OPAL RUB!!! We have already primed the surfaces and edges.  This opal needs very little or NO preparation; simply cut and polish into your desired final product.

This opal comes directly from the Tablon mine in Honduras. This rough gemstone is ready to be cut and polished into any shape; perfect for fashioning into cabochons, beads, focal beads or using as inlay.

NOTE: Most all the host rock (basalt) has been removed from the pure opal seam to make sure there is minimal waste.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Our pictures of rough opal are taken WET under a high intensity light and cropped to reveal the brilliance of the fire and other colors embedded within the black matrix. With every movement of the stone, and according to the lighting conditions under which the stone is exposed, color, pattern and hue shifts and changes in genuine opal. Due to the intensity of lighting while taking our photos, an unavoidable white “arc” of light may be reflected from the lamp; it is not in the stone. Please be aware that different computer, tablet or phone screens may result in a slight variation of the characteristic and/or color from the original gemstone.

Specifications are as follows: 

TREATMENT: SB Malls  has been dealing in Honduran opal since 2001.  Rough opal, straight from the mine, is a porous material containing “potch” pockets (per the Honduran miners) that is surrounded with basalt (think porous lava). Untreated, opal is very difficult to work with due to the fragile nature of the material, and, when cut and polished, the end product not only has a dull finish, but the intensity of the colors running throughout the opal is diminished and it is visibly full of tiny pores of “potch” pockets. Over the years, we have worked hard to develop a treatment that not only hardens the opal and fills in the pores; it also removes most of the basalt, amplifies the grain and pulls the flash of color of the remaining opal forward.  The process is long and laborious, but we think our buyers will appreciate the ease with which our opal is to work with, and the brilliance of the colors that pop out once the opal is cut and polished into a solid, smooth finished product.

Among other Central American goods, we are also offering rough jadeite jade, which we acquired directly from the miners in the Motagua River Valley of Guatemala.

All SB Malls  items are guaranteed to be authentic and of the highest quality.