Turquoise jewelry, native american turquoise jewelry, turquoise beads, navajo jewelry, indian jewelry

Rare and Historic BLUE GEM TURQUOISE
The Blue Gem Mine was located in the Copper Basin area southwest of Battle Mountain, Nevada, USA. Production of the mine started about 1934 and continued until the 1970's. Blue Gem Turquoise is still some of the finest turquoise ever found, and unlike most turquoise mines, (in which the majority mined is chalky and only usable if stablized) most of the turquoise found there was of gem-quality. There is a distinctive aqua color that some people associate with Blue Gem turquoise, although it produced a great variety of colors, especially when intense blue was combined with deep green in one stone (see picture below).
The mine no longer exists due to the extensive copper (and gold) mining operations of the Copper Canyon Mining Company (all of the copper was extracted by 1968). Doc Wilson, owner of the Lone Mountain Mine, owned the Blue Gem Mine from 1938-1981 when he leased it to Lee Hand. Lee Hand owned and operated the mine until 1970 when he sold his interest to the Elquist family of Battle Mountain. Lee Hand knew the Patania Family in Arizona and C.G.Wallace in Zuni and regularly supplied those traders with turquoise for Navajo and Zuni carvings and jewelry. While the Blue Gem mine was very prolific at one time, today it is considered extremely rare, valuable and collectible turquoise. Most of the "finished" Blue Gem turquoise today is in private collections and museums, rarely offered for sale. (The cabochons below were acquired from Jim Elquist about seven years ago. The stones in the bracelets below were acquired from Frand Patania Jr. in 2002.)

The mine was located deep underground, accessed by tunnels as deep as 800 feet. This is of interest because the Blue Gem Mine and the Bisbee Mine in Arizona are the only two mines (that we know of) that turquoise was found that deep in the earth. Pyrite-bearing quartz veins are closely associated with this turquoise although pyrite in Blue Gem is still unusual to see. Very little large material ever came out of Blue Gem, the majority found was small 1mm "bleeder" veins and tiny nuggets which was perfect for Zuni inlay and fine needlepoint, petit-point and snake-eyes jewelry.
There's just something about Blue Gem. It is a treasure: a rare, valuable and historic American turquoise. When we think of Blue Gem Turquoise, we think of translucence, depth, watery, what we mean by "non-opaque, silicated" jewels. This turquoise is hard and won't change color, takes a high polish and will be beautiful one hundred years from now. The character and beauty of these stones are impossible to fully capture in images, since this turquoise has a unique character that's hard to describe. It is like pools of glassy water captured in solid form, a gift from Mother Earth.

Above are pictured eight bracelets recently made by Joe Piaso Jr. from stones acquired from the Patania Collection in Arizona. These colorful blue, green and aqua bracelets will be offered on the site later this week, (with the exception of the fourth from the right). Cabochons ready for setting (from Jim Elquist) of different colors and sizes are also pictured above along with a blue-to-green set cabochon.

Top Left: Over one pound of fine Blue Gem veinlets. (We're going to have some jewelry made this year with this material!) Next to it are green and blue "gems" in the rough. Bottom left are a few pieces of the tiny "bleeder" vein material that was how most of the turquoise was found. Bottom right is a 1/4"-small nugget which would have been cut, inlaid and polished; a very labor-intensive process.

Four cabochons of Blue Gem from the Elquist Collection. The blue stone has pyrite matrix and the large aqua stone is green with pools of blue: exquisite specimens! The two bracelets are an outstanding example of the watery blue and green colors that Blue Gem is found in.

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