Natural Unstablized Persian Turquoise 4-6mm chips, 18 inch strands

Natural Unstablized Persian Turquoise 4-6mm chips, 18 inch strands

Australian Turquoise are rare, blue gemstones with beautiful coffee and chocolate egg-shell and spider web patterns from Broken Hill in the Australian state of New South Wales. An ancient gemstone, blessed with a rich and colorful history, Turquoise’s characteristic color and mottling fabulously complements any fashion, personality or style. First cut in the mid to late 90s.

The Neyshabur (Latinized as Nishapour) deposit is known for yielding turquoise with unique color and quality. This production has historically been known as “Persian turquoise”, yet Iran’s turquoise deposits were never limited to Neyshabur. Other important mines include the Baghu deposit in southern Semnan Province and the Shahr-i Babak deposit in western Kerman Province, the latter of which was mentioned in Marco Polo’s Book of the Wonders of the World between 1390 and 1430 (Weisgerber, 2004).

Located in the Razavi Khorasan Province of northeastern Iran, 53 km from the city of Neyshabur, the Neyshabur mine has produced the majority of Iranian turquoise for more than a millennium. Yet in recent decades there have been claims that the mine is on the verge of closure, that its turquoise quality has diminished, or that it is running out of material. Such claims often carry enormous weight with consumers. After visiting the Neyshabur turquoise mine in 2020, a report was conducted on the current state of the mine. This article seeks to uncover the facts and offer objective insight on the current state of the Neyshabur turquoise mine.