Nevada Blue Gem Cabs - Cabochons

Blue Gem Turquoise from the Battle Mtn area - Northern Nevada, show in the photo on the right is very rare and seldom scene. This Turquoise is hard and a dream to cut, it came out of the mine in a soft host material that was easy to remove by tumbling in an old cement mixer with water. There is/was almost no waste in this material and a large percentage of Battle Mountain Blue Gem is high quality rich blue in color.

Tonopah Blue Gem Turquoise comes from the Royston Hills District and is quite differant then Battle Mountain Blue Gem. It's host rock is hard ryolite which is a golden-yellowish-light brown color and the Turquoise itself runs from a rich deep blue all the way to emerald greens and into a lime green color. Tonopah Blue Gem has fabulous rainbows of blue to greens with spectacular golden matrix and spiderweb matrix. It is much harder to cut as much of it runs in seems that must be sawed out, this is very time consuming but the outcome is usually well worth the trouble. Buying Tonopah Blue Gem Turquoise is much more difficult as well.

The photograph to the left is a Cabochon from the Battle Mountain Blue Gem Turquoise Mine. You can see that the northern Blue Gem almost looks like Arizona Turquoise and many people mistake it for Morenci Turquoise. It is truely beautiful and the blue tones are outstanding. Cutting Battle Mountain Blue Gem is a stone cutters dream - it is hard, fracture free and takes a polish like glass.

Tonopah Blue Gem Cabochons are equally beautifu in their own way. If you are a lover of blue/green and green Turquoise, Tonopah Blue Gem is probibly the most beautiful Turquoise that ever came out of the ground for you. Although it is much harder to cut, it is beautiful. We will have some examples on this page for you soon. You will love it.

If you are interested in Blue Gem Turquoise, Dillon and John Hartman of Durango Silver Co have a large collection of Turquoise from both Blue Gem Mines. They sell cabochons ocassionally but ususally have a good amount of Jewelry with high-grade Blue Gem .