Chapter 810 Groups of Snakes Guarding Black Opals (1/2)

Chapter 810: Groups of Snakes Guarding Black Opals

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

What followed was just serious, tough mining work.

The harvesting of fire opal mainly revolved around picking them up, while the harvesting of black opal was completely dependent on labor.

Due to the autumn winds blowing across the coastal regions of Australia, the coastal regions had already started becoming cold. Despite that, the southwest and northwest regions still had very high temperatures like before.

There was only one reason for the above phenomenon. As the southwest and northwest regions were surrounded either by barren lands or deserts, their temperatures would increase drastically as long as there was a little bit of sunlight.

With Brother Wolf operating the small excavator, the alloy backhoe slammed onto the ground with a crash, dug up a pile of shattered rocks, and created a large pit.

One of the factors that enabled Lightning Ridge to become a prosperous black opal producing land was its sturdy ground, which allowed holes to be dug into it.

Although black opal veins were also found in other parts of Australia, the ground in those areas was too soft. Consequently, it was impossible for mines to be opened and tunnels to be dug, which in turn made it impossible to go deep underground to harvest black opal.

If the rocks could not be removed, the black opals that were hidden within them were naturally not able to be harvested.

The formation of black opals was similar to that of fire opals. Under specific geological conditions, water streams would remove silicon dioxide from sandstone while flowing across the ground. The water streams, which were rich in silicon dioxide, would then seep into the cracks and holes in the rocks underneath the ground. After the water had evaporated, the silicon oxide that was left behind would form beautiful gemstones.

Compared to fire opals, it was much more difficult for black opals to be formed. Approximately 400 to 500 million years was required just to form a gemstone layer that was one meter thick.

As the quality of the land and geological conditions in Lightning Ridge was different from that of the national park, the shape of the black opals formed in Lightning Ridge was different from the shape of fire opals formed in the national park.

The fire opals in the national park were usually found individually and had a blocky, round, or oval shape, whereas the black opals in Lightning Ridge existed in thin layers in black opal veins.

Therefore, one had to be very careful when digging a black opal vein. The layers in the black opal veins were so thin, the gemstones could be damaged if one was not careful.

As Li Du knew that there was no black opal vein where they were, he only ordered Brother Wolf to dig with the small excavator.

With the excavator constantly bombarding the ground, before long, a large pit 1.5 meters deep was dug.

At this stage, because the excavator's arm was only 1.5 meters long, the excavator could no longer be used. Subsequently, the digging of the pit required the use of manual labor.

The Australian government placed great importance on the protection of the environment. Just like the harvesting of black gold abalone had many rules, the harvesting of black opal also had many rules.

For example, harming green vegetation on the mine's ground was prohibited. In other words, digging from the surface was prohibited in places that were covered in grass or that had trees.

Fortunately, Lightning Ridge was located on a barren land that did not have much green vegetation, so the number of places that could be dug was relatively greater.

The digging of a large pit was followed by a change in machinery. Godzilla walked over carrying a rock hand drill machine.

Rock hand drill machines were excellent ramming machines. After placing a rock hand drill machine into the rock pit, supporting it, and plugging it into a power source, the drill would start spinning and drilling into the pit.

While Li Du went to plug the machine into a power source, Godzilla used both of his large, steel tong-like arms to grab hold of the machine. With a roaring sound, the machine's drill began drilling into the pit.

While the rocks underneath the machine were shattered by the sharp alloy drill, large amounts of shattered rocks shot out of the pit and onto Godzilla's body, producing rattling sounds. Unaware of it, Godzilla continued working.

”Is this a time to be a hero?” Li Du bellowed before taking a piece of iron sheet and placing it over the pit. All of a sudden, as if hailstones were falling from the sky, banging sounds could be heard.

Different tools were required at different stages. After spending an entire day digging, the pit had become three meters deep. As the pit was sufficiently deep, Li Du motioned to the others to stop working.

The gemstone vein in the number 114 mine was only approximately three meters from the surface. As such, by digging towards the north at that depth, Li Du would reach it sooner or later, as long as the direction they were digging in was correct.