Nevada Turquoise Mines through Zuni

Red Mountain Turquoise Mine

The Red Mountain Turquoise Mine is located in Lander County, Nevada. This mine has produced a large quantity of graded turquoise and the best Red Mountain Turquoise rivals some of the high quality turquoise produced by the best mines in the Southwest. Red Mountain Turquoise with its intricate often red spider web matrix is usually set in the finest gold and silver American Indian jewelry. The spider web Turquoise from the Red Mountain Turquoise mine is some of the finest, only compared with Lander Blue. This stone has been used in many fine turquoise jewelry pieces both gold and silver by many famous artists.

Royston Turquoise Mines

Bunker Hill, Oscar Wehrend, Royal Blue, Royal Royston Claims

The Royston Nevada Turquoise Mines is a district in Nevada consisting of three turquoise mines: Bunker Hill, Oscar Wehrend, and the main producer, Royal Blue. Today the Otteson's own the Royal Blue Turquoise Mine and most of the rest of the properties in the Royston Turquoise mine district and they call their main claim Highgrade Hill. The Royston Turquoise mines are known for its beautiful colors ranging from deep green to rich, light blues set off by a heavy brown matrix. The Royston district is still producing some turquoise of high quality. It ranges from a 5-6 in hardness for the highgrade. This is one the best selling stones for our line of jewelry. This Turquoise is being mine by the Ottesons. Royston Turquoise is known for its aqua blue Turquoise with golden brown matrix as well as for its "Military Green" or forest green Turquoise with golden brown matrix. On ocassion the Royston Turquoise Mines produce true blue Turquoise. On occassion it is also possible to get spiderweb Turquoise from the Royston Turquoise mine. You can find a lot of old pawn jewelry with Royston Turquoise in it. The Royston Turquoise mines are probably the most prolific mines in Nevada.

Check out the show on the Travel Channel's "Where to find Cash & Treasure" 2008 See us hit a large pocket of killer stuff with Kirsten, Dean Otteson, Danny Otteson, & Dillon Hartman

Wonderful and classic turquoise jewelry of all kinds have been made with this wonderful turquoise. An American Turquoise Classic.

Links: Boulder Turquoise or Ribbon Turquoise | RoystonTurquoise.com | Royston Turquoise Jewelry

Shoshone Turquoise Mine

The Shoshone Turquoise mine was also called the Lombardo Turquoise Mine. These Turquoise deposits were mined using bulldozer cuts and tunnels during the 1960s and 1970s. Like many smaller production mines that are not well known, samples from the Shoshone Turquoise Mine have become a collectors dream for their “sample” collections. There are Turquoise numerous deposits around the world that are collected for samples. Turquoise from the Shoshone Turquoise Mine is certainly a neat Turquoise variety to have in your collection and is very rare. The Shoshone Turquoise we have at Durango Silver Company is many different colors, most being a blue/green. My favorite Shoshone Turquoise Mine cabs in our collection are light blue with black spiderweb and of coarse the deep aqua blue spiderweb material like the Shoshone Turquoise cabochon in the ring to the left.

Slaughter Mine Turquoise

The Slaughter Mine Turquoise has little information about it. Here is what we could find include exerpts from Joe Dan Lowery's book. Old man Slaughter drove an old army jeep, and it is said that he could dig a hundred pounds of this turquoise in one afternoon with only a pick and shovel. Most of the Turquoise was of medium to low grade quality and is a standard blue green or aqua color. The Turquoise from the Slaughter Turquoise Mine in Nevada mostly ran in thin veins. A lot of this Turquoise did not have much matrix. This is a nice feature of the Slaughter Mine Turquoise when it comes to it being used in cluster jewelry or inlay Turquoise jewelry.

Smith Black Matrix Mine

You can guess where This comes from,...Nevada. The Smith Black Matrix Mine is another small mine that produces great spider web material. Very Rare. Very Significant Part of Nevada History coming from the original OWA claim prior to 1965. A TEXAS COLLECTOR says "It is possible that someone named Smith took over a mine and named it the Smith Mine. But I still think that something is in the back of my mind. I think one of the old families had a daughter that married a Smith and a mine with that name came from that." There have been false stories spread that the Smith Black Matrix mine is the Stormy Mountain mine. This is not true. The Smith Black Matrix Turquoise mine is a mine all of it's own.

