Australian Black Opals and Lightning Ridge Opal | In general, Opal is a beautiful, but paradoxical gemstone . . . and one of the most fascinating.  The Ross Jewelry Company in Atlanta is one of the best resources in the United States for fine Black Australian Opals from the Lightning Ridge area of Australia.

Australian Black Opals in Atlanta | In many cases, Tom Ross, buys the company's Lightning Ridge opals directly from the miner who found the stone.  Lightning Ridge opals are nearly electric is appearance and can be remarkably beautiful and even . . . breathtaking.  If you are looking for your own Lightning Ridge Black Opal, please don't hesitate to call or send us an email.  Tom will be pleased to help you select one of these incredible gemstones.

Opal is a form of quartz . . . then, it is not a form of quartz. Quartz is very common, yet has many rare and precious gem varieties. Opal itself has numerous varieties. It is the most colorful gemstone, but some forms are colorless. It can be very bright and beautiful, and it can be dull and dead. It is best known for its blazing flashes of color, but some varieties have no flashes of color at all . . . and are still opals. It can be black, and it can be white. Its best known attribute, the brilliant flashes of multiple colors, are not called opalescence, but irridescence. Some people think opal is unlucky, but it is one of the most valuable and desirable of all gems.

Forms of Quartz
Opal is a variety of quartz. Quartz in turn is silicone dioxide, one of the commonest minerals on earth. Quartz exists in a number of different forms, ordinary sand is one form, but there are numerous gemstone forms of quartz.

Opal as a Gel
Actually because opal is a gel, it is, strictly speaking, not a form of quartz. Quartz is a crystalline form of silicon dioxide, opal is a solid gel. However because the chemical formula is the same except that opal is hydrous, that is it contains some water which is chemically attached to the silicon dioxide molecules.

Ancient Sources
Opals were known and mined in Roman times. The Roman mines were in and around Cervenica, previously in Czechoslovakia, although we have now lost track of all the recent changes in Balkan geography.

Durability
Opal is one of the softest gemstones and should be enjoyed, but owned with reasonable care.