Australian Black Opal
What is an Australian black opal?
Australian black opals are actually the most valuable of all the opals. A black opal is not completely black. It is actually a body tone of the opal that can range from jet black to a dark grey. What make the black opal so popular is the rainbow or spectral colors found within that that reflect so well against the dark background of the opal.
Black opals, unlike standard opals, have trace elements of carbon and iron oxide inside ands it is these that give the unusual darkness of the stone. The colors then stand out more and have a brilliants not found in the ordinary opal.
A top of the range high quality black opal can fetch up to 15,000 Australian dollars (1100USD) per carat weight. This is more than a diamond!
Black opals are found in only one place in the world - Lightning Ridge, in northern New South Wales. Lightning Ridge is famous for the black opal and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of black opals have been found there and are still likely to be found there.
Some semi black opals are also to be found mostly at Lightning Ridge, but have also been found at Mintabie in South Australia. To give a rough idea, top quality semi-black opal can fetch prices up to $3,500 per carat.
Australian black opals are an excellent google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) investment google_ad_section_end and any one purchased is quite likely to increase in value over the years.