Smokey Valley Turquoise Mine

The Smokey Valley Turquoise Mine was another Small Nevada Mine that was mainly produced during the American Turquoise boom of the 1950s through 1970s.. This mine produced a predominately medium blue Turquoise with little matrix. Much of the Turquoise from this Nevada Turquoise mine came out in nugget or nodule form and was made into jewelry as such. Many Turquoise Nugget Bead Necklace and nugget cut turquoise jewelry was made from this Nevada Turquoise. What matrix is in the stone was brownish black. Don't see much of this material anymore. There were a lot of the nugget turquoise jewelry pieces made out of this turquoise in the 60s and 70s The Smoky Valley Turquoise mine was known for it's nugget cut stones.

Stennich Turquoise and Faustite

This mine produces awesome green shades of turquoise, ranging in color from a dark green to the very popular lime greens. The material from the Stennich Turquoise and Faustite mine that we have seen and own was seam or vein material. What really made Stennich Turquoise popular was the rare lime green and yellow - lime colored Turquoise and Faustite. A lot of the lime green turquoise from the Stennich Turquoise mine was clear with no matrix which made it wonderful for multicolr Inlay Turquoise Jewelry pieces. Durango Silver Company likes to use the rare lime green Turquoise from this Nevada Turquoise mine.We are always looking for more of this material. Really neat material! Really pretty turquoise jewelry when made with 14k gold. This mine is well known for its lime green Nevada Turquoise.

Stormy Mountain Mine Nevada

The Stormy Mountain Turquoise Mine is located in Elko County, northeastern Nevada. Along with the Blue Diamond Mine, Stormy Mountain is known for producing hard, dark blue turquoise that includes a blotchy, black or brown chert matrix that resembles storm clouds. The high grade material from the Stormy Mountain Turquoise mine was a medium to dark blue and aqua blue with brownish / orange spiderweb as well as deep mahogany brown spiderweb matrix. The Stormy Mountain Turquoise mine was known in its day for having some of the finest Nevada Turquoise. As with most mines there are variations to the look of the Turquoise, but there are looks it is famous for such as those that can be seen in Durango Silver Company's Stormy Mountain Turquoise Jewelry. This mine is presently not active and is an extremely valuable addition to one’s collection. This seems to be my mothers favorite turquoise to put in gold jewelry and turquoise jewelry.

Links: Stormy Mountain Turquoise Jewelry

Stone Mountain Turquoise Mine

The Stone Mountain Turquoise Mine is located in high deserts of Lyon County, Nevada. The Stone Mountain Turquoise mine was discovered in the late 1970's and since that time the majority of the Turquoise has been discovered by hand and pick.

A fairly new Nevada mine, the Stone Mountain Turquoise Mine is a small mine run by just a few people, the Nevada Cassidys. It produces, deep blue to deep green turquoise with a varying degree of white, red and yellow-goldish matrix. The Cassidys claimed the Stone Mountain Turquoise Mine in the early 1980's and have been hand and pick mining it ever since. They also claim that the Stone Mountain Turquoise Mine produces translucent Turquoise and blend colored Turquoises that come in a many different and unexpected color patterns.

Super X Turquoise Mine

The Super X Turquoise Mine is located just north of Indian Creek and is known for its very high grade deep blue spider web turquoise. It has not been productive for many years. The mine however has been rumored to be for sale in private circles for a number of years. The mine was first discovered in 1939-40 by Ted and Harold Johnson. Ted and Harold Johnson along with Dick Edgar went to this area in search of Turquoise. They found crumbled nuggets of float and followed them to the deposit source. This was the first mine in this area, which later developed many very famous Turquoise producing mines. The Super X Turquoise mine was named after the Super X Dynamite Company. The original location was a cut in the ground that was 12 feet deep, 50 feet long, and 20 feet wide. The initial production of the Super X Turquoise mine was about 300 pounds of material. Many old time Turquoise miners (pre-1975) said that this Turquoise “was the best Turquoise to ever be mined in Nevada.” Unfortunately, without written information in books and/or pictures, most oral history dies with the storyteller, so most modern miners and collectors of Turquoise know very little about the Super X Turquoise mine and its colors or history. This is the case with many of the Nevada Turquoise mines. 

