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Property Overview

The Easter Blue Mineral Property is a twenty (20) acre lode claim located in the Royston Mining District. The mine is noted for producing high value turquoise with a deep blue “robin’s egg” hue. This is often mixed with a gold and pyrite matrix with dark brown iron. It is some of the most expensive turquoise in the world and valued for its color and the matrix that it forms in.

The Easter Blue is one of the original turquoise mines located in the Royston District. Historically it was held by Lee Hand and later leased to the Otteson family. The Easter Blue is noted as one of the most famous and original mines in the district. While the Royal Blue and Royston Coalition Mines were patented and worked, and worked, and worked until there was nothing left, the Easter Blue continued to produce gem quality turquoise that was mined primarily by hand and commanded a great premium.

The property has good access and could be reached with a low clearance two-wheel drive vehicle in 2017. The closest town is Tonopah which is to the south of the property.

The Easter Blue has not been addressed since the early 1960s. The Ottesons, who held the leases, are said to have favored the larger pit mine operations in which turquoise could be shipped in larger quantities and thus larger profits. The small, higher value, but low quantity material from the Easter blue was sidelined and eventually nearly forgotten. The exposed turquoise bodies were largely covered up by use of machinery so that they would not be looted.

The mines are long dozer cuts along exposed argillized quartz veins. The turquoise deposits are veinlets in altered shear zones in a fine-grained white quartzite. The rock is almost completely argillized near the shear zones and is silicified along the mineralized fractures. High value turquoise specimens were found in several spots throughout the claim. Most notable was a “glory hole” on the site. This consists of remnants of an adit and a pit where some high-grade samples were taken. Pyrite, iron and gold was found in the quartz and some of the turquoise was shot with iron and pyrites. There are also remnants of old adits which have been opened and cut along shear zones by machinery. There are a series of open cuts and trenches on the property. These expose various layers of rock which have been mined for the veins containing the famous Easter Blue turquoise. The property is a hand working operation, while a dozer is recommended for clearing overburden and slough to reveal deposits, it is not possible to work the deposits by anything but hand with hammers and chisels.

The mine(s) will require some mechanized work to expose the quartz and turquoise bodies. This will require an active Notice of Operation for disturbance on the property. This notice will likely require some bonding for reclamation.

The Blue Gem and Easter Blue are somewhat synonymous with each other but should be noted that they are separate deposits and nearly 2500’ from each other.

The Easter Blue is a high value gem property which has potential for substantial development and profit if correctly mined and marketed. The advent of man-made turquoise in the past few years has skyrocketed the value of real, mined turquoise. Rare turquoise specimens, such as those from the Easter Blue will command a premium.

Gold Rush Expeditions, Inc. does offer mining consultation services and assistance with permits for a small fee.

Training courses for underground work and exploration can be found here: https://stayoutstayalive.com/training/