NEW FIRE AGATE!
Mined at Slaughter Mountain, AZ. The mine is located on San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and can only be mined using traditional Apache collecting methods. Only tribe members are permitted to mine, and no blasting or heavy machinery is allowed. Usually Fire Agate is found in rhyolite that makes it pretty easy to remove the agate, but at Slaughter Mountain the matrix is less yielding , which makes it more like trying to get the fire agate out like that of chipping a glass bottle out of cement.
Mined at Slaughter Mountain, AZ. The mine is located on San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and can only be mined using traditional Apache collecting methods. Only tribe members are permitted to mine, and no blasting or heavy machinery is allowed. Usually Fire Agate is found in rhyolite that makes it pretty easy to remove the agate, but at Slaughter Mountain the matrix is less yielding , which makes it more like trying to get the fire agate out like that of chipping a glass bottle out of cement.
Fire agate is a brown agate which has a botryoidal or grape-like growth form. What is special about fire agate is that it contains layers of plate-like crystals of iron oxide in various planes. The iridescent colors of red, gold, green and, occasionally, blue-violet, result from interference between diffracted light rays traveling through and reflecting from these thin layers.Cutting fire agate essentially reverses nature's process by grinding and polishing away layers, following natural contours, until only the fire is visible. It requires skilful work. Removing too much of the chalcedony reduces the iridescence, while removing too little results in a dull appearance. It is painstaking work and as a result is rarely found in large, mass-produced quantities. Fire Agate is a form of quartz and has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, which make it a great stone for any type of jewelry including rings.
Fire Agate has been available for only the past 60 years.Fire agate is found in only a few locations in the world, mainly in the southwestern USA and Mexico. Deposits are found in the area between Kingman, Arizona and Needles, California, and around the Colorado River. Fire agate has also been found in quantity in some areas of Mexico. Mexican fire agate specimens come from the mines of Calvillo in the state of Aguascalientes. There are dozens of mines around the mountains of Calvillo. Fire agates are also found in San Luis Potosi and Chihuahua, Mexico. Because of the mineral mixture, fire agate from Potosi only have golden fire, rainbow colors are extremely rare.Special Tucson Introductory Pricing:
Two different 5 gal "Bucket Lots"
1. Mine Run for $1,000 per bucket
2. Graded to have fire for $2,500 per bucket
75 Piece Lot for $300 (this is roughly 3-4 lbs)
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