Thunderbird Turquoise Mine Nevada

The Thunderbird Turquoise Mine was originally owned and operated by the Mcginnis family, before they abandoned it to focus operations on the Mcginnis Turquoise mine. The Thunderbird Turquoise mine produced primarily vein material. It is of a medium to dark blue color with black or dark brown spider web or blotchy matrix. What little material was taken from the Thunderbird Turquoise mine is gorgeous, fairly hard material. It is pretty rare to find Thunderbird Turquoise, especially since it may be sold as something else as most people try to sell all Turquoise as one of the famous mines to get more money for it.

Timberline Turquoise Mine Nevada

The Timberline Turquoise mine is one of Nevada's most famous small mines. This Nevada Turquoise mine produced a small amount of beautiful high grade medium to dark blue turquoise with thin brownish/black matrix. In the 60s, 70s, & 80s the Timberline Turquoise Mine in Nevada became famous, now finding this material is very rare! A lot of the Timberline Turquoise was nugget cut. A lot of the Timberline Turquoise mine material is sold today with the name of a more famous Turquoise mine from today.

Tina Gem Mine

The material from the Tina Gem Turquoise mine is some of the rarest American Turquoise today, due to lack of production. The Tina Gem Turquoise mine was the highest Turquoise mine in America, located in the Battle Mountain area of Nevada. This privately owned mine was a tiny operation and only produced a small amount of fabulous dark blue Turquoise, almost the transparency of Varascite. The Tina Gem Turquoise mine material is very silicated which makes this Turquoise some of the hardest Turquoise ever mined. A lot of the Tina Gem Turquoise was a very interesting deep blue Turquoise with blotchy black matrix and was almost cloudy.... this type of Tina Gem Turquoise is almost more valued for its rareity than its beauty. Having said that, some people absolutely love the material I was speaking of. At Durango Silver Company we prefer the Tina Gem Turquoise that has more blue in it. A very valuable stone to have in one's collection.

Tortoise Mine Nevada

The Tortoise mine is a newer Turquoise mine in Nevada that we own and operate in partnership with Nevada Turquoise Company. This mine produces stellar material!! The Tortoise Turquoise mine is becoming famous for it's brown Turquoise, yellow Turquoise, mint green Turquoise, as well as it's gorgeous Nevada Variscite. The Variscite comes in a light brown color, a white color and a pale lime green color. We have only started on this mine and we are finding AAA grade material! Hope fully this trend will continue. Some of this early material is reminescent of the early Damale or Damele Turquoise, so maybe we will get luck and find some of the wonderful lime green Faustite and Variscite that the Damale or Damele mine is famous for. The Tortoise produces green, blue, brown, white, yellow and red material with beautiful black spiderweb. We have determined that the lime green, mint green, caramel brown and blue materials are Turquoise and the white material is Chalcociderite. We have vein material, nuggets and nodules. Recently we have hit a different vein in the Tortoise Turquoise mine that is a semi translucent lime green color variscite with orange matrix. We hit one pocket that was very small and produced about 2 lbs -4 lbs of lime green, mint green, yellow, and brown Tortoise Turquoise with bright red spiderweb. This appears to be the rarest. Most of the materials have a hardness of between 6 and 8 on the mohs scale.When you see This material you will fall in love! You want to see some gorgeous Turquoise jewelry, you have to see this stuff in silver jewelry or in gold jewelry.

Links: View our Mining Tortoise Turquoise Video | Click Here for More Information & Pics! 

