1. The name turquoise may have come from the word Turquie, French for Turkey, because of the early belief that the mineral came from that country (the turquoise most likely came from Alimersai Mountain in Persia (now Iran) or the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, two of the world's oldest known turquoise mining areas.) Another possibility could be the name came from the French description of the gemstone, "pierre turquin" meaning dark blue stone. TURQUOISE DEPOSITS

2. Chemically, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8 * 5H2O, turquoise is formed by the percolation of meteoric or groundwater through aluminous rock in the presence of copper. For this reason, it is often associated with copper deposits as a secondary mineral, most often in copper deposits in arid, semiarid, or desert environments.

3. Most Turquoise deposits are in arid to semi-arid regions in igneous rock formations that contain high copper concentrations. Deposits of Turquoise can be found in Afghanistan, Africa, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Europe, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, Siberia, Tanzania, Turkey, and the United States.

4. Middle East-The major sources are in the Sinai Peninsula and Iran. Iran-The finest of the world’s Turquoise specimens come from the deposits in Northeastern Iran. The stones from here have the much sought after Robin’s Egg Blue with few or now streaks and are among the most valuable opaque gemstones. To no surprise Turquoise is the national gem of Iran. Sinai Peninsula-The Egyptians began mining Turquoise here as early as 5500 BC.

5. TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF UNITED STATES There are Turquoise deposits in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Virginia, California and Colorado. American Turquoise specimens are generally greener than stones from around the world and have white or brown matrices. Most pieces of Turquoise from the US are too pale, porous or chalky; only about 10% of the Turquoise recovered in the US is of gem quality. The Arizona copper mines-These mines are famous for many exquisite mineral specimens, including Turquoise. Virginia-Miners found the first examples of crystalline Turquoise in Virginia in 1911, but Virginia has never been a source for much gem turquoise. http://www.jewelrysupplier.com/2_turquoise/turquoise_geography.htm

6. Turquoise has been, since about 200 B.C., extensively used by both southwestern U.S. Native Americans and by many of the Indian tribes in Mexico. The Native American Jewelry or "Indian style" jewelry with turquoise mounted in or with silver is relatively new. Some believe this style of Jewelry was unknown prior to about 1880, when a white trader persuaded a Navajo craftsman to make turquoise and silver jewelry using coin silver. Prior to this time, the Native Americans had made solid turquoise beads, carvings, and inlaid mosaics. Recently, turquoise has found wide acceptance among people of all walks of life and from many different ethnic groups http://minerals.usgs. gov/minerals/pubs/c ommodity/gemstone s/sp14- 95/turquoise.html

7. Geraldine Yazzie, a Navajo woman wearing traditional dress, displays a wealth of turquoise ornament. http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues99 /aug99/ woman_jpg.html

8. http://mineral.galleries. com/minerals/ phosphat/turquois/turq uois.htm

9. "The buyer needs to beware, because a mere 5% of the turquoise on the market is natural, with 30% made of plastic and 65% chemically treated turquoise, said Joe Lowry, owner of the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, N.M.” -Colorado Springs Gazette, Aug. 13, 1998

10. ARIZONA.--In Arizona turquoise ranks first in terms of value of production and is also the best known of its gem materials. As stated earlier, nearly all important deposits of turquoise are located near copper occurrences or in copper deposits in arid desert regions of the world. Thus, the world famous turquoise deposits associated with certain of the large Arizona copper deposits are to be expected. Turquoise is or has been mined from a number of these copper mines as a byproduct, usually by outside contractors.

11. CALIFORNIA.--The production of turquoise from deposits in California can be traced back to pre-Colombian Native Americans. Prehistoric mining tools have been found in some of the old workings of the turquoise mines in San Bernardino County. Over the years, the State's deposits have produced a substantial amount of turquoise. Deposits are located in San Bernardino, Imperial, and Inyo Counties. The material occurs as nodules and as vein filling. Most of the nodules are small in size, about the size of the end of your thumb, and the vein material is about 4 millimeters thick. In the better grade materials, the color varies from a pale to a dark blue, poorer grade materials are greenish-blue and green in color. Some of the material has yellow-brown limonite spiderwebbing. Today, only a single mine, the Apache Canyon Mine, is commercially producing turquoise. Material from the mine is a fine blue color, hard, and takes a good polish.

12. COLORADO.--Turquoise is produced from several locations in Colorado. Currently the only commercial production is near Manassa, Conejos County. Other production was from Leadville, Lake County; near Colorado Springs, El Paso County; and near Villa Grove, Saguache County. Turquoise from Cripple Creek Mine Co.

