Member News

AGM FOR OPAL ASSOCIATION MEETING

7 STAG HORN AV

SURFERS PARADISE

8 AM in FOYER

Same building the opal show is held in!

OPEN MEETING 8 am

APOLOGIES

TREASURES REPORT

2017/2018 UN AUDITED

ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS

I am pleased to report that all the office bearers have nominated for the same positions.

PRESIDENT                    Paul Sedawie

VICE PRESIDENT           Yanni Athanasiadis

SECRETARY                     George Christianous

TREASURE                       Sally Patel

PUBLICITY OFFICER       Edmond Lahoud

GENERAL BUSINESS

OPAL SYMPOSIUM

The opal symposium was a great success with some interesting speakers. The changes to the Nomenclature were presented and well received. Suggestions for the next

SYNTHETIC OPAL BEADS

We have received reports of synthetic/fake beads being sold to the inbound Chinese  tourist market as “Pandora beads”. These beads cost app 20$ and are being sold between  $ 600 to $ 700 and reports are thousands are being sold and they are the best sellers.Commission of over 60% is then paid to the tour company. A discussion on how to respond is planned as the response we got from the ACCC ,Qld fair trading the even the meeting with Steven Ciobo the trade minister didn’t amount to much.

OPAL CERTIFICATES

There is a lot of demand from members to issue certificates through the opal association. There are some legal issues about a disclaimer for the opal association with the member taking the responsibility for the certificate to be finalized.

It has been discussed that members would need to sit a test before being approved to issue certiicates from the opal association web site.

A sub committee was formed to present to members for there consideration a practical/written test

Yanni Athanasiadis representing Coober pedy opal.

Eric Madsen representing boulder opal

Paul Sedawie representing Lightning ridge opal.

It is not intended for this to be compulsory for members and it is still open to dicussion.

MEETING TO CLOSE NO LATER THAN 9 DUE TO MEMBERS SETTING UP BOOTHS.

Kind Regards

Paul Sedawie

President of the Opal Association

http://www.opal.asn.au/opal/

Dear Members

Thank you for your patience while we had to rebuild the site after it was corrupted by the server.

We are now back online with all functions in order.

However we need your assistance in marking of paid members. Currently everyone is active . But not everyone has made payment.

Please email [email protected] with your payment receipt so we can ensure your membership stays active.

Memberships where due on the 30 June 2018

If you made payment or just joined the site  in May or June please let us know, as this will carry through to this financial year.

If we dont hear from you , your membership will be De-activated

Invoice with bank details is attached below

OA Invoice

Dear Members

I have been concerned  for a while about the amount of treated welo opal being passed off as natural black opal.There are thousands wrongly listed on the internet but they are also being sold in Australian retail shops and even on the opal fields.  I asked Natassa Patel a honors graduate from the AIGS school in Bangkok to research on how to tell if the stone is natural or treated if you are on the field and DONT have access to laboratory testing equipment. I welcome your feed back as to how easy you found it to understand? Please find enclosed the attached

final natural vs dyed opal[48856]

Kind Regards 

Paul Sedawie

President of the Opal Association 

http://www.opal.asn.au/opal/