Gemstone district
Lightning Ridge Opal Field
Lightning Ridge in New South Wales is renowned for dark-bodied and black Opal and remains an active production center.
Evidence-backed overview
The place, clearly defined
Lightning Ridge in New South Wales is renowned for dark-bodied and black Opal and remains an active production center.
Geological context
How the occurrence is understood
Lightning Ridge in New South Wales is renowned for dark-bodied and black Opal and remains an active production center.
Bidirectional relationships
Documented gemstones
Occurrence and production are separate claims. A production label is date-bounded and does not guarantee quality, origin determination, or market value.
Opal
Recent, date-bounded evidence documents active production. This status requires periodic review.
Current status is date-bounded to the cited 2024 government or government-science evidence; continuous activity at every operation is not inferred.
Evidence ledger
Sources & verification
Sources are deduplicated across the geographic record. Current-production claims receive explicit review dates; a map point never substitutes for geological or production evidence.
- [1]Australian Mineral Facts: Opal.
Geoscience Australia
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