13. http://www.badboyst urquoise.com/jewelr y.html Cripple Creek Turquoise

14. NEW MEXICO.--Until the 1920's, New Mexico was the United States largest producer of turquoise. However, since then Arizona and Nevada has surpassed it in terms of both annual and total production. Production of turquoise from deposits in the Cerrillos Hills, Santa Fe County; the Burro Mountains and Little Hachita Mountains, Grant County; the Jarilla Hills, Otero County; and the Guadelupe Mountains, Eddy County; can be traced to prehistoric Indians. Several different mines operate or have operated at each of the New Mexico locations mentioned, producing seam and nugget turquoise. Many of the more famous and higher-quality deposits are economically depleted. Turquoise from these deposits was as good as that from any deposit in the world and were the first to displace true Persian turquoise in the U.S. market. Color varied from light to dark green, greenish-blue, bluish-green, paler blue shades, and fine sky- blue. Much of the material was spiderwebbed with thin veinlets of limonite.

15. South of Santa Fe, New Mexico, sit the Cerrillos Hills where large deposits of turquoise have been worked by man for thirty centuries. This area contains what is probably the oldest mine in North America. It is a turquoise mine first worked by Native people at least 1000 years B.C. and later by Spanish, Mexican and American miners. http://www.gorp.c om/gorp/ location/nm/turqm ine.htm

16. Turquois in the Cerrillos area The mines of the Cerrillos area were first worked by Native Americans who extracted lead, silver, copper, and turquoise. Mineral deposits were in pure veins. Digging with stone hammers, chisels and files, native miners hauled ore and rock from inside the mountain in reed baskets and hide buckets. Earliest Spanish reports estimated Indian miners had removed 100,000 tons of rock based on huge tailings piles and 400-year old pinon trees growing from these piles.

18. MINERS in the CERRILLOS HILLS - 1880 http://www.nazor.net/cerrillos/mines/turq03.htm

19. Settlers first came to the area when stories told by Indians mentioned turquoise deposits found in the hills of the Little Hatchet Mountains. Prospectors began working the area around 1875 and not only found the turquoise, but silver, copper, and gold as well. This was at a time when Apache Indians roamed the area freely and the nearest settlement of any significance was a few hundred miles away. Hachita, New Mexico http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/oldhachita.htm

20. NEVADA.--Nevada has been a major producer of turquoise since the 1930's, and until the early 1980's, the State was the largest producer in the United States. It is estimated that over the years, 75 to 100 different mines/prospects produced sizable quantities of turquoise. Production varied from a few thousand dollars worth of material at some of the properties to more than a million dollars at others. To date, total production of rough turquoise is estimated to be in the range of $40 to $50 million. Turquoise from Nevada comes in various shades of blue, blue-green, green-blue, and green. Some of the turquoise may contain iron, if it does, its color is pale green to yellow-green to yellow. The material can be solid colored or spiderwebbed with either brown or black webbing; the spiderwebbing may occur in any of the different colors or shades. It can occur in thin veins or seams or as nodules, with single nodules reported as large as 150 pounds. The quality varies from hard solid material that takes a good polish, to soft porous material that can only be use as feed stock for treatment, enhancement, or stabilization processes.

21. The Sinai malachite (sehmet) and turquoise (mafaket) deposits have attracted miners since the sixth millenium BCE. Near Serabit el- Khadim, a few kilometres inland from the western cost of the Sinai peninsula, turquoise deposits were discovered by the middle of the fourth millenium BCE and taken over by the Egyptians a few centuries later. Following the turquoise veins they excavated large galleries in the sandstone, supported the roof with pillars and carved at the entrance reliefs of the Pharaoh into the rock. In winter water was conducted into the mine in order to extract the stones. TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF EGYPT http://www.terraflex.co.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/mining.htm

22. By about 3000 BC the Egyptians had become masters of the Sinai mines, and at Serabit el-Khadem they set up a large and systematic operation. For the next two thousand years, great quantities of turquoise were carved from Serabit el-Khadem For the Egyptians, the brilliant blue-green stone served myriad purposes: scarabs were carved from it, and the bright mineral enamels of powdered turquoise were used to color everything from fine statuettes to bricks. http://www.geographia.com/egypt/si nai/serabit.htm

23. TURQUOISE DEPOSITS OF MEXICO http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/scientific/mosaics/sr-mosaics-p3.html