Morenci Turquoise: Field Guide to the Pyrite-Matrix Benchmark

Morenci is the mine that gave the trade its reference point for one specific look: metallic flecks of iron pyrite in deep blue. Lowry is explicit that other mines around the world also produce a pyrite matrix, “but Morenci is the standard and is the most famous of these mines.”¹

It is also the mine in this guide with the clearest sourced answer to “can I still get it,” and the answer is more interesting than a yes or a no.

Where it comes from

Morenci is “located in southeastern Arizona in the Shannon Mountains and is the by product of a large copper-producing open-pit mine” — Greenlee County.¹ Lowry also calls it a prehistoric mine.¹

A date that is easy to get wrong. Lowry records that “the first records of this area were those of Henry Clifton and an army scout by the name of Robert Metcalf in 1864.”¹ That is the first record of the area — the mining district — and it is not a turquoise discovery date. Lowry calls the mine prehistoric in the same entry, so the two would flatly contradict each other if 1864 were read as the discovery of the turquoise. If you see “Morenci turquoise, discovered 1864” somewhere, that is this sentence being misread.

What to match on — and what the second book says

Lowry: “although this prehistoric mine produces many varieties of colors, the most sought after variety is its deep blue with iron pyrite matrix.”¹ And: “the Morenci Mine in Arizona is famous for a nice blue color and pyrites in its matrix formation.”¹

Note what that sentence actually claims. Pyrite is the most sought-after variety, not the only one — Lowry says in the same breath that the mine produces many colours. “Morenci equals pyrite” is an over-flattening, and Schiffer shows why: at Morenci, turquoise deposits “have yielded large quantities of light to dark blue stones with a light tan matrix.”²

These reconcile rather than conflict once you see what each is describing: Lowry is describing the prized material, Schiffer the bulk. A light-tan-matrix Morenci is not a fake; it is the common case. The pyrite stone is the one people are looking for.

The Brown family, and a good story

“William ‘Lucky’ Brown and J. W. Edgar were mining turquoise at the Carico Lake Mine in Nevada when they received a letter that offered them the turquoise mining rights at Morenci. They partnered in Morenci for seven months until J. W. went back to Nevada.”¹

“Mr. Brown leased and marketed this turquoise concession (1956–1984), and the Brown family has continued his work for generations.”¹

Lowry also records Brown’s own account of how much unofficial collecting went on: at night, people would come over the fences and hills “like ants” to search the freshly graded areas for turquoise.¹

The fraud

Morenci is named in the same list as the other famous mines: “tons of Mexican and Chinese turquoise have been misrepresented and sold as Morenci, Sleeping Beauty, Lander Blue, Lone Mountain.”¹ Mexican mines can produce “almost a perfect match” to Morenci, and China’s Ma’anshan produces blue “similar to the American mines at Kingman and Morenci.”¹

The pyrite matrix helps here, but it is not proof on its own — Lowry says plainly that other mines around the world produce a pyrite matrix too.¹ Get the mine of origin in writing.³

Current status

This is the best-sourced status in the guide, and it is as of 2010.

Lowry states it directly: “currently, this mine does not produce any significant amounts of turquoise, but the Brown family still cuts cabochons from the rough that has been previously mined.”¹

That is a genuinely useful thing for a buyer to know, because it is a sourced explanation of scarcity rather than a sales line: Morenci on the market is being cut from old stock. Lowry supplies his own forward-looking hedge in the next breath — “as with most copper-bearing zones, when copper prices continue to gain value, there could be more turquoise produced in later years.”¹

As Lowry puts it, “which mines are active can change year to year depending on whether someone invests the money to reopen an old mine or discovers a new one.”¹

Field Notes by Mateo James

The line to hold on to here is “most sought-after variety.” Morenci is the benchmark for pyrite matrix, and it is also a mine that produced a lot of ordinary-looking blue with a tan matrix. Both of those are Morenci. The second fact is the one that gets left out, and leaving it out is how a buyer talks themselves out of a real stone because it does not sparkle.

How this page is sourced. Every factual claim above is drawn from the printed reference works listed below and is footnoted to the book it came from. Where our sources disagree we say so and do not pick a winner; where they are silent we say that too, rather than filling the gap. Nothing on this page comes from general web knowledge.

Sources

Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited without page numbers: the printed folios in our scan of this title are not legible enough to pin a page honestly, so this reference is given at the book level only.
Schiffer, Nancy. Turquoise Jewelry. Schiffer Publishing. Cited at the book level.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board, consumer brochure on the Indian Arts and Crafts Act and turquoise (GPO document gpo58769). Independence note: this brochure states that the Board “collaborated with Mr. Joe Dan Lowry, of the Turquoise Museum” to produce its turquoise information. Joe Dan Lowry is the lead author of the Lowry volume above, so where the two agree that is one voice speaking twice and not independent corroboration.