Volunteers man the service every Saturday under the leadership of Joe Schellnegger. Miners can bring along up to six cut and polished opals and a panel of experienced miners, cutters and wholesalers will examine and price the opals and come up with an average. A feedback card is supplied for each stone that gives the carat weight and a price per carat.

The service is confidential and the panel does not see who is dropping off their stones for pricing and the miner does not see the panel.

Any miner who wishes to use the service should drop off their opal when the service opens at 9am and pick them up before closing at 11am. They are often very busy so it is best to arrive on time to avoid disappointment.

The LRMA Opal Advisory Service do use the feedback cards to refine their pricing and they would appreciate it if all those that use the Service return the feedback cards once they sell their opal.

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LRMA secretary/manager Maxine O’Brien had an opportunity to visit PhD student Alex Fink at La Trobe University in Melbourne on 29 January. Alex is looking at the colours in common opal (potch) and trying to determine why black potch is black and grey is grey..

Alex has set up an opal display in the physics department at La Trobe University featuring a visual slide presentation on a continual loop along with posters and many samples of potch. He is planning on completing his PhD by the end of the year and will come to Lightning Ridge to present his results. He is greatly indebted to the many opal miners who supplied potch and took him underground to collect more samples.

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The following have applied for membership of the LRMA. If any member has an objection to any of the membership applications please contact the LRMA office and your objection will be treated with the strictest of confidence.

Mate Batarilo - proposer: Siro Scopel, seconder: Tim Jenner

Arthur Bowyer - proposer: Steven Spence, seconder: Bill Kotru

Shirley Pope - proposer: George Maddox, seconder: Kim Botfield

Edward Thurlow - proposer: Drago Panich, seconder: Gary Walls