These gem grade Turquoise stones range from medium blue to dark blue in color with chocolate to red matrix. To the left is a display of high quality Bisbee Turquoise Cabochons, you can view more on the presentation on slide show. This quality American Turquoise has become very scarce and rarely seen for sale. This Turquoise has a golden brown as well as dark brown spiderwebbing running through beautiful blue-green Turquoise. This Nugget weighed 2.5 ounces and was a pleasant surprise when we sawed the end off. To the right is a Spiderweb Turquoise Nugget that came out of the #8 Turquoise Mine in the 1950's - 60's. This is a great example of quality silver jewelry. This high grade Turquoise Nugget weighs 46 grams and is an exceptional piece of Bisbee Turquoise. We just surface sanded this Turquoise Nugget and then polished it for a display piece. To the left is a very high quality Turquoise nugget that came out of the Bisbee Turquoise Mine. This all adds up to the fact that high grade quality Turquoise and even medium grade Gem Turquoisewill become extremely rare as time passes, heck Real Turquoise of any kind is getting super rare. China has now put a moratorium on Turquoise Mining for at least three years and most likely longer and little Turquoise Mining is going on any where else in the world. There are few Turquoise Mines producing and very little exploration being done today. Quality Turquoise values have skyrocketed in the last five years due to governmental mining restrictions and the cost of mining. The miner is always on the watch for high grade and when found, all operations stop to take special care not to damage the high grade. Gem quality Turquoise, which is called high grade, runs in small pockets or thin veins sporadically amongst the medium quality Turquoise. Typically, when mining Turquoise there is a lot of overburden or host rock where Turquoise is found, it has to be removed to get to the medium quality stone that is usable in its natural state. High Quality Turquoise is rich in color and above a 5 in hardness on the Mohs' hardness scale. Turquoise is a sedimentary gemstone, meaning, moisture seeps through the upper crust of the earth which has copper, iron and aluminum sulfates - the gem quality Turquoise is formed from highly concentrated minerals that are deposited into pockets and crevices in the earth that have the perfect conditions to create this rare gemstone. Some Turquoise Mines do not have any gem grade Turquoise and there have been rare occasions such as the Lander Blue and Blue Wind Turquoise Mines that gem quality Turquoise is all that was found, however, both of these Turquoise Mines produced very little Turquoise. Generally speaking, about 50-60% of the Turquoise that comes out of most Turquoise Mines is low quality or what we call caulk Turquoise, 30-40% is good quality and if lucky 10% is gem quality Turquoise. High Quality Turquoise is very rare, in fact, less then 10% of the Natural Turquoise that has come out of the ground to date has been gem quality Turquoise.
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