The Spencer Opal mine in Spencer, Idaho! I am still over the moon after visiting the Spencer opal mine. Being able to go up to the mine is the opportunity of a lifetime. If you are able to go on one of their mine experience tours, do it! You can make a reservation on their website.
Watch the video:
Transcript
Hey everybody it’s me Betty I want to tell you all about my trip to the Spencer Opal Mine
This was a creator event so you’ll recognize a lot of the people from TikTok and YouTube Once we got to the mine Isaac and Cade went over a few safety instructions and we all introduced ourselves I missed Lattis’s introduction Sorry Lattis
And we are on primarily YouTube but also on TikTok Instagram Facebook I know that all the channels Jerry Yeah I’m Jerry I’m Wisconsin Rockstalker I’m on YouTube uh TikTok Instagram Facebook you name it I’m somewhere
Alan Alan Johnson It’s my wife Vanessa from Earth to Elegance primarily on YouTube a little bit on Instagram and uh TikTok Our we we turn we turn things into jewelry and our our kind of niche is that we do drops in for our community and area So just a hint if you’re not following us there might be a drop tonight
That was funny I’m Mark Sebastian I do um TikTok uh Instagram Uh my second time here I’m really excited about it That’s it
My name is Hina I’m on TikTok and I actually have never been mining It’s my first rock experience and I’m really excited
Okay let’s get back Jeff I’m Jeff of JnV Rock Hounding the Jay and JnV My wife Vicki is at home She couldn’t make it Uh I do a little bit of everything Agates and showing all kinds of stuff but one of my biggest things since I’m a truck driver I do stuff out on the road whenever I’m anywhere I go So I got Truck Count Chronicles on there It’s a little series I do But yeah I’m just I’m on TikTok and and my main is YouTube probably but TikTok
Cheryl rocks and I’m representing the beautiful North Central Montana I do anything rock related lapidary related up in the beautiful but rugged prairie of Montana
We’re Dagger and Rose jewelry Instagram Smith and a bunch of rocks A lot of Smithson’s Adventures on YouTube and we’re also on TikTok and Facebook and Instagram mainly YouTube
Hey I’m Trent I’m the Rugged Rockhound I like to go try and find new places for people to rockhound And I’m on YouTube And this is my friend Tim He likes to go out with me a lot He’s my eagle eye He finds all the things nobody else does
Theo I’m Theo Kellison My channel is Theo Kellison And I do um etc A little bit of everything
Um I’m Rock Betty I’m on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram I rockhound and cut and polish my finds
Hi everybody We’re Steve and Lori with Rebel Rockhounding Like long walks on the beach As long as there’s rocks on the beach We we go out on adventures That’s our big thing And we do everything from going to find the beautiful stuff to the lapidary And then we’re about ready to roll out our website and sell rough slabs and cabs There you go
I’m Kate from Katie Rocks and I’m just thrilled to see all of you here I have YouTube I am working on TikTok and Instagram Um and I have a great announcement since we have everybody here Theo and I have decided to do Heart for Rocks in the fall and Makers Challenge in the spring And I would like to invite all of you to participate in a Heart for Rocks It’s kind of like Makers Challenge except that we make stuff or send stuff an auction for a charity auction So if you are interested please uh hit me up during the day sometime and we’ll we’ll get it figured out
Awesome So thank you Okay Awesome We’re set Now get to work
After the introductions we all spread out started breaking boulders surface collecting and doing hard mining to fill our buckets with opal
The Spencer Opal Mine is famous for its pink opal but they also have yellow blue and common opal And the opal is stable You do not have to keep it in water
If you want to do the mine experience and tour you do need to make a reservation on their website If you’re able to do the mine experience you get to fill a 5 gallon bucket full of material It is everywhere
Whether you’re on the mine experience tour or if you’re just digging in their tailings pile the Spencer Opal Mine employees will be there to answer questions and help you and they are absolutely wonderful They checked on us all throughout the day brought us lunch They even handed us precious opal that they had picked up themselves
The precious opal is everywhere and there’s a fantastic beautiful view
Meeting the other creators was really special It felt like I’d known everyone my entire life and I’ll never forget it
Here I have a few pieces that I surface collected Within just a few minutes you can find dozens of pieces It’s really everywhere It’s a little bit camera shy You have to hold it at just the right angle for the camera to pick up the color bar but in person in the sunshine the color bars are everywhere
The precious opal pieces that have a thin color bar are best made into a triplet That’s quite a skillful process I was able to watch Leo make some and I learned so much from him but I still have so much to learn
A triplet consists of three layers A bottom layer which is usually black basalt or sometimes obsidian or other materials your thin layer of opal and then a quartz cap
All day long you could hear tink tink tink of the hammers hitting the rocks and then laughter We all had a really great time
I filled my bucket up with precious opal but also common opal and specimen rocks that I just thought were beautiful
I brought my wonderful husband Tom with me He acted as my cameraman and helped me gather material Thanks honey
If I’m given a chance to get back to the Spencer Opal Mine I will absolutely go back there Wow
We brought our drone with us so that we could record scenic footage and we used it to harass our friends Sorry Jeff
Let’s look around and enjoy some of this beautiful scenery
That’s Mark Sebastian on the cliff side there He’s gathering precious opal He is a true rockhound Don’t let anybody tell you differently
Then we had a creator opal competition to see who could find the best piece We got about a 20 minute head start and then the employees came out and started looking The winner got all of the employees finds
So I did not win the creators competition Lori from Rebel Rockhounding won but she had found a really beautiful piece of their pink opal and it had a thick bar It was amazing
I hated leaving Leo showed us how he does his triplet process and that was absolutely fantastic Leo thank you so much for doing that I loved this And the piece that he came out with in the end is amazing Look at this thing It’s a It’s beautiful I wanted to show you guys the contents of my bucket Not everything I brought home has color but it’s pretty shocking how much fits in a 5 gallon bucket
Well it’s still on my kitchen counter and I felt like a bumbling idiot trying to show the color bars It It’s just really hard to show and I it it was it’s frustrating to try to show to the camera but a lot of these are specimen pieces that show that you know how the opal is formed in the obsidian with the rhyolite And a lot of my specimen pieces they have color you know It’s just that some of these I just don’t want to cut like ever I I think it’s too cool to show how it forms and and in the host material I really like it like this
I did try to cut one Well no I tried to cut two One of the nodules I tried to just check and see if it had any color in it and it didn’t And then I I tried to cut one with an obvious color bar and then grind down to that color bar and I I ended up with just a couple of broken little chunks and I I ruined it It was like a total failure So I’m going to have to try again That wasn’t one of my best pieces or anything You know I’m just going to practice with less fantastic seeming pieces But you know obviously I have no idea what I’m doing
I really like this waxy juicy looking botryoidal stuff Really beautiful This stuff does have a UV reaction Some of it turns bright pink bright red green
All of this came out of that bucket That’s nuts
These are my favorite flashy little small pieces And I have them in water just to show them a little bit better not because they need to be Here’s a fun little body piece And another little fun body piece I just really love these
So much texture It really shows the pockets that they form in like little bubbly pockets
This is one of my favorite little pieces that I picked up It has a lot of color and it just you know it just broke out in this way So maybe I don’t need to touch it Not this one at least
This one’s really glassy and bubbly I love this one And it has color bars too Would you grind it down or leave it like it is Let me know
I really had a great time meeting everybody the employees and the creators Thank you so much
