100 years have passed since the time Willie Hutchinson discovered a few pieces of opal while taking a walk in Australia Outback. Together with his father who was into gold searching, he got a chance to find a way to a gemstone-mining boom. After that Coober Pedy town was established.

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Currently, the settlement is now popular for being the Opal Capital of the World. Australia has the highest Opal deposits, producing 80% of the world's precious opal. 

One cannot imagine how beautiful these stones are until it's actually seen in person. Coober Pedy's gemstones are popular in their whitish color and some of it will glare like a rainbow especially if lights hit it. These stones seem to imitate the color of church windows that are in mixed colors. 

Officially, Opal is now the Australia's "National Gemstone. A group of geologist wants to identify this classic rock and related it in identifying its significance on human culture. For sure it can lead to a better understanding of human heritage.  

Global Heritage Stone Resource project, which started in 2008, has been searching for their first designation in the field. It was only 7 years after before they start working on the stone research. By conducting a study on these important gems, it will be much easier to specify materials that can help in identifying important minerals to be used in the industry. It may also provide protection to the mining sites where these stones are being extracted. They wanted to distinguish more rocks used in constructing buildings like Portland stone, Carrara marble, Norwegian larvikite and Sydney sandstone.  

This project will be used in categorizing which stones can be helpful in construction project like old building restoration. If there is no other intention for this study, we can say that it is helpful in boosting the marketing aspect of these stones.

According to BBC News Barry Cooper said that opals are not just for jewelry gemstone but can be also used in sculpture and mosaics, which can do more social significance aside from seeing them in the buildings. Some foreign buyers thought that they are not allowed to purchase such gems in large quantities, but this myth is totally wrong.  But some Geologist have been showing disapproval on this project because it progresses towards industrialization, not preservation of these natural stones.

Tagsopal, australia gemstone, australia national gemstone