Nevada.--Nevada has been a major producer of turquoise since the 1930's, and until the early 1980's, the State was the largest producer in the United States. It is estimated that over the years, 75 to 100 different mines/prospects produced sizable quantities of turquoise. Production varied from a few thousand dollars worth of material at some of the properties to more than a million dollars at others.
Turquoise from Nevada comes in various shades of blue, blue-green, green-blue, and green. Some of the turquoise may contain iron, if it does, its color is pale green to yellow-green to yellow. The material can be solid colored or spiderwebbed with either brown or black webbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any of the different colors or shades. Some of the blue material is represented as the finest pure-blue turquoise produced. It can occur in thin veins or seams or as nodules, with single nodules reported as large as 150 pounds. The quality varies from hard solid material that takes a good polish, to soft porous material that can only be use as feed stock for treatment, enhancement, or stabilization processes.
New Mexico.--Until the 1920's, New Mexico was the United States largest producer of turquoise. However, since then Arizona and Nevada has surpassed it in terms of both annual and total production.
Production of turquoise from deposits in the Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County; the Burro Mountains and Little Hachita Mountains, Grant County; the Jarilla Hills, Otero County; and the Guadelupe Mountains, Eddy County; can be traced to prehistoric Indians. Several different mines operate or have operated at each of the New Mexico locations mentioned, producing seam and nugget turquoise. Many of the more famous and higher-quality deposits are economically depleted. Turquoise from these deposits was as good as that from any deposit in the world and were the first to displace true Persian turquoise in the U.S. market. Color varied from light to dark green, greenish-blue, bluish-green, paler blue shades, and fine sky-blue. Much of the material was spiderwebbed with thin veinlets of
limonite.
Arizona.--In Arizona turquoise ranks first in terms of value of production and is also the best known of its gem materials. As stated earlier, nearly all important deposits of turquoise are located near copper occurrences or in copper deposits in arid desert regions of the world. Thus, the world famous turquoise deposits associated with certain of the large Arizona copper deposits are to be expected. Turquoise is or has been mined from a number of these copper mines as a byproduct, usually by outside contractors.
The financial and operating terms of the collecting contracts vary from mine to mine. Some of the operations are little more than the efforts of individual commercial collectors. Some are essentially full-scale mining operations that are simultaneous with, but separate from, the regular mining operations; and still others operate on an on-call basis as turquoise is uncovered by the regular copper mining operation. Regardless of the size or the sophistication of the initial mining or recovery operation, the actual turquoise is recovered by careful extraction using hand methods.
The main Mine In China
The mine located the west of HuBei Province,China
The turquoise raw materials
SORTING TURQUISE FROM THE TAILINGS!
Yungai mountain is in the middle of China,northwest in Hubei province.The colour of turquoise is mainly green and blue.And it's famous for its compact texture and high rigidity.Most turquoise can be burnished without manual work.This mine has been exploited since Tang Dynasty(A.D.618-907),some turquoise in which came down to Europe by the "Silk Road".And the mine has been state till now.Its exploiting is rigorously limited to protect the mineral resource.Turquoise of Yungai is the best in China,and the price is very high.Almost all the merchant of turquoise know the Yungai turquoise.
The Turquoise Nugget inlayed on the ground in 1970's
Top Grade Yungai Mine Sample
The biggest Blue Specimen(2000g) in past 3 years from Yungai Mine
Cabochon sample
Zhuxi mine locates the south of Yungai mine 20 km.The biggest
of the world turquoise rough is producted from Zhuxi mine,which weighs 82 kg.The turquoise is preserved in The People' Congress Hall
,and now is the national treasure.The bulk of turquoise producted in Zhuxi mine is bigger.And the colour is mainly green and light blue,and the texture is a little worse than that in Yungai mine.Zhuxi mine is privately owned,and the is exploited more.Most of the Chinese turquoise on American market are from
Zhuxi.
Huge green spiderweb specimen from Zhuxi Mine
Cabochon sample
See my auction on ebay......
