<h4>Chapter 814: Carving Out Gemstones</h4>


    Trantor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio


    The mine owners and miners in Lightning Ridge were not stupid. As all of them had survived among rumors and lies, it was not easy to get them to believe the news.


    Despite that, in regards to the rtionship between Li Du and nchett, people did not believe the rumors that nchett was scamming Li Du.


    This was because Li Du had never found trouble with nchett. On the contrary, Li Du was seen carrying presents to his visits with nchett, who then invited Li Du into his house and even treated him to dinner.


    Everyone in Lightning Ridge knew what kind of a person nchett was. If nchett was to have scammed someone, he would definitely not invite them into his house, let alone treat them to dinner.


    Consequently, people started to wonder if the news of Li Du buying nchett’s dogsh*t mine of his own ord and having dug out gemstones from it was true.


    On the morning of the second day after visiting nchett, Li Du went to an ore cutting workshop. Workshops like this had tools such as waterjets, angle grinders, and handheld grinders specialized for grinding ores.


    Right after Li Du and his group entered the workshop, a staff member came over and attended to them. “Hello guys, is there anything you need help with?”


    After Godzi opened up a container and revealed the dozen pieces of rock inside, Li Du said, “Help us grind them and take out the gemstones inside.”


    As Li Du had already carried out the initial steps for the grinding of the rocks, faint traces of ck opal could be seen.


    Seeing the rocks, the staff member eximed, “So many gemstones? Oh my God, you sure are lucky. You must have found a ck opal vein.”


    Li Du hurried him along. “Yes, my luck is decent. A friend of mine helped me procure a good mine. Hurry, I can’t wait to see the gemstones.”


    Grinding a piece of rock required 100 AUD. In total, 1,200 dors was required to grind all the rocks.


    Immediately after Li Du handed over the money, someone brought tools out and began grinding the rocks next to Li Du.


    The removal of ck opal was ratherplicated and required the use of various types of tools.


    The first tool used was a wet saw. Although wet saws were simr to waterjets, they were less sophisticated, used an iron saw for cutting, and were mainly used for cutting and polishing.


    The advantage of using a wet saw was the high efficiency, while the disadvantages of using a wet saw were therge amount of waste, high level of danger, and likelihood of causing an ident.


    Despite that, the staff member operating the wet saw was experienced, and his mastery over it was as if he were using his own arms and fingers.


    The staff member picked up a piece of rock and ced it on the wet saw operating table. The wet saw operating table was approximately one meter high, 60 centimeters wide, and 80 centimeters long, and could be used to used to cut thick rocks.


    With the on-off switch switched on, the wet saw began spinning and sshing droplets of water. After the staff member ced the piece of rock onto the operating table, a crunching noise could be heard, and pieces of shattered rock started flying out.


    The staff member concentrated his attention on the rock. Once a small trace of the gemstone within the rock was exposed, the staff member would immediately stop the wet saw and change the angle at which the rock was cut.


    Having briefly watched the staff member, Li Du felt that the money was very well spent, as it was very rare for someone to be able to grind rocks and not harm the gemstone in the slightest.


    There were also a few miners shopping in the workshop. After noticing that there was someone removing gemstones, the miners came over excitedly. Seeing the gemstone bing more and more visible in the wake of the rock being cut by the wet saw, the miners eximed, “Arge piece of gemstone. With Mother Mary watching, I bet that the gemstone is four times the standard size.”


    “Definitely arge gemstone. Its color is so good, look at its y-of-color. Even if it isn’t four times the standard size, this fe is still extremely valuable!”


    “Oh my God, why am I never this lucky?”


    “Not just lucky, mate. It’s an explosion of luck! It has been a long time since I have seen such an outstanding gemstone.”


    After the wet saw had cut off the corners and edges of the rock, most of the gemstone’s body could be seen, so even more onlookers came over to take a peek.


    All 12 pieces of rock contained high-quality gemstones. As each piece of rock was cut open, exmations could be heard one after another.


    After being cut open by the wet saw, the rocks still had to be ground by the angle grinder.


    Angle grinders, which were the mostmonly seen handheld processing tools, could be used to cut, grind, and polish stones as well as remove ck opals from rocks.


    When an angle grinder was in use, people could no longer stand very close to it. As the grinder ground the rock into very tiny pieces and sttered them at very high speeds, it was very easy for the eyes of the people nearby to be injured by the flying debris.


    After being processed by those two tools, the ck opals were more or lesspletely visible. Despite that, there was still a need to use other tools. For example, there was still a need to use a scaler for a final grinding.


    Scalers, which were verymonly used by dentists, had an extremely fine, small drill that could be used to clean people’s teeth.


    Gemstone scalers were basically modified dental scalers. Having been modified to be more sensitive, the back of the drills of gemstone scalers had a small spring that would cause the drill to retract once it experienced a change in pressure.


    Although ck opals were rtively fragile, they were harder than the rocks that encased them.


    This allowed gemstone scalers to be used to remove the final small pieces of rock on the ck opals without harming the gemstones.


    With the series of processespleted, everyone could see the pieces of ck opal in their original state.


    As the number of gemstones that had been removed in one go was huge, even the workshop’s boss was attracted by them.


    After the grinding waspleted, the boss used a piece of deerskin leather to wrap the ck opals before he carefully handed them over to Li Du and said, “Sir, please examine them. Is everything to your satisfaction?”


    Li Du picked up thergest piece of opal. When he ced the gemstone in a ray of sunlight shining through the workshop’s window, dazzling rays of light suddenly appeared.


    The gemstone had a greyish ck background color and had a blue, purple, and crimson y-of-colors at the top. With the ray of sunlight passing through the gemstone, the different y-of-colors gave off different rays of light.


    Li Du slowly rotated his wrist. As the angle of the sunlight shining on the gemstone changed, the y-of-colors also changed.


    Someone eximed, “That’s a genuine ck opal. It’s at least an N2 ck opal!”


    ck opals were categorized into nine different grades, N1 to N9. Among the grades, N1 was the highest grade and was also the grade with the highest value. ck opals that were in this grade had a pure ck body.


    N2 was already a very high grade. ck opals that had an N1 grade were extremely rare. In a month, there might not even be an N1 grade ck opal found in Lightning Ridge. Once they were found, they would definitely be highly sought after by gemstone merchants.


    With an N2 grade and a veryrge size, the piece of gemstone in Li Du’s hand was very rare and would also be highly sought after by gemstone merchants.


    While the piece of opal was rotating, the onlookers were all mesmerized.


    Yet, this was still not the actual appearance of the ck opal. Just like diamonds, ck opals would also need to be cut, and it was only after they had been that they were able to disy their unrivaled beauty.


    After looking through the 12 gemstones one by one under the sunlight, Li Du kept them.


    Even before Li Du left the workshop, there was already a gemstone merchant looking for him. The gemstone merchant asked, “Sir, are you interested in selling those gemstones? I am willing to give a good price.”


    Li Du asked, “How much?”


    “For the piece of gemstone with the N2 grade, I am willing to give you 500,000,” a middle-aged man interrupted from behind.