# Opal Mining Town in Australia #

In the harsh Outback of South Australia, some 850 kilometres north of Adelaide and 680 kilometres south of Alice Springs is an opal mining town called Coober Pedy. It is recognised as the largest producer of opal in the world with an estimated 70 percent of the worlds precious opal being mined in the opal fields here.
The town is known as the opal capital of the world because what are widely regarded as the most precious opals are mined here. The name Coober Pedy comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa piti, which means white man in a hole.