Carlin Turquoise

In its high-grade form Carlin turquoise is a very beautiful medium to dark blue turquoise with a hard black chert matrix. The Carlin or Carlin Black Matrix mine was located North of Carlin in Elko County, Nevada. The mine has not operated in a number of years and today is in a large gold producing area. The Carlin was a low production mine.

Because of Carlin's hardness and intense blue color it was at one time highly prized by some of the finer southwestern Native American jewelers. It is rarely seen today.