value
was estimated as $5 per pound for the roughly selected material at the
mines. No attempt has been made to separate according to quantity and
value the production of selected pure turquoise from that of the
matrix. Some of the producers furnished such statements; the majority
gave the production as a whole.
NEW MEXICO.
The
turquoise production in New Mexico during 1908 came from the Burro
Mountains and Little Hachita Mountain regions in Grant County, and from
Cerrillos, Santa Fe County. In the Burro Mountains the turquoise
output came from a new deposit, opened by W. R. Wade, of the Azure
Mining Company, and a small quantity from the Porterfield mine,
described in this report for 1907. Mr. Wade ° describes the deposit
opened by him as an irregular dike or neck of porphyry, probably
granite porphyry, of rather fine grain. The turquoise occurs in a soft
altered zone, in which the feldspars are largely kaolinized. This zone
follows a set of parallel slips on the western side of the porphyry
mass. The deposit has been exposed through a width of 40 feet and a
length of 125 feet by 2 shafts with tunnels at the 20-foot and 40-foot
levels. A tunnel is to be driven in at a lower level in the side of a
canyon. Though originally opened for turquoise matrix, considerable
pure turquoise has been found, one nugget weighing 1,500 carats.
Several pounds of pure vein turquoise was obtained from near this
nugget, and in one place the vein was 3 inches wide.
Mr.
Wade states that the deposit was worked by the Aztecs down to the
present first level. The workings are so old that they are only seen
when encountered in the drifts and crosscuts. The ancients evidently
filled in the openings and the filling has become so hardened that it
is often easiest to remove it by blasting. Numerous stone implements
and fragments of charcoal are found in these old workings.
M.
W. Porterfield and George W. Robinson report the development of a
turquoise deposit in the Little Hachita Mountains. This deposit is
about 6 miles west of Hachita Station. The turquoise is found in seams
in porphyry. The principal yield is stated to be in high-grade matrix,
though some pure turquoise is obtained.
NEVADA.
The
production of turquoise in Nevada during 1908 came from Esmeralda, Nye,
and Washoe counties. In Esmeralda County, near Millers, the Himalaya
Mining Company operated the Royal Blue mine, formerly owned by William
Petry, of Los Angeles. Mr. Petry also worked at this locality part of
the year, and the remainder of the year in Nye County. H. W. Lindemann,
of Denver, Colo., reported the purchase of a small quantity of
turquoise at Reno, Washoe County; this material may have come from
another locality. The Himalaya Company reports a large production of
fine gem turquoise. Other companies operated for turquoise in Nevada
during 1908, but failed to report the results of their work. A
discovery of turquoise has been reported, however, at
Searchlight,Lincoln County.6 It is said that a stone weighing 320 carats and worth $2,600 was found.
" Letter dated January 11,1909. & Jeweler's Circular Weekly, March 3,1909.