Troy Springs Turquoise Mine

The Troy Springs Turquoise Mine is an old Nevada Turquoise mine that produces a blue & green combo Turquoise with light brown matrix much like some of the Royston Turquoise. A lot of This material has to be stabilized., but what doesn't is super high-grade Owned by Nevada Turquoise Co. One of the looks of the Turquoise from the Troy Springs Turquoise Mine that is very beautiful is the medium blue Turquoise with quarts matrix and golden yellow/brown matrix. There is not a lot of Troy Springs Turquoise Mine material on the market today. I am sure a lot of this Nevada Turquoise has been sold as material from other mines.Chances are you have seen some of the Troy Springs Turquoise and did not even know it. Hopefully this wonderful Turquoise mine will continue to be mined and we will see more and more of this gorgeous Nevada Turquoise in the future. Hopefully in the future the mine will produce harder and harder material.

Tungsten Mine Turquoise

The Tungsten Turquoise Mine is located in Lander County, this mine is north of the Badger Mine about a quarter mile from Bessie Long’s cabin. In 1946, Cutler Edgar and his partner lease-mined these claims. Ted Johnson sold the claims to Lem Edgar in 1949. This mine has also been marketed using the names Barium and Indian Blue. The Tungsten Turquoise Mine is still occasionally mined by the Edgar family. A lot of the Turquoise that came out of this Nevada Turquoise mine was of fair grade and did not have a very attractive look to it. The highgrade we have seen is very pretty though. Alot of this high grade Turquoise from the Tungsten Turquoise Mine was a clear medium to deep blue in color.

Turquoise Bonanza

The Turquoise Bonanza is a fine Nevada Turquoise mine which produce a light to medium blue stone with a goldish brown matrix, a lot of times both green and blue in one stone. Good hard material. A lot of This turquoise comes in seam and vein. This mine was originally a Tungsten mine owned by Carl House, eventually they found This gorgeous turquoise. These claims are full of minerals. Turquoise Bonanza is now owned by Nevada Turquoise Co. We have made a fair amount of silver jewelry out of this turquoise. Great classic looking turquoise jewelry.

Valley Blue Mine Nevada

The Valley Blue Turquoise Mine was a small Nevada mine located in the Lander County region. The Valley Blue Turquoise Mine is located between Austin and Battle Mountain, Nevada. The Valley Blue Turquoise Mine became fairly famous for a small time mine back in the 60s and 70s. It produced a nice medium blue to dark blue Turquoise with black matrix usually in nugget form. A lot of the Vally Blue Turquoise Mine material was finished as semi-nugget cabs. It is also rumored that this Turquoise mine was the mine that the famous and elusive "Sacred Buffalo Turquoise" came from. The Sacred Buffalo Turquoise was a beautiful pale blue simular to Larimar from the Carribean and is the lightest known color Turquoise. This material is not what the Valley Blue Turquoise mine is known for though. A fair amount of Turquoise jewelry featured this turquoise in the 60s and 70s, not so much any more.

Verde Blue Mine

The Verde Blue Turquoise Mine is a newer claim for the Otteson family and has been worked very little. It forms in a soft clay and produces the most beautiful little nuggets you have ever seen. It looks like old Morenci turquoise from the 60s and 70s. The Verdy Blue Turquoise mine also produces vein material, most of which has been thin veins. The nugget material is really what makes the Verde Blue Turquoise mine famous, and the fact that this Nevada Turquoise mine produces a true blue colored Turquoise simular to the Turquoise from Arizona. Once we can rip Dean away from Royston for a while and get him over there, it ought to be great stuff!! I cannot wait to see a lot of this in Turquoise jewelry, whether silver jewelry or gold jewelry.

Windy Ridge Mine

Nevada has had an uncountable amount of mines over the years, however most were small pockets and were mined out fairly fast. Most of Nevada’s mines were small and usually mined by one person at a time. This mine sits above the Godber and Damele turquoise mines up in the mountain range behind them clear up on top, thus the name Windy ridge. Very hard stone, This has got to be the hardest material we have ever cut. Has very high silica content, This material is even harder than Candelaria. Runs primarily shades of green, but also lighter blues. Lots of chert mixed with this material had made it very difficult to mine. The veins might as well be locked up in Fort Knox. They form right in the solid granite lot of the mines the material is in decomposed chert and other rock usually very loose and fractured. But not This material. Available in small Quantities over the years.

