could find on opals, opal cutting, mining etc, I wanted to know everything. This mesmerising Gem stone had me transfixed, now it was just down to finding some! My mate Dan shared my passion and so together we visited Coober Pedy intermittently for many years with nothing more but a pick and shovel. Our tools gradually grew in sophistication with the addition of some custom-made drills from a local miner. Wanting to explore every aspect of opal mining we took our adventure underground buying a winch and fixing it to our ute. This allowed us to explore the vast labyrinth of tunnels and caves under the dessert floor made by the old timers. It wasn’t long until our activity caught the attention of a film crew and they started documenting our journey. There was certainly lots of highs and lows to document and it was all apparently entertaining enough to create a documentary series known as Outback Opal Hunters, seen on Discovery Channel and 7 Mate.