Turquoise (37.94g)

specimen number:
2062403

location:
Labashan Mine (?), Zhushan Co., Shiyan, Hubei, China

description:
A solid turquoise nugget, this cut and polished on one face. Great color and very attractive. This most likely from the 1970s.

Turquoise mining in Zhushan County, Shiyan, Hubei, China, possesses a deep historical legacy dating back thousands of years to ancient imperial periods, with large-scale commercial modern mining expanding significantly from the late 1980s onward and remaining active today under regulated state and private operations. Geologically, the turquoise deposits are hosted within the Cambrian-age Shuigoukou Formation, consisting primarily of thick- and thin-bedded carbonaceous slates and siliceous schists. The turquoise forms as a secondary hydrous copper and aluminum phosphate mineral, precipitating through hydrothermal or meteoric fluid interactions that fill fractures, faults, and structural cavities as veins, nodules, and massive lenses, frequently accompanied by dark carbonaceous or matrix materials.

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