SA Museum to be turned into mining site

The South Australian Museum is being transformed into a mock mining site to mark 100 years of opal mining in Australia.

Mining equipment will feature on the museum's forecourt from Sunday before the official opening of a multimillion-dollar exhibition of opals on September 25.

Among the featured stones will be the Virgin Rainbow, worth more than $1 million and considered to be the finest opal ever unearthed.

Inside the museum a replica of an opal mine is being created from dirt trucked from Coober Pedy, still the epicentre of opal mining in Australia.