The name turquoise ma y have come from the w

or d Turquie , French for Turkey, because of the

early belief that the min eral came from that cou ntry (the turquoise mos

t likely came from Alim ersai Mountain in Persia (now Iran) or the Sinai P

eninsula in Egypt , two o f the world's oldest kno

wn turquoise mining ar eas.) Another possibilit

y could be the name ca me from the French des

cription of the gemston e, " pi er r e t ur qui n " m

eani ng dark blue stone .

TURQUOISE DEPOSITS

Chemically, a hydrat ed phosphate of cop

per and al umi numC uAl6(PO4)4(OH)8 * 5

2H O , turquoise is f ormed by the percol

ation of meteoric or groundwater throug

h aluminous rock in t he presence of copp er. For this reason, it

is often associated w i t h copper deposi t

s as a secondary mi neral, most often in

copper deposi t s in arid, semiarid, or de ser t envi r onment s .

-Most Turquoise deposits are in arid to semi a rid regions in igneous rock formations that c

ontainhi gh copper concent r at i ons. Deposi t s of Turquoise can be found in Afghanistan , Afric

a , Armenia , Australia , Brazil , Chile , China , Egypt , Europe , Iran , Israel , Kazakhstan , Mexico , Russia , Siberia , Tanzania , Turkey , and t

he United States.

Middle East-The major sources are in the Sinai Peninsula and Iran. Iran-The finest of the world’s Turquoise specimens come from the deposits in Northeastern Iran. The stones from here have the much sought after Robin’s Egg Blue with few or now streaks and are among the most valuable opaque gemstones. To no surprise Turquoise is the national gem of Iran. Sinai Peninsula-The Egyptians began mining Turquoise here as early as 5500 BC.

TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF UNITED STATES

There are Turquoise deposits in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Virginia, California and Colorado. American Turquoise specimens are generally greener than stones from around the world and have white or brown matrices. Most pieces of Turquoise from the US are too pale, porous or chalky; only about 10% of the Turquoise recovered in the US is of gem quality. The Arizona copper mines-These mines are famous for many exquisite mineral specimens, including Turquoise. Virginia-Miners found the first examples of crystalline Turquoise in Virginia in 1911, but Virginia has never been a source for much gem turquoise.

http://www.jewelrysupplier.com/2 _turquoise/turquoise_geography.htm

Turquoise has been, since about 200 B.C., extensively used by both southwestern U.S. Native Americans and by many of the Indian tribes in Mexico. The Native American Jewelry or "Indian style" jewelry with turquoise mounted in or with silver is relatively new. Some believe this style of Jewelry was unknown prior to about 1880, when a white trader persuaded a Navajo craftsman to make turquoise and silver jewelry using coin silver. Prior to this time, the Native Americans had made solid turquoise beads, carvings, and inlaid mosaics. Recently, turquoise has found wide acceptance among people of all walks of life and from many different ethnic groups

http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/g

-emstones/sp14 95 /turquoise.html

Geraldine Yazzie, a Navajo woman wearing traditi onal dress, displays a wealth of turquoise ornamen

t. http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian 99 99/issues /aug / woman_jpg.html

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/phosphat/turquois/turquois.htm

"The buyer needs to beware, because a mere 5% of the turquoise on the market is natural, with 30% made of plastic and 65% chemically treated turquoise, said Joe Lowry, owner of the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, N.M.”

-Colorado Springs Gazette, Aug. 13, 1998

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.

--CALIFORNIA. The production of turquoise from deposits in California can be traced b

ack to - pre Colombian Native Americans . Pr ehistoric mining tools have been found in

some of the old workings of the turquoise mines in San Bernardino County .

Over the years, the State's deposits have produced a substantial amount of turquoi

se. Deposits are located in San Bernardino , Imperial, and Inyo Counties . The material

occurs as nodules and as vein filling . Most of the nodules are small in size, about the

size of the end of your thumb, and the vein material is about 4 millimeters thick. In t

he better grade materials, the color varies from a pale to a dark blue , poorer grade m

- aterials are greenish blue and green in col or. Some of the material has - yellow brown

limonite spiderwebbing . Today, only a single mine, the Apache Can

yon Mine , is commercially producing turqu oise. Material from the mine is a fine blue color, hard, and takes a good polish.

-- COLORADO. Turquoise is produced from sev eral locations in Colorado. Currently the only

commercial production is near Manassa, Con ejos County. Other production was from Lead ville, Lake County ; near Colorado Springs, El Paso County ; and near Villa Grove, Saguache

County.

