Arizona Turquoise Mines
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Kingman Mine
- The Kingman Mine area was first mined for turquoise by the Navajos dating back to 600 AD. On the northwestern border of Arizona, the Kingman Turquoise Mine is an enormous open pit mine that has turned out a great quantity of quality turquoise. The Kingman mine, defined by its turquoise nuggets, displays the hue of an energized blue in conjunction with its black matrix. While still an electric blue, the high-grade Kingman turquoise shows a gorgeous silver matrix.
- Shutdown during the 1970s, the Kingman mine revived operations and reopened in 2004. The Kingman mine provided a large amount of turquoise to the Native American jewelry market throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Sometimes referred to as a high blue, the Kingman nuggets are a magnificent contributor to modern turquoise.
Sleeping Beauty Mine
- The Sleeping Beauty mine is located near Globe, Arizona. Its turquoise is noted for its solid, light blue color with no matrix. Sleeping Beauty turquoise is the favorite of the Zuni Pueblo silversmiths for use in petite point, needlepoint, and inlay jewelry because of its natural hardness (5-6) and consistent color. This mine is one of the largest in North America and is still operating.
- Driving into Miami, Arizona, the evidence of copper mining is everywhere. Large hills line the roadway made entirely from the dirt that's left over after the all the copper and minerals are extracted. Old mines and antique mining equipment line the roads, on display for the motorists forced to slow down to 25 mph. The signs still say Miami-Globe but Miami has become almost a ghost town compared to Globe. Globe has long been a major stop along the US60 heading out from Phoenix to the eastern part of Arizona because of the copper mining. The copper mining is still big here, and BHP Copper dominates the landscape. They don't mine the Turquoise. That is left to the Sleeping Beauty Mine, who runs a little store with Native American jewelry and other southwestern goods, where they also sell the natural Turquoise they collect from Sleeping Beauty Mountain. The store is on the right side of the road as you travel East away from Miami. It comes right after a curve in the road and is set up against the steep rocks on that side. The Turquoise display inside the store is modest, but they offer a descent selection of material here in its varied forms and sizes. The stones are offered to the public in small quantities and smaller sizes. Turquoise nuggets are offered in their completely natural form, tumbled and polished, or cut and set as cabochons with backing, ready for jewelry. The rare, larger specimens, quantities and chunks are usually offered to buyers and resellers through a waiting list system as they become available. The huge worldwide demand for Sleeping Beauty Turquoise makes it difficult for the mine to keep up and the Turquoise is often pre-sold before it is even mined. Jeweler's and artists compete to buy up as much of the quality material as they can while it is available.
- Sleeping Beauty Turquoise has become a standard for southwest Native American jewelry. The bright and even sky-blues, the hard glassy polish, and the lumpy nugget-like textures are recognized around the world as what Turquoise should look like. Sometimes nugget style Sleeping Beauty Turquoise will have black in the nooks and creases, in between the higher areas, like the cabs shown in the pictures on the right. This does happen naturally, but is sometimes applied when finishing and polishing the stone. The appearance is often achieved by applying a dark substance onto the stone like paint before working down the final polish. When the stone or cabochon is polished, the black is removed from the surface except for the lower creases and crags. It does not change the "natural" status of the stone at all and cabs with this polish can be bought from the Sleeping Beauty Mine as natural Turquoise. This tradition started decades ago and is said to be recreating the appearance of old antique Indian jewelry owned for years by Native Americans. The crags of this old Turquoise would have collected dirt and oils over the years while the higher areas became polished, bringing out the texture of the nugget stone. Turquoise is found at various mines with the same characteristics naturally as well. Black streaks and flecks of other minerals create the same appearance and mother-stone can intermix to form all kinds of variations.
Bisbee Mine
- The Bisbee mine "the Lavender Pit", near Bisbee, Arizona, is one of the more famous of the American mines because Bisbee turquoise (also known as "Bisbee Blue" registered name) was one of the first put onto the market. The turquoise mine is part of the Bisbee copper mine (The Copper Queen), the main operation of the site. Bisbee turquoise has developed a reputation as a hard, finely webbed or dendrite, high blue stone, known for its "chocolate brown" matrix. Bisbee Turquoise also comes in a beautiful dark green color. Most of this turquoise has already been mined and what is left is in limbo due to circumstances with the copper mining in the open pit, it is one of the most highly collected stones. Most jewelry being made with this stone today is being made via the orders of the current owners of the mine, the rest (such as ours, which is all hand cut and mounted by Durango Silver Co.) is found through old "stashes" or collections that have been obtained.
Castle Dome Mine
- Most of Arizona’s turquoise mines are actually large open pit copper mines that the turquoise deposits are leased .The company or person with the lease is called in to mine the turquoise when they hit a pocket of it as they are copper minnig. This is a mine that was very active back in the 1970’s. Being in Albuquerque in the turquoise business in the 1970’s was very interesting, lots of stone! We bought turquoise from people that would show up at our shop, we would buy it out of their trunks of cars, pick up truck beds, hoods of cars in parking lots.
Ithaca Peak Mine
- The Ithaca Peak mine is located in northwestern Arizona above the Kingman mine. The Ithaca Peak mine is famous for its beautiful blue with pyrite matrix. This material is outstanding. It is owned and operated by the Colbaugh's. It is fairly rare to get good Ithaca Peak as main production is focused on Turquoise Mountain. When you do get good Ithaca Peak it is very pricey!
Morenci Mine
- Morenci Turquoise is mined in southeastern Arizona. It is high to light blue in color. Morenci has an unusual matrix of irregular black pyrite that, when polished, often looks like silver. Morenci turquoise is well known because it was one of the first American turquoises to come on the market. It is very difficult to obtain now because the mine is depleted. It is a collectible turquoise.
Turquoise Mountain and "Birdseye" Mine
- Turquoise Mountain and "Birdseye" turquoise come from the same mine in northwestern Arizona near the Kingman mine. The mine was closed in the 1980s. It is light to high blue, with both webbed and non-webbed matrix. "Birdseye" describes stones from this mine that show areas of light blue circled with dark blue matrix, resembling the eye of a bird. It is a beautiful addition to one's collection.
Blue Bird Mine
- The Blue Bird Turquoise mine is a small "ma and pa" operation that nobody knows a whole lot about. We have however been able to back up the mines existence through several reputable gem dealers, miners and artists. We have bought around 50 lbs of the material over the years. It is wonderful medium sky blue to dark blue with quarts and ocassionally pyrite inclusions. VERY PRETTY stuff. Infact I would say it is some of the best true blue turquoise we have purchased. We first bought some at a gemshow in Durango, Colorado and since have only found it at obscure little gemshows where the true miners show up. Definately worth owning.
