Turquoise is an opaque sky blue gemstone that is exceedingly popular for fine and fashion jewelry today. The United States is the largest producer of turquoise in the world today. The turquoise deposits in the US are primarily located in the Southwest in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. Nevada boasts of having over one thousand active turquoise mines. The mines in Arizona though provide much better quality turquoise than specimens from Nevada. In Arizona, the mines in Bisbee and Kingman are particularly famous for the gem quality turquoise that is found here. The first commercial mining of turquoise in the US was undertaken in the town of Cerritos near Santa Fe in New Mexico. Today, New Mexico and Colorado are relatively small players in the world production of turquoise. In general, the best quality turquoise comes from mines in Iran. Stones from the Iranian mines are consistently of the highest quality, and require little more than cutting and polishing before being used in jewelry. The first discoveries of turquoise were made in the Sinai by ancient Egyptians. This happened over six thousand years ago. Today, there are few operating commercial mines left in Egypt. Turquoise is also found in a few other countries including Australia, China, and Peru. However, the amount of stone mined here is quite small, and the quality is not particularly good.
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