14k Gold Gem Grade Pilot Mountain Turquoise Necklace - Michael Barajas (#06)

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The gem grade Pilot Mountain turquoise in this pendent was mined and cut in the mid 1970s. For 25 years, the cabochon sat in an old bank safe in Colorado's Manassa Valley. It caught a glimpse of sunlight as it passed from one safe into another here at Twin Rocks. Our collector friend Andy Todd purchased the stone last year and passed it into the hands of Michael Barajas. As if to make up for lost time, Michael quickly surrounded the stone with the simple yet elegant, golden glow of 14k gold; the perfect accent for such an intensely blue sky stone.

Pilot Mountain Turquoise

Pilot Mountain Turquoise; aka Montezuma or Troy Springs turquoise; Located at the southern end of the Pilot Mountains among the eastern foothills in Mineral County, Nevada. The Pilot Mountain turquoise mine was discovered in 1905 by William Miller of Tonopah Nevada. The Pilot Mountain claims are now owned by the Nevada Turquoise Company and worked by the Otteson Family.

Small intrusive bodies of argilized quartz monzonite are the host rock for Pilot Mountain turquoise. The turquoise occurs in seams, veinlets, and nodules up to an inch or more in thickness. It is variable in color, ranging through the entire blue spectrum, often with a greenish cast with dark brown to yellow mottled matrix patterns. The best colored and hardest stones generally were found in the hard, iron-stained portions of the intrusive, and the softer, pale-blue stones were in the light-colored, soft parts of the intrusive. Other croppings of turquoise occur on the same hill.

Pilot Mountain turquoise comes in every turquoise color imaginable. The best cut gems from this mine are hard and durable they range from a bright blue, to a dark blue with a greenish cast, to very dark blue. Strong dark brown limonite mottled patterns are associated with this material. Gem quality Pilot Mountain turquoise is very beautiful and desirable indeed.

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Certificate of Authenticity

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