OPAL
If you are looking for opals you need a Long Wave (365nm) filtered torch.
The more powerful your torch, the more likely you are to find opals. Opal fluoresces (glows) bright blueish white under UV. It glows better under Long Wave (365nm) than under Short (254nm) or Mid Wave (310nm), and that’s good because SW and MW torches are much more expensive!
Our torches are being used by many opal hunters at Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy, White Cliffs, Andamooka etc. One Lightning Ridge character recently purchased one, tried it, then ordered four more!
Our models FL1, FL2, FL8 and FL9 are all suitable for Opal hunting. FL8 and FL9 are the most powerful. FL8 (narrow beam) will reach much further than the smaller ones and FL9 (wide beam) will light up a much greater area.
NOTE: Opal fluorescence has nothing to do with the daylight colours of the opal. Opal fluoresces a bluish-white colour regardless of how the opal looks in sunlight. You shine the UV torch on the ground at night and if you see a bright blue-white spot you pick up an opal. UV does NOT affect the beautiful white-light colours of opal. UV will not make those colours brighter or more intense. Only white light will do that. UV is for FINDING opals, not LOOKING at them.
LITHIUM
Lithium occurs in spodumene, lepidolite, petalite, eucryptite. Spodumene is the most common and important of these. To find Spodumene you need a LONG WAVE UV source. It usually fluoresces orange/tan/pink under long wave UV light, 365nm being the optimal wavelength. It can fluoresce other colours (rarely), as can Lepidolite and Petalite. Eucryptite fluoresces a deep cherry red under short wave UV.
[Long wave UV is also known as UVA and Short wave UV is also known as UVC]
Several of our 365nm FL8 torches are being used to find spodumene in Western Australia.
The brightness and colour of a given mineral’s fluorescence depends on the impurities in the mineral. Those impurities are called “activators”. Different activators in the same mineral can cause different colours of fluorescence. Too much or too little activator in a normally fluorescent mineral can cause it not to fluoresce at all, or to fluoresce only dimly.
Therefore, it is not possible to use fluorescence to definitively identify minerals, but it can help confirm an identification. For example, if you are looking for a mineral in an area where it is known or likely to exist, and you find the expected colour of fluorescence, there is a high probability that you have found what you are looking for.
The video shows spodumene (18cm x 10cm) from a mine in WA fluorescing under an FL8 torch.
Initially the torch is about 3m from the rock, then about 2m and finally about 1m.
SCHEELITE
Scheelite is the ore for Tungsten. It glows bright white/bluish-white. To find it you need a SHORT WAVE UV source. Any of our Short Wave torches can be used. It does not glow at all under LW or MW.