53916.0 - 20 Piece Wholesale Lot Very Rare Australian Turquoise Natural order Untreated 7x5 mm Ovals Approx 13.5 Carats

PLEASE NOTE: 2 Lots Available

Very Rare and Untreated Australian Turquoise!

"TurqOz"... Australia's one and only Turquoise

No longer a Sleeping Beauty, but an awakening Beauty... having rested for half a Century...!

The Background:

This Turquoise was mined in the excessive heat of the Central Australian desert by a public company in the late 1960's and into the early 1970's after which another company took over until mid 1970's.

It is possible the only commercial Turquoise mine that has ever operated in Australia.

Practically the entire production was shipped by air order to USA where the Turquoise jewellery craze was still strong, although in a decline.

For the most part, the rough was sold to traders in that industry who in turn gave it to Amerindians on their reservations for to be made into genuine handmade Amerindian Turquoise Jewellery.

The US Government contributed Dollar for Dollar what the Indians were paid by the traders.

This was in the days of Mail Order Catalog selling; today replaced by Amazon and the likes.

Back in Australia, the mining company ran into a bit of bother as it was forced to close down it's mining operations as it was approaching an Aboriginal sacred site.

Besides that, they had basically run out of Turquoise bearing ground and the mining was no longer viable, anyway.

As a consequence of that, the company wanted to dispose of all of the rough Turquoise it had on hand at the time it seized mining.

The total of the rough amounted to just a couple of hundred kilos and I bought the lot.

From that, some rough were sold, some made into Silverform Jewellery and some cut into calibrated stones.

The rest, about 150 Kg was just stored away and as the saying goes; "Out of sight, out of mind!", and how true is that not!

So, having been bought in the mid 1970's and then stored away until it's recent "discovery" whilst cleaning up the storage area, nearly half of a Century later, it's again available and this time for Australians to hopefully enjoy and appreciate this little piece of Australia.

This Turquoise is not just rare, but in fact VERY rare as perhaps half of the remaining kilos are either small chips down to pin head size, far too porous to cut or of low quality.

"TurqOZ"... After half a Century in hibernation, The Sleeping Beauty of OZ has awoken...