Damele Turquoise mine. Here is another of the many awesome Nevada turquoise mine. Benny Damele discovered this mine about 1973 and mining didn’t start until Clyde Wright acquired the mine soon after that. Clyde mined the mine for almost 18 yrs. And now you have the 2nd owner. A lot of mines produce a high percentage of low and medium grade material. Damele produced a high percentage of good and high-end material. This has to be one of my favorite mines to cut stone from. I love the patterns and the shades of green and what is termed Smoke. This is where black starts to come into the green and smoke it out sometimes becoming almost black. The patterns that this mine produces are awesome. Good webbing and a lot of Birdseye material. This is a private mine that is only mined on a very controlled level and the stone is available very sporadically. I have bought rough from the owner many years ago and also have come across a few stashes. A very difficult stone to come across. . I did not come across any of this material until 1990 +. Of course in the turquoise boom of the 1970’s green was almost worthless. I just had a passion for green and I would cut it and put it into MY jewelry, but no one wanted any green. Which when you come to today is a good thing because had green been in great demand then, they would have already mined it out, So green material was preserved out of ignorance and timing for us today. This mine is located outside of Austin Nevada in the Dry Creek Ranch owned by the Damele family, they raise unique horses there that carry the Damele name. This is where the name of this mine comes from. There is another well known mine close to this mine the Godber. This mine is on the flats just as you are getting into the foothills of a mountain range, one of the more pretty locations for a mine. Just starting to get to an elevation that has the smaller pine trees like juniper and pinion a very scenic location. The mine that I had was on top of a mountain that looked down on this mine. I would drive by the Damele on the way to my mine. A lot of turquoise mines are located on very desolate property that looks like lunar landscape. It has come to my attention that other sellers of Damele indicate that the only true turquoise that this mine ever produced was years ago and was only found on the surface or from the very first mining of this mine, as seem to run in this turquoise business is a lot of speculations and the indication that only certain dealers have the true good old turquoise and only they have it and if you want true old stuff they are they only source. This could not be further from the truth about this mine. The Damele mine produces both turquoise and variscite and blends of the two. I have cut cabs from the first material from this mine as well as what was dug just this summer. I do see some differences but the Damele produces top grade turquoise and variscite over the years right up to what I bought this summer from the owner. The turquoise and variscite from this mine look very similar and only a trained eye could tell the difference. Myself I actually like variscite over turquoise and find it is a more unique stone to cut and has a much wider patterns and color. I would say but can’t be sure that this mine actually produces more turquoise than variscite today. And the quality today is awesome, just go to my Ebay store and look at my Damele cabs. Most of those cabs were cut from this summer’s production from this mine. The material from this mine is primarily high grade so it does not produce an abundance of material. This is very limited material and is hard to get even today. The owner is one of my best friends in this turquoise business and we talk often. I find him very knowledgeable and helpful to me in my mining questions. And even though I have owned mines for over 12 years my true expertise is in cutting turquoise and other stones. Copyright @ 2010 Jim Saunders