Next, it's time for a serious and hard life as a miner. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The collection of fire opals depends on picking, and the collection of black opals depends on drying.

Today, the coast is getting colder, and the autumn winds sweep across Australia's coastline, but in the southwest and northwest, the temperature is still very high.

Without him, the surrounding area is either a desert or a desert, as long as there is a little sun, the inland temperature will rise vigorously, can it not be hot?

Brother Wolf operated a small excavator, and the alloy bucket 'clicked' down at once, and when it was dug up, it was a piece of gravel and a big pit appeared.

One of the reasons Lightning Ridge is a gold source for black opals is that the ground is hard and suitable for burrowing.

Black opal veins have been found elsewhere in Australia, but the ground is too soft to open tunnels to mine deep.

If you can't mine the ore, you can't find the black opal hidden in it.

The formation process of black opal is similar to that of fire opal, under certain geological conditions, the water flows through the soil, taking away the silica oxygen from the sandstone, so that the silicon-rich water flows into the crevices and cavities between the underground stones, and after the water evaporates, the silica compounds left behind are beautiful gemstones.

Black opals are more difficult to form than fire opals, taking about four to five million years to form a one-centimeter-thick layer of gemstones.

Because of the different geology and terrain, the shape of the black opa here in Lightning Ridge and the fire opal in the national park are also different.

In national park locations, fire opals tend to occur alone, in blocks, rounds, and ovals, and in Lightning Ridge, black opals appear as thin layers of veins.

Therefore, it is necessary to be careful to dig the veins here, the vein layer is too thin, and one careless person may injure the gem.

Li Du knew that there was no vein layer on their side, so he told Brother Wolf to operate the small excavator and work hard.

The excavator bombarded the ore belt on the ground, and soon dug a large pit one and a half meters deep.

At this point, the work of the excavator is over, its extension arm is only one and a half meters, and it has to rely on manual excavation.

The Australian government is very concerned about protecting the environment, and just as there are many restrictions on the fishing of black gold abalone, there are also many restrictions on the mining of black opal.

For example, the mine is not allowed to harm the green vegetation on the ground, which means that where there is a meadow or wood, it is not allowed to dig a pit from the ground.

Fortunately, the area where Lightning Ridge is located is a desert area, and there is not much green vegetation on the surface, and there are many places where you can dig pits.

After digging a big hole, the next step was to change the machine, and Godzilla came over with a stone crusher.

This kind of machine is like a great tamping machine, put it in a stone pit, hold it and plug it in, it will turn its head and go deeper.

Li Du powered the machine, and Godzilla's hands grabbed the machine like steel pincers, and with a roar, the machine's drill began to drill down.

The underground stones were shattered by the sharp alloy turn, and a large amount of rubble splattered out, and they hit Godzilla with a 'bang' sound, and Godzilla was still working as if he were unconscious.

"This is the time to be a hero?" Li Du said angrily, he took a piece of iron sheet and covered it on the pit, and suddenly, a crackling sound sounded, like hail.

There were different tools at different stages, and it took a day, and the mine went three and a half meters underground, and Li Du motioned for them to stop, and it was enough to reach this depth.

The gem belt at Mine 114 is only about three meters above the ground, and from this depth it extends to the northwest, and as long as the direction is correct, he will sooner or later run into this belt.

From tonight, they can't all live in the town, they have to stay in the mine to keep vigil at night, to prevent people from coming to steal equipment at night.

Mine 115 is not without its faults, and it has a nice place, which is that it has a very sturdy hut that can be inhabited when it is cleaned.

Li Du and the others chose to live here, he and Sophie lived in one room, Brother Wolf, Godzilla and the official randomly chose two people to live in one room, and the remaining one person went out to watch the night.

In the evening, the weather was gloomy, Sophie checked the weather forecast and said: "Starting tomorrow, there may be rain, I will go buy some umbrellas and raincoats in the morning." ”

It was still early, and a few people lit a campfire in the mine, sitting around it and roasting and drinking beer.

Ali jumped around Sophie, and Meow took advantage of no one's attention to give her a paw and slapped it towards the fire.

Li Du's eyes were quick, and he fished Ali back, glared at Ah Meow and said, "What are you doing?" How can it be so bad? ”

Meow pretended not to hear and wagged her long tail into Sophie's arms.

Ali now also knows that Li Du will protect it, and if there is nothing to do, he will run to Li Du's side.

It sat beside Li Du and arranged its little short hair with its mouth, and occasionally turned around and saw two green eyeballs in the darkness behind it.

Ali was startled, jumped up and hid between Li Du's legs.

Li Du glared at the two green eyes again, Ah Mo lazily shouted at his throat, and followed Meow to Sophie.

Simply lying in front of Sophie with his belly facing up, enjoying the comfort of Sophie scratching his belly, it rolled its eyes and squinted at Meow and Ah, full of superiority in IQ: two fools!

After a while, Ah Yan stood up vigilantly, his green eyes staring at the path that connected to the mine.

Soon, several miners appeared on the way, and they waved to Li Du at the door: "Hey, buddy, can we make a fire together?" ”

The temperature difference between day and night in the desert area is very large, and at night when the sun sets, the temperature drops quickly, and you have to light a bonfire to keep warm.

Li Du nodded, and several people walked in.

They sat down by the campfire, took the iron wine jug from their pockets, roasted it on the fire, and drank it.

Li Du had a lot of meat and hamburgers and the like, and he motioned for everyone to eat them as they pleased, and a few miners were overjoyed, and after thanking them, they ate the barbecue with wine.

Later, someone came over again, because Li Du provided free barbecue, and they called their friends who were on night duty in the mine.

In this way, there were more and more people here in Li Du, and finally dozens of people gathered.

Li Du did not refuse, he asked Brother Wolf to drive to the town to buy some barbecue, and entertained everyone to drink and chat here.

He asked the miners about the person Brache, and sure enough, as Bob said, the man had a bad reputation and liked to play tricks and tricks, and the miners shook their heads at the mention of him.

The miners drank and chatted and revealed a lot of news, and Li Du listened silently beside him, realizing that it was almost an impossible task for him to find a rich gem mine here.

It was a little late at night, and Sophie was about to go back, and said, "Li, I'll take Meow back, you take care of Ali and Ah Meow, I'm afraid there are snakes in the house." ”

One of the miners laughed and said, "If you have snakes in your mines, congratulations, the snakes are guarding the black opals, which means that your mines will be rewarded." ”

Hearing this, Li Du became interested.