One pound - 1 lb of Genuine Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Rough Cut Nuggets.

This is real, solid, genuine Turquoise by the pound! This genuine Sleeping Beauty Turquoise is all solid Turquoise and it's full of natural color. Turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty mine is highly sought after for its even sky-blues with little matrix. The pictures below show about 4 pounds of Turquoise. You'll get one pound of Turquoise like this, which includes large solid nuggets measuring approximately 1/2" to 1" inches in width. The Turquoise you receive will vary only slightly in color and shape. This Turquoise is perfect for creating any kind of hand made jewelry. It would be great for cutting into cabochons for bracelets, pendants, buckles, and bolo ties. It could also be fashioned into beads or cut for inlay. This is quality turquoise. The possibilities are endless, let your imagination run wild!

The Sleeping Beauty mine is located near Globe, Arizona. Its turquoise is noted for its solid, light blue color with no matrix. Sleeping Beauty turquoise is the favorite of the Zuni Pueblo silversmiths for use in petite point, needlepoint, and inlay jewelry. This mine is one of the largest in North America and is still operating.

In Arizona, Turquoise ranks first in terms of value of production and is also the best known of its gem materials. 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 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. The financial and operating terms of the collecting contracts vary from mine to mine. Some of the operations are little more than the efforts of individual commercial collectors. Some are essentially full-scale mining operations that are simultaneous with, but separate from, the regular mining operations; and still others operate on an on-call basis as turquoise is uncovered by the regular copper mining operation. Regardless of the size or the sophistication of the initial mining or recovery operation, the actual turquoise is recovered by careful extraction using hand methods.