The Famous Ithaca Peak Turquoise

There is a lot of beautiful Turquoise in the world, from many different countries, with many different colors, matrix patterns, no matrix. There are certain varieties of Turquoise from a handful of mines which are above and beyond that of normal Turquoise.

One of the most iconic, collectible and beautiful varieties of Turquoise come from the Ithaca Peak claim in the Mineral Park mining district outside of Kingman, Arizona USA.

This beautiful variety of Turquoise is comes in a true baby blue to a deep rich blue with black matrix, quartz matrix, and pyrite inclusions.  The beautiful brass colored pyrite really sets the turquoise off and makes it easy to identify. Much of what comes out of the Ithaca Peak mine is high grade.  This material is highly coveted both in the natural form and in the stabilized form.  Ithaca Peak takes to gentle stabilization well.  All of this material is gently stabilized in a simple soaking method which only penetrates the microscopic pores in the Turquoise. No color is added to the turquoise and the Turquoise is stabilized as whole nuggets and chunks of vein.

Ithaca Peak Turquoise Mine Information

Ithaca Peak Turquoise comes from the Cerbat Mountains in Mohave County. It is part of the Mineral Park mining district and was at one time one of the two main turquoise deposits along with Turquoise Mountain. This claim produced all grades of Turquoise, yet, had a high amount of high grade gem Turquoise that came out. 

Ithaca peak turquoise, like Kingman, is typically a beautiful sky blue color but is specifically known for heavier pyrite inclusions. While pyrite is also found in other types of turquoise, it will usually be more of a brassy color in the Ithaca Peak material, which can be helpful in differentiating it from similar stones like Morenci turquoise. Ithaca Peak Turquoise is also famous for its deep midnight blue colored gems. The material can go from a "Robin's Egg" blue all the way to a Lapis blue.  Looks that are collectible include gems with high percentage of pyrite, black spider web gems, gems with deep blue with pyrite and quartz matrix.

Above are some examples of top gem grade examples of cabochons from the Ithaca Peak mine in Arizona, USA. Below are a few more looks of collectible gems from this wonderful deposit.