Warm Springs Turquoise Mine

The Warm Springs Turquoise Mine is located in Nye County about forty-five miles east of Tonopah, the production of these deposits was during the 1970s and later at the turn of the twenty-first century. The best turquoise from this area can produce a nice golden web with a soft blue turquoise color that is similar to the Number Eight Mine. As with a lot of the Nevada Turquoise Mines, the Warm Springs Turquoise mine produces a broad spectrum of qualities and grades of Nevada Turquoise. The Warm Springs Turquoise mine mainly produces aqua blue colored Turquoise to blue colored Turquoise with brown matrix. This mine also produced some really beautiful Turquoise that had little to no matrix and was a clear blue to aqua blue.

White Creek Turquoise

The White Creek Turquoise Mine Produces a beautiful white turquoise, and yes it is actually turquoise, not Calcite or Magnesite. A lot of This material has a slight blue tint to it, and it looks a lot like Dry Creek turquoise from the Godber mine. The other look of This material is very similar to the White Buffalo Calcite look. Good stuff if you like the white turquoise look, cuts nicely. This stone makes wild turquoise jewelry, more fitting to silver jewelry than gold jewelry. White Creek Turquoise is some of the rarest and least known Turquoise to have come out of Nevada. The White Creek Turquoise has many different looks to it and may have many more. The White Creek Turquoise mine is currently composed of several small glory holes and one larger glory hole that is almost a tunnel. I am sure some day it could become a open pit cut by a bulldozer or excavator if the current popularity of Turquoise remains or grows larger. It is certain much of the White Creek Turquoise has been used in jewelry and called White Buffalo Turquoise or "White Turquoise".

White Stallion Mine

This mine was lost for several Decades, Recently rediscovered. Has been worked over the years but until recently white turquoise was just not popular like it is today. This is a very hard stone. You can take a couple of these cabs and lightly click them together and it is so hard it sounds like two pieces of glass clicking together, takes a mirror shine. This mine is a small producer and the material is very limited. But like all great stone nature only produces a little. This material will run pure white with just a touch of green or blue with beautiful matrix patterns. I hear it is coming out of a site right next to the main Carico Lake claim. Wonderful Turquoise Jewelry.

White Buffalo Mine

White Buffalo Turquoise (actually Opalized Calcite) is a beautiful white stone with fine black spider web or kind of a blotchy matrix that is mined out of Nevada, north of Tonopah. The White Buffalo Mine also produces a stark white material on occasion with little to no matrix, but this is rare. White Buffalo is very popular these days as it matches most clothing people wear. White Turquoise has been the center of a lot of controversy since it first came on to the market. The mine owners were simple selling it as White Buffalo, they DID NOT try to claim it was Turquoise, however once jewelers and stores got ahold of it, it was quickly NICKNAMED "White Turquoise or White Buffalo Turquoise". This one is getting a little hard to get as it is in low production at this times. This stone takes a great polish, cuts like Turquoise and is commonly marketed as White Turquoise. We really like the black spider webbed version. It is mine by Danny and Dean Otteson. One of the hottest things to hit the Turquoise jewelry market in a long time.

Links: White Buffalo Jewelry

White Owl Mine

White Owl is mined somewhere north of Austin, Nevada. The mine owner is being very closed mouthed about it. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the "white" Turquoises that are being offered these days. Some people say it's NOT Turquoise, others say it is. All we know is that when we bought the rough, we were told it was definitely Turquoise. Roger showed some of the material to a geologist who affirmed that Turquoise can come in a white form. Regardless, one must admit that This material, as all "white" Turquoise, is very interesting and very beautiful. We have recently learned that the White Turquoises are usually Calcite, Mangesite, or Chalcociderite, not Turquoise.