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Sophie Benge

THE largest and most impressive collection of opals will be on show at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Watch Fair.

  More than 20 dealers from Australia will be exhibiting opals worth US$40 million, from rough cut boulders to finished stones ready for setting.

  The opal may not be the first precious stone people consider buying, but it is one of the most valuable. A top quality opal is worth more than a diamond.

  Over the last 30 years, the opal industry has been the source of many Hong Kong/Australia joint ventures, with opal-cutting factories springing up throughout the territory.

  Hong Kong craftsmen are some of the finest opal carvers in the world, according to Charles Kovacs, a leading opal dealer from Melbourne.

  In recent years, people from mainland China have become the main buyers in the industry, which explains why Australian dealers are flocking in such force to the fair.

  Traditionally, some women have been known to avoid the opal - it is supposed to be unlucky.

  Mr Kovacs said this myth was linked to Australia's history as a penal colony.

  The country claims to produce 95 per cent of the world's opals, the rest coming mainly from Mexico and the United States.

  Opal mining in Australia first started with fortune hunters in the 19th century.

  Millions have been made and livelihoods ruined over the years in the hunt for the stone.

  Opals were first mined by Romans in Hungary 3,000 years ago and were made famous by the Spanish monarchy, whose crown jewels contain hundreds of the stones, and later by Queen Victoria, who had a fantastic personal collection.

  The opal broadly fits into three categories - black, white and boulder - with white being the most common and black the most rare.

  Its specialty lies in the fact that it encompasses aspects of every gemstone in one, in a rainbow of colours from pinhead flecks to thick streaks.

  The more brilliant the colour, especially red, the more valuable the stone.

  ''As you roll an opal in your hand, it will change in brightness and colour,'' said Mr Kovacs.

  ''The black opal is the most rare, with brilliant blues and greens and strong reds and oranges.

  ''White opals are much more common, with a predominance of blue.

  ''The boulder opal is darker and is predominantly found in crevices of petrified wood in Queensland.''   On the whole, opals - coming from the ancient Indian word upula , meaning ''precious stone'' - are mined.

   Black ones are found in New South Wales and the white ones in South Australia, where one town, Coober Pedy, is geared up totally to the opal industry.

  Conditions in the outback there are so harsh that most of the town's residents live underground.

  Mining is done at a shallow depth, from between three and 15 metres, and conditions are primitive.

  ''Opal is difficult to mine commercially because the recurrence is small. One or two people will work together with picks and shovels,'' said Mr Kovacs.

  ''Some of the most beautiful opals are huge and, therefore, rarely cut down.

  ''In these cases, they would be museum pieces.

  ''You make the jewellery to fit the stone, rather than cut the stone to fit the jewellery, except in the case of cheap stones,'' said Mr Kovacs.

  He said the stone was becoming more popular worldwide, with demand now growing in Japan, Germany, the United States and - increasingly - in China, where enormous shipments of the cheaper stones are cut and set into jewellery.

  Mr Kovacs said: ''If you're in love with opals, you are unlikely to like anything else.''      ''You [can] see diamonds everywhere, but almost every opal is unique.'' 



Opals start to cut a dash