Turquoise from Cripple Creek Mine Co.

http://www.badboysturquoise.com/jewelry.html

Cripple Creek Turquoise

NEW MEXICO -- . Until the 1920's , New Mexic o was the United States largest producer o f turquoise . However, since then Arizona a

nd Nevada has surpassed it in terms of bot h annual and total production .

Production of turquoise from deposits in t he Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County ; the Bur ro 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 op erated at each of the New Mexico location

s mentioned, producing seam and nuggetturquoise . Many of the more famous and h

- igher quality deposits are economically de pleted. Turquoise from these deposits was

as good as that from any deposit in the wo rld and were the first to displace true Persi an turquoise in the U.S. market. Color vari ed from - light to dark green, greenish blue,

- bluish green, paler blue shades, and fine s-ky blue . Much of the material was spiderw

ebbed with thin veinlets of limonite.

South of Santa Fe, New Mexico, sit the Cerrillos Hills where large deposits of turquoise have been worked by man for thirty centuries. This area contains what is probably the oldest mine in North America. It is a turquoise mine first worked by Native people at least 1000 years B.C. and later by Spanish, Mexican and American miners.

http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/nm/turqmine.htm

Turquois in the Cerrillos area

The mines of the Cerrillos area were first wor

ked by Native America ns who extracted lead,

silver, copper, and turquoise . Mineral deposi

ts were in pure veins. Digging with stone ha mmers, chisels and file

s, native miners haule d ore and rock from ins

ide the mountain in re ed baskets and hide b

uckets. Earliest Spanis h reports estimated In

dian miners had remov ed 100,000 tons of roc

k based on huge tailin gs piles and - 400 year o ld pinon trees growing

from these piles .

MINERS in the CERRILLOS HILLS - 1880

http://www.nazor.net/cerrillos/mines/turq0 3 .htm

Settlers first came to the area when stories told by Indians mentioned turquoise deposits found in the hills of the Little Hatchet Mountains. Prospectors began working the area around 1875 and not only found the turquoise, but silver, copper, and gold as well. This was at a time when Apache Indians roamed the area freely and the nearest settlement of any significance was a few hundred miles away.

Hachita, New Mexico http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/oldhachita.htm

NEVADA -- . Nevada has been a major producer of turquoise since the 1930's , and until the e

1980arly 's , the State was the largest produc er in the United States. It is estimated that o

ver the years, 75 to 100 different mines/pros pects produced sizable quantities of turquois

e . Production varied from a few thousand dol lars worth of material at some of the properti

es to more than a million dollars at others . To date, total production of rough turquoise is e

stimated to be in the range of $40 to $50 mill ion.

Turquoise from Nevada comes in various sha des of - - blue, blue green, green blue, and gree

n . 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 o

r spiderwebbed with either brown or black w ebbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any

of the different colors or shades. It can occur in thin veins or seams or as nodules , with sin

gle nodules reported as large as 150 pounds . The quality varies from hard solid material th

at takes a good polish, to soft porous materia l that can only be use as feed stock for treat

ment, enhancement, or stabilization processes.

The Sinai malachite (sehmet) an d t ur quoi se (mafaket) deposits

have attracted miners since the sixth millenium BCE. Near Serab

-it el Khadim , a few kilometres i nland from the western cost of th

e Sinai peninsula, turquoise dep osits were discovered by the mid

dle of the fourth millenium BCE a nd taken over by the Egyptians a few centuries later. Following th

e turquoise veins they excavate d large galleries in the sandston e, supported the roof with pillars

and carved at the entrance relief s of the Pharaoh into the rock. In

winter water was conducted into the mine in order to extract the s

tones.

TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF EGYPT

http://www.terraflex.co.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/mining.htm

By about 3000 BC the Egyptians had become mast ers of the Sinai mines, and at -Serabit el Khadem

they set up a large and systematic operation. For t he next two thousand years, great quantities of tur

quoise were carved from -Serabit el Khadem For - the Egyptians, the brilliant blue green stone serve

d myriad purposes: scarabs were carved from it, a nd the bright mineral enamels of powdered turquo ise were used to color everything from fine statuet tes to bricks.

http://www.geographia.com/egypt/sinai/serabit.htm

TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF MEXICO

- - -http://www.british museum.ac.uk/scientific/mosaics/sr mosaics p3 .html