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“I took my camera and lenses, and my DJI drone, along with a number of bottles of Nevada precious opal.”

"When our state's inland sea evaporated millions of years ago, it provided a unique silica-rich environment for the creation of precious opal. It is these exceptional conditions that created the Fire of Australia."

Highly acidic fluids dissolved silica from quartz-rich sandstones that then later precipitated as precious opal.

Most gem-stones are harder than quartz, though precious opal, turquoise, moonstone and sphene are inferior to it in hardness.

The settlement had weathered seasons of dearth, and had existed on the merest traces of precious opal before; but this one had lasted longer, and had tried everybody's patience and capacity for endurance to the last degree.