Time to Plan Your Treasure Hunt

Time to Plan for Your Treasure Hunt!

As most the world is finally emerging from the Covid nightmare, large segments of humanity are now looking across the globe for the most interesting and unique adventure that they can experience to make up for lost time. Are you among them?

Yes, there are the myriad of global amusement parks and fabulous hotels in overcrowded tourist cities and resorts, the glittering gambling dens of “high rolling” cities, the cruise ships to anywhere and everywhere. But …. how do you choose? What do you choose? Where do you choose? When do you choose? And the Big Question ---Why? For most of us the answer is essentially anytime, anywhere, anything.

Seriously? A vacation without purpose? Yes, you’re thinking of doing the same thing that everyone else is doing; again!

Have you tried to find a place that not only is basically left to you alone? Have you considered a place that is refreshing and beautiful? Have you considered a place that offers a unique reward and memories that will last you a lifetime…? and we are not talking about souvenir T-shirts and hats here. We are talking about finding an heirloom item that you will treasure forever; like in Precious Opal. But where?

British Columbia, Canada is as gorgeous a place as any place on Earth. Don’t believe us? Just open up a new screen on your phone, or better yet, use your desktop or big screen TV, and take a look at Vernon, BC. Yes, it really is that gorgeous.

On to the second part of why you would go to Vernon. As the inquisitive reader will remember, there are very few places on the face of the earth where beautiful precious Opal is unearthed. 95% of all opal comes industrially from the parched and desperately barren hinterlands of Australia. In contrast a very tiny percentage of quality opal comes from the only commercial opal mine in the entire vast dominion of Canada. And, during the brief and stunning summers here a limited number of adventurous souls’ venture to come up and search the land for treasure and enjoy exquisite forests and brisk clean air.  

Although, to get to the mine you will travel through an expanse of land decimated by one of last year’s wildfires; we at the mine were blessed and left un-scathed.

Essentially, you get to do exactly what we professionals perform regularly up here. Yes, mechanical mining pulls the larger sections of terrain out of the hillside. However, opal is still very delicate and hard-to-find. It must be hand sorted to find the rough gemstones that will eventually become fine jewelry later on. And this is where you come in…unlike the industrial miners, who must turn in all findings for company processing, YOU get to KEEP whatever you find! Oh! it’s dirty work all right, sometimes digging in the muck and mud, or the heat and dust with your bare hands. However, you will find a treasure. And the best part, is you can spend the rest of your life boasting how you yourself dug it out of the earth by your bare hands, in the wilds of Canada.

Just imagine it: few things are more exotic or exciting than discovering and uncovering your own precious gemstone. It may seem like an arduous task, but it is a vacation that you will long remember, with valuable souvenirs that will become fine jewelry you can adorn yourself with.

Let’s enhance that vision…

The ancient Romans prized opals as far back as 250 BC. It is said that in Australia many ancient aboriginal dreams are stories that feature opal. Just imagine capturing one in the raw and then seeing first-hand how elegant it will become for you or your loved one. Definitely and heirloom paragon.

Throughout the Middle Ages opal was valued very highly due to its mystical colors and variety of host material. Much like a sacred amulet, opals were considered conveyors of good fortune, good health, and love; because it was believed that each gemstone color represented in Opal’s spectrum allowed the stone to possess immense powers.

Over the ages, numerous cultures have credited the rare Precious Opal with supernatural powers and healing abilities. The ancient Greeks believed Opals protected wearers from illnesses and even bestowed upon them the gift of prophecy. Several Arabic legends tell of Opals falling from the heavens during lightning storms. 

In Australia Opal deposits are found at depths of up to 50+ feet in very old, weathered profiles, of exposures of sedimentary rocks of late Oligocene and early Miocene age. These rocks are for the most part concealed below surficial sand and soil cover and it is comparatively rare that Opal occurs in outcrops. Most believe that the Opal is ancient like the rock in which it forms; but we believe the Opal itself is much younger; likely late Miocene aged. The opal forming silica is likely leached from the host rocks and Opal forms in cracks within the layers of sedimentary rocks. Some of the silica replaces more ancient fossils in the sediments.

However, at the Klinker Deposit, Opal occurs in surface outcrops forming in near vertical fractures and voids in mid to late Miocene aged volcanic-sediment called lahar debris flows. The opal forming silica source is believed to be a combination of rising geothermal waters and weathering/leaching of abundant silica rich sediments and Diatomaceous Earth formed in ancient paleo lake basin environment.

As a consequence, the Klinker Deposit is considered by most expert geologists to be very rare and likely small in size. However, only the future will tell; as this lake-basin is extensive and similar environments occur in several places in British Columbia. Some opal has been found but all other occurrences are under explored. Future discoveries development will increasingly rely on sophisticated geological and geophysical exploration methods.

Yes, one of the rarest geological places on earth happens to be at the Klinker Opal Deposit just west of the gem of the Okanagan, Vernon, BC; and it is a place where you yourself can hunt for Opal. Why are you still hesitating? Is that cruise to the Bahamas still that alluring?

The bottom line here is that yes, we use small scale industrial methods to obtain the opal that we mine and process. However, even our own experts miss a good deal of it and there are places where limited hand-mining in the rock is allowed. That is where you come in. You can have the special, limited opportunity to come up find a personal Opal. You could well find the jewel that our specialists have missed (see pictures above). Anyone who has come to dig with us would gladly tell you, the specialists actually miss quite a bit which leaves quite a bit for you to come and discover.

So, when are you coming?

Contact us very soon, as the spaces for this adventure in the Okanagan Outback west of Vernon, British Columbia are very limited and the season is short.