With a pickup truck as a bargaining chip, Couture's father traded for the 20 acres of property, eight miles from Spencer, in 1964. It's probably one of the richest deposits of opal in the world. So in a very small area, relatively speaking, we have a very rich vein of material.
Precious opal is the only stone of value on the property.
After a bulldozer rips out the bigger boulders, workers, using a hammer and chisel, break them into smaller pieces. Upon locating the veins of opal within, the rocks are further broken down into fist-size pieces. A rock-cutting saw is then used to slice through the rock. The pieces are finally ground and polished. The triplet is the most common way to fashion the opal.