An Australian museum yesterday said it would exhibit what it believes to be the best opal ever found — a 6cm multicolored gem unearthed in the Australian Outback named the Virgin Rainbow.
The South Australian Museum said the stone, valued at more than A$1 million (US$729,000), would go on public display for the first time next month to mark the centenary of opal mining in the nation.
“It is of unequalled quality, it is a fully crystal opal,” museum director Brian Oldman said.
“It is almost as if there is a fire in there; you see all different colors,” he said. “As the light changes, the opal itself changes. It is quite an amazing trick of nature.”
Dug up in 2003 by local miners in the South Australian desert town of Coober Pedy, the Virgin Rainbow came into the museum’s possession about 18 months ago and is to be part of an exhibition opening in Adelaide next month.
About 90 percent of the world’s opals come from South Australia, once covered by an inland sea which, over millions of years, provided an ideal environment for the formation of the stone.
“I think this exhibition will have the finest collection of precious opals that we believe have been brought to one place in the world,” Oldman said.
Opals were first discovered at Coober Pedy — widely known as the opal capital of the world — in 1914 by a boy named Willie Hutchison, who was on a gold mining expedition with his father.
“The story goes that Willie set out in search of water one day, rather than staying at camp as he had been instructed to do by his father,” Oldman said.
“He came back to camp with water, but also with precious opal gemstones,” he added.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese