Wyoming Nobby

This particular Wyoming Nobby from Lightning Ridge is showing a lot of potential.
The color looks vibrant and the color bar seems to be a decent size— but you never know what is lurking below the white cap.

Sand monsters are lurking

From what I can see, this particular nobby doesn’t look like it will be a black opal. But, there’s a chance — never say never. What is more distressing, is the hole dead in the center of the nobby which could cause me some problems. As I take the top off, that sand spot has opened right up….argggh!!

The sand has taken over two-thirds of my color bar, so the gem has more than halved in size. This was a key stone in a parcel that I had a lot riding on, unfortunately. It will still produce a decent size gem with a beautiful color though, I’m sure of it!

Wyoming Nobby Finale

You can never tell from a piece of nobby what you’re going to get. This always needs to be taken into consideration when evaluating rough opal, there is always an element of risk. With the amount of sand that penetrated the color bar, we’re very lucky to end up with the decent gem we did. Finishing with a 1.73ct Black Opal for US$3000, you can find it here. What pattern do you think it is? Put it in the comments below.