Crushed Blue-Green Tyrone Turquoise from New Mexico, Medium Crush, Sand Size, 2mm - 0.25mm

This rare turquoise is sourced from the Burro Mountains near Silver City, New Mexico. As with many turquoise mines, the Tyrone mine's original purpose was to mine copper. Mining turquoise was always secondary to mining copper and much of the turquoise would end up in the mine's tailing piles. However, if it was economical, the mine would collect the turquoise too.  During the 1980's, a new copper extraction method called acid washing was introduced to the mine. Unfortunately, this extraction method destroys any turquoise within the copper ore and this stunning turquoise hasn't been collected since the 1980's.

The Tyrone mine produced great quantities of hard, deep and bright blue turquoise as well as pale spring green turquoise. Turquoise is also one of the official birthstones for December.

Our medium material is considered to be sand sized (very coarse sand to fine sand), ranging between 2 millimeters to 0.25 millimeters. Please see the corresponding sediment size chart. 

Mineral Properties

• Mohs’s Hardness: 4
• Specific Gravity (g/cm3): 2.60 - 2.86
• Luster: Dull, Waxy
• Color: Spring Green, Seafoam Green, Blue-Green
• Origin: Near Las Cruces New Mexico

This product is natural, but has been partially stabilized with an epoxy resin. Pictures are taken in full sun.  Stone is wet in the 1st and 4th. Stone is dry in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th photos. Size measurements are using the metric system (millimeters), including the metric ruler (cm/mm) as shown in the product photos.