Our Mission

Getting a supply of Sonora Sunrise rough was one of our missions during our trip to Quartsite and Tucson this year. Rumors were that it had been mined out. At least my “go to” supplier had none to sell. What we found was a spotty supply at very high prices. Most of what we saw was not the quality we were looking for. If we had to pay high prices at least we wanted the best.  And we did find some, although not as much as we would have liked. Having to set up and do two shows totaling 10 days cut into our shopping time. But here is one of the chunks we did get. Very, very nice.

The Lowdown

I also tried to get to the bottom of what was happening with the supply of this stuff. Is it mined out? I asked around and got some shrugs but also a couple of different explanations. It is clear the material comes as a byproduct of a large copper mine. One dealer said they mine had gone through the layer where this material occurs and there is no more now. The other explanation, more intriguing, is that the Sonora Sunrise material was sold off to a number of different dealers who started fighting amongst themselves and the mine owners simply quit selling the material. That had the sound of truth to it. But everyone agreees that no more is coming out now.  And the supplies are diminished, and the prices have tripled to quadrupled for the rough. Stay tuned as I learn more.