Turquoise
specimen number:
2262241
location:
Mohave Co., Arizona, USA
description: The Mohave County turquoise deposits, centered primarily within the Mineral Park district near Kingman in northwestern Arizona, represent some of the most prolific and commercially significant sources of high-grade turquoise in North American history. Geologically, these world-class deposits are classified as supergene alterations directly associated with a massive, copper-rich Laramide-age porphyry system, specifically hosted within the altered quartz monzonite rocks of the Cerbat Mountains. Over millions of years, the intense chemical weathering and downward percolation of copper-bearing surface waters reacted with deeply circulating meteoric fluids rich in phosphorus and aluminum derived from altered feldspars and apatite, precipitating turquoise along localized fault fractures, joints, and complex quartz veins as vibrant sky-blue to deep green masses, nuggets, and thin seams. Historically, the area was mined extensively by prehistoric Native American cultures, including the Hohokam and Anasazi, who hand-quarried the outcroppings for trade long before the arrival of European explorers. Modern commercial mining and open-pit quarrying began around 1882 with the arrival of the railroad, expanding into an organized industry managed by major outfits like the Aztec Turquoise Company around the turn of the 20th century. By the mid-1950s, turquoise extraction became highly integrated with massive, corporate open-pit copper mining operations at the Mineral Park mine, running systematically for decades where specimen miners safely bypassed heavy industrial machinery to recover tons of high-quality rough turquoise from the copper benches until the copper mill permanently closed in 2014.
An attractive piece of massive turquoise, this lightly tumble polished. This weighs 16.3 g.
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