Mintabie Opal Fields

 

Mintabie township is located 40 kilometres by road west of Marla on the Stuart Highway, some 160 kilometres south of the South Australian border with the Northern Territory. It is 270 kilometres north of Coober Pedy or 1100 kilometres north of Adelaide.

The literature suggests that the Mintabie fields were discovered by Larry O’Toole who was sinking water wells in the area. The date is uncertain either 1921 or 1922. There are some unconfirmed records of Aboriginals travelling to Coober Pedy with Mintabie type opal.

The Mintabie fields are on Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal lands and a permit is required to travel to the fields.

During the mid-1980’s opal production from Mintabie outstripped opal production from Coober Pedy and every other Australian opal field, but it had declined by 1990. Mintabie was probably the first opal mining area in which substantial use was made of bulldozers and open cut mining techniques.

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