Turquoise

specimen number:
2062925

location:
Labashan Mine (?), Zhushan Co., Shiyan, Hubei, China

description:
An attractive hafted nodule of turquoise. This has been cut and polished on one face. Very attractive. This weighs 58.48 g. The specimen comes with two previous labels, one from the collection of Ray DeMark and the other from the collection of RWS Woo. Ray acquired the specimen from the Beijing Geological Museum in May, 1981.

Turquoise mining in Zhushan County, Shiyan, Hubei, China, possesses a deep historical legacy dating back thousands of years to ancient imperial periods, with large-scale commercial modern mining expanding significantly from the late 1980s onward and remaining active today under regulated state and private operations. Geologically, the turquoise deposits are hosted within the Cambrian-age Shuigoukou Formation, consisting primarily of thick- and thin-bedded carbonaceous slates and siliceous schists. The turquoise forms as a secondary hydrous copper and aluminum phosphate mineral, precipitating through hydrothermal or meteoric fluid interactions that fill fractures, faults, and structural cavities as veins, nodules, and massive lenses, frequently accompanied by dark carbonaceous or matrix materials.

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