Aussie national gem in crisis

Over 95 percent of the world's top quality opal comes from Australia where it is mined in the states of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Despite its value, the Australian opal industry remains fragmented at every level – from mining through to marketing. Little wonder the industry is in decline, says Andrew Cody.

President of the International Colour Gemstone Association and director of Cody Opal in Melbourne, Andrew Cody has a hands-on role in the opal industry and his achievements include involvement in the proclamation of opal as Australia’s ‘national gemstone’.

Cody spoke at this year’s National Opal Symposium held in Coober Pedy, the opal centre in South Australia’s outback. The supply of opal is at a critical level, he told delegates, perhaps the worst level in 35 years and the entire opal industry is in the doldrums.

“Coober Pedy won an award last year, a rather dubious award, it was the fastest declining town in the whole of Australia!”

And he thinks Lightning Ridge in NSW, another historic opal mining area, is not far behind.

“Every opal-bearing region is producing a fraction of the opal it did in former days and I believe that the supply crisis is destroying our industry.”

Opal is the most complex of gems and the big problem facing the industry is the lack of knowledge and understanding of how it is formed and where it can be found. Consequently, it’s the only gemstone industry in the world that doesn’t employ reliable geology for prospecting and mining, he says, and until the industry has a better understanding of opal genesis and occurrences, the situation will not improve.

Other speakers at the 2007 symposium also expressed concern over the rapid decline of Australia opal production. Black opal production is barely 30 percent of what it was in the 1990s, reports the Lightning Ridge Miners Association. The NSW Department of Primary Industries says registered claims have fallen 70 percent.

The Opal Industry is in crisis! Cody reiterates.

Some of the industry’s problems are global and faced by other export industries. The strengthening of the Australian dollar this year, for instance, increased the price of opal by over 50 percent in Japanese yen terms and 65 percent in US dollars.

Mining costs have also soared, says Cody. “Fuel, spare parts, health, safety, rehabilitation, conservation and access to prospective ground are issues that have resulted in an exodus of miners from the opal industry to a more secure future in other, more lucrative types of mining.”

As an opal trader, Cody is convinced that world markets will buy as much gemstone as Australia can produce. Currently opal sales are only a tiny percentage of the world coloured gemstone demand, he says, but this would increase as supplies become more reliable and turn it into a billion dollar industry.

Cody calls for a collaborative research programme between the relatively new Australian National Opal Miners Association (NOMA) and the Australian government. Prior to the founding of NOMA last year, the Australian opal industry was made up of a number of fragmented associations. It now has the cohesion and opportunity to go forward, says, proposing that a new group be formed under the auspices of NOMA. This would be a working party made up of industry, science, and government resources to look at ways of encouraging opal mining and finding much needed new fields. 

“Back in 2002, the Australian Jewellery and Gemstone Industry Council tired to set up such research, but couldn’t get the necessary consensus among opal mining industry interests. With the formation of NOMA this fragmentation should no longer be a problem.”

Australia is quickly running out of opal resources, yet geologists indicate there’s huge potential yet to be prospected, says Cody.

“The more we understand about opal the better chance we have of concentrating on these areas and reducing prospecting cost.”