Cunnamulla / Koroit, QLD - Australia
A few days ago I heard a neighbor had found some opal and had sorted and priced it. In addition to mining my own material, I'll also buy rough opal from my neighbors if the price is right. I was curious and went to take a look.
He had twenty-something containers of very low-grade rough priced between $20 and $220 per container. Some miners are firm with their prices and some are willing to haggle a bit. When asked how much room he had on his prices he said that the prices to pick and choose were as marked, but if I took everything I could have the lot for $3,000. After spending a few minutes looking I wondered how much of a discount the lot price would be off of the marked prices. I asked him. He was not sure, so he added up the prices. The total of the marked prices if I were to buy the containers separately was $2,960. Obviously, the lot price was not a very impressive discount.
That's what it's like to be an opal miner.
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