Arizona is one of the world’s turquoise mine hotspots. Throughout Arizona there are both active, but mostly inactive turquoise mines. The turquoise found in Arizona turquoise mines is very popular among custom jewelers like Southwest Originals of Albuquerque, NM. Turquoise deposits are mostly located in copper mining operations. Featured here are a list of the turquoise mines located in Arizona.
Blue Bird Turquoise Mine
This mining operation is a family-style turquoise mining operation for which virtually no information is available. The mine is legitimate as it is a known source of turquoise by multiple custom jewelers and well-known gem dealers. The turquoise mined here ranges in color from dark blue to a stunning mid-range sky clue. It is extremely beautiful and the turquoise from this mine is known for being the bluest turquoise ever found. The turquoise from this mine carries value and is great to use in custom jewelry.
Castle Dome Turquoise Mine
A large percentage of the turquoise mines found in Arizona are mostly located in giant open pit copper mines. Copper mining company’s lease its turquoise deposits to turquoise mining companies. When the company encounters a deposit of turquoise it contacts the company it leased its turquoise to so they can come mine out the turquoise. The Castle Dome Turquoise Mine was actively mined during the 1970’s. The turquoise found is this mine is golden brown matrix and light sky blue.
Kingman Turquoise Mine
The Duval Corporation has held the position that both copper mining and turquoise mining production can operate concurrently in the same mine. The Kingman Turquoise Mine is situated close to Kingman, Arizona. The mine is series of separate turquoise deposits in the Mineral Park, Arizona locale. The turquoise mined there has a wide range of colors and quality, make it a very desirable turquoise mine.
Ithaca Peak Mine
Famous “bird’s eye” turquoise is produced by the Ithaca Peak Mine. It is normally light blue in color and features deep blue webbing, which is where the term “bird’s eye” comes into play.
Morenci Turquoise Mine
Turquoise mined from the Phelps Dodge copper mine in Morenci, Arizona is stunning. It is well-known due to its wonderful sparkling blue turquoise. It is famous for how it shines with specks of iron pyrite and its eye catching webbed black chert matrix. Morenci turquoise stand out aspect is the fact that is mostly light blue to deep dark blue. Morenci turquoise is rarely green in color. Most of the turquoise mined at Morenci is matrixed and completely blue turquoise with no matrix patterns at all is a rarity.
Like several Arizona turquoise mines, the turquoise mined at the Morenci turquoise mine is a built-in component of many open pit copper mining operations. Most mining company’s see turquoise as an interference for it copper mining production. When miners encounter deposits of turquoise inside a segment of copper ore it quite often slows down or stops mining productions because the turquoise must be removed to keep the copper production free of anything but copper. Many mining companies sell turquoise rights to a sole entity and they permit the company to cull through the mine tailings or sections where no mining is going on to look for turquoise.
Summing It All Up
The Ithaca Peak mine produces turquoise that ranges from light blue to dark blue pattern webbing, known as “bird’s eye”, turquoise. The turquoise from the Turquoise Mountain mine is normally a distinctive blue green color with built-in black matrix webbing pervasive throughout. Most of the turquoise found at the Kingman mine is light sky blue with beautiful webbing patterns that many times features sparkling iron pyrite sections with infrequent cloudy white sections of arsenic. A new turquoise deposit was recently discovered there. The color of the turquoise is a stunning deep dark blue with refined thin-lined spider-webbing that is black in color. It is the priciest turquoise from the Kingman Turquoise mine and it vies with the price levels of the best quality turquoise available today.
