Fire agate

, a variety of chalcedony with an ancient and fiery beginning, is a natural semi-precious gemstone found in certain areas of Arizona, Mexico, and parts of the southwestern United States. Approximately 24-36 million years ago these areas were subjected to massive volcanic activity during the Tertiary Period. These agates were formed during this period of vulcanism when hot water, saturated with silica and iron oxide, repeatedly filled cracks and bubbles in the surrounding rock, often forming a botryoidal (grape-like) growth.

Fire agate gemstones have beautiful iridescent rainbow colors, similar to opal, with a measurement of hardness on the MOHS scale of between 6.5 to 7 which helps prevent cracking and scratching. The colors within the stones, created by the Schiller effect as found in mother-of-pearl and fire opal, is caused by the alternating silica and iron oxide layers which diffract and allow light to pass which forms the interference of colors known as fire. Besides the thin limonite and geothite iron oxide layers there is no actual objects inside the gems, the visual effects arise from light interference within the microstructure crystal layering of the gem.

Due to the botryoidal shape and thin refractive color layers fire agate gems are one of the hardest gemstones to cut into a finished stone, taking skilled lapidary work and the creative talents of an artist. Dedication, patience and time will be needed if you plan on producing quality cabochons, but the final rewards are truly spectacular. The stone also has a large metaphysical following with the meaning and properites of being an excellent protection stone which reflects negative energies back to the source, and good healing properties for the stomach, nervous and endocrine systems.

Our goal for this site is to offer a variety of Fire Agate Gem Resources and other relevant information. Besides what you find here on our homepage, below is a summary of what you will find in other sections of our website. Check out our location pages for helpful information on mineral locations and public rockhounding sites. Links to some of our favorite gemstone related websites are found within our site under Favorite Links. Some of these related resources include the mineralogical gem data from Mindat.org, links to some friendly social media communities and publications such as Leon Hughes 'Prospecting For And Instructions On How To Finish Fire Agate Gems'. Our gallery section brings you to a wonderful selection of gemstones, gem grade rough, unique mineral specimens and some wonderful jewelry.

Fire Agates Mineral Locations: This section of our website provides a listing and description of some of the gemstone mineral locations with related information, links and photos. Several public rockhounding collection sites are also listed if you are interested in searching for your own rough mineral specimens. You will find information on the Black Hills, Saddle Mountain, Deer Creek, Round Mountain, Slaughter Mountain, Oatman, and Opal Hill gemstone mineral locations. We have prospected a large number of areas within the southwestern United States in search of agate deposits for mining claim purposes and will occasionally add new areas to our online site inventory.

Fire Agate Links and Related Web Sites: This section of our website provides links to several of our favorite topic related websites. Check out some of the listed social media communities for people and friends that are focused on collecting and carving these unique stones. We also list some websites for general rockhounding enthusiast and mineral collectors, pages for gemstone mineralogical data, a great online publication containing a wealth of information and an assortment of other interesting pages.

Fire Agate Gallery Page: This addition to our website is an online gallery of gemstones, rough, mineral specimens and some jewelry pieces for your viewing pleasure. We will be adding many more gems, pieces of rough and jewelry, along with some very unique mineral specimens to this section over time so please watch for new additions.

Fire Agate Shopping Page: This section of our website is our online store which often offers rough, gemstones, mineral specimens and jewelry for sale. At times items may be limited, or even unavailable due to time constraints. At times our store may be offline while we are busy operating our gemstone mines. Please keep checking our shop throughout the year for our selection of quality rough, finely carved gemstones, high quality mineral specimens and at times even some fine pieces of jewelry.

Fire Agate Rough Buyers Guide: We also have a Fire Agate Rough Buyers Guide available for you which is a good place to start if you are new to purchasing raw gemstone rough. This page also has a link to one of our popular YouTube videos 'The World Of Fire Agate'.

Visit our online store at www.FireAgate.shop to view our items for sale.

Fire Agate Shop

We also have stores on ETSY at Arizona Fire Agate and eBay at Fire Agate, however prices will be higher on those sites due to high sales and commission fees. Your lowest prices will always be found at www.FireAgate.shop.

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Fire Agate US is a Registered Trade Name of Maricopa Mining LLC.