A Discussion about Chinese Turquoise

Real vs. Fake
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I’ll try my best to point out some of the major mines and their typical characteristics but please keep in mind that any mines can produce top class material and they also produce LOTS of so-so materials, and by saying characteristics, I mean characteristics for typical top class material from different mines.

  1. Cloud Temple mine
    This is probably THE MOST FAMOUS Chinese mine, but unfortunately it has been closed for almost 15 years (at least that’s the official status of the mine). It used to produced the best quality materials both for neat chunk and beautiful black matrix spiderweb materials. For its spiderweb materials, it looks just like the Lander Blue if not better in my point of view. The key characteristics are the high hardness and pure deep blue color.
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  2. Ya Jiao Shan Mine
    This mine is still producing very small amount of materials and the quality of the new materials from this mine is way worse than before. We will focus on the characteristics in its peak era. The raw materials usually not too big but it is hard and very few matrix. The color is more greenish blue. For the polished piece, it shows a gel-like shine which is high desirable. Chinese people love to use this kind of materials for making beads. (usually very expensive beads)
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  3. Dong Zi Gou Mine
    This mine is famous for its pure blue material. Compare to Cloud Temple, this mine produce materials slightly brighter in color but very hard and take the polish extremally well. It has been closed for a few years but you still can get them on the market. Materials from this mine is my personal favorite.
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  4. Qin Gu 808 Mine
    The big thing for this mine is its huge production capability. Usually the material from it has a bluish green color. It is more green than blue. I’ve seen all kinds of good materials from this mine and people frequently see high quality materials from this mine as the other famous mine’s materials.
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  5. Yao Jia Po Mine
    This mine is famous for its one of its kind lime green turquoise. As far as I know, the only other place which can produce similar material is in the US, but this mine’s production is very small and it has been depleted for years now.
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  6. Jin Long Shan Mine
    This mine produces very hard intense blue materials. Usually it contains very few matrix and highly crystalline (if you shine strong light to it, the light can go through some thinner area).
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