Number 8 turquoise is one of our favorites. It has character in its appearance and can easily be identified.
Number #8 (spider web) Turquoise comes from the #8 mine in Nevada. Like most Turquoise mines, #8 produced a fairly significant range of Turquoise, both in color and matrix. However, #8 is well known for it's beautiful matrix webbing (spider web). This material is rare and sought after by collectors, there was not a lot of it produced. In the early days of the mine the matrix was mostly black and a little finer. Later in the mine production it began to produce green/gold matrix, which is very pretty and considered by many collectors to be classic.
The Number 8 Turquoise mine in Eureka county, north of Carlin, Nevada, was discovered in 1925 and first mined in 1929. It has been one of the more productive turquoise mines in Nevada. Historically, the mine produced some of the largest nuggets of turquoise ever discovered, including one over 150 pounds in weight.
In the 1960's gold was discovered in the rocks surrounding the mine. Since 1976 there has been no #8 turquoise mined.
The Number 8 area was excavated out as a part of an open pit gold mine in the 1980's. . The place where the mine was is now a large hole in the ground. Because the mining company was only interested in the gold content of the ores, all the rest of the turquoise excavated in this operation went into the mine dump and was buried.
