Reporter: Sally Dixon courtesy of The World Today

12 September 2005

ELEANOR HALL: The desert town of Coober Pedy, in South Australia, still lays claim to being the biggest opal producer in the world.

But the local mining industry has been in decline for more than a decade.

Now, as Sally Dixon reports, a chance opal find has seen a rush of new prospectors.

SALLY DIXON: Opal is the backbone of Coober Pedy in the middle of South Australia's desert.

Many locals have struck it rich, even while building their homes, which are mostly underground to avoid the unrelenting heat.

But over the past couple of decades, opal finds have dropped off dramatically, and many miners have moved on, according to Trevor McLeod, who's the CEO of the local council.

TREVOR MCLEOD: You've got a bit of an ageing community of opal miners from the 60s, 70s and 80s, and there just doesn't appear to be that next generation of miner coming up.

You know, the kids coming through school might be interested in other things – IT or whatever. The cost of getting opal out of the ground, I guess, the lack of new finds has been one thing that has caused a decline in the number of people that are out there mining.

SALLY DIXON: But this man thinks he stumbled upon what could become the next big opal field, just 40 kilometres south of Coober Pedy.

JOHN DUNSTAN: I landed on this, I parked on it, then I started looking around and all these floaters are just lying around everywhere.

And some of them have got nice colour – there's red, there's green, you can see the flashes in there, look at that. That's good quality opal.

SALLY DIXON: Local miner John Dunstan says he literally found the pieces of opal lying on the ground and that's prompted him and dozens of others to stake out claims on the patch of land they've named Opal Ridge.

JOHN DUNSTAN: Well, I'd say there's probably about 50 or 60 claims here already now. It's covered about half the hill, but the other half of the hill's still vacant, there's still plenty of room.

This area, there's about six kilometres long, by about two or three kilometres wide, that's all opal-bearing ground, and there's no holes on it. It's virgin, completely virgin.

So to find these floaters in virgin country is exciting because it can be an opal field and that's what we're hoping on.

SALLY DIXON: And tell me, what will that mean for the local opal industry?

JOHN DUNSTAN: Well, Coober Pedy hasn't had a new field for more than 10 years and if we can prove it to be a new field, this might keep Coober Pedy miners going for anywhere up to five to 10 years maybe.

And that'll be really good for the industry, because at the moment the production of rough opal is way down and we're losing a lot of the overseas buyers because there's no opal to buy.

So if we can prove this up, it'll be excellent for the town, excellent for the miners and everybody.

SALLY DIXON: Why did you not keep this new site to yourself?

JOHN DUNTSON: Well, you can only peg so many claims per person. So I've got my claims in and now all my friends and other miners that I know have all pegged around me, and within the next week or so we're going to have at least six, seven or eight drills working here. And once they start putting all the shafts down, that's going to prove whether it's going to be an opal field or not.

We're just a little bit premature at the moment. We don't know for sure, but the signs look good.

SALLY DIXON: Earlier this year, Allen's Rise, a separate region further south became the busiest opal mining site in the State after John Dunstan found large traces of black opal there.

Many miners have struck significant opal hauls there, but they're hoping Opal Ridge will be even bigger.

While Trevor McLeod from the local council knows it's still early days, he says it's a great boost to the community.

TREVOR MCLEOD: Obviously there's a sense of excitement I guess, the opal's there to be found, there's a new field, people are out there, they'll peg the new areas and, you know, it's almost like Sherwood Forest coming out of the ground overnight.

There's a chance to strike it rich, and do it quick.

ELEANOR HALL: Trevor McLeod from the Coober Pedy Council, speaking to Sally Dixon