It's freezing cold, scorching hot and a source of Australia's opals. Here's what life's like when you have to jury-rig even the most basic tech to survive. Claire Reilly was a video host, journalist ...

Opal-mining is one of the world’s most harrowing pursuits, but potentially one of the most rewarding as well. To find opals, a modern treasure hunter must dig random holes in areas of known deposits, ...

CICERO, Ind. (Hamilton County Reporter) — Dean Caldwell of Cicero has been mining opal and obsidian for six months of the year in Mexico for the last 15 years. Last year, he pulled an opal out of the ...

Beneath the desert of South Australia, a photographer finds a community of opal miners with a "crazy and unusual life." Gabriele Gouellain, a German immigrant, waits in the kitchen for her husband to ...

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Opalised fossils from Lightning Ridge, N.S.W, Australia. From the collection of the Australian Opal Center. Clockwise from top left: freshwater snail; plesiosaur tooth; crocodile tooth; pine cone; ...