About Our Turquoise

Sterling Turquoise & Opal has access to the finest turquoise anywhere in the world. We carry rough turquoise from various mines worldwide, and products including cabochons, hand cut drilled and undrilled specialty nuggets and a wide variety of drilled turquoise beads, both nugget and calibrated.

Sterling Foutz has been in the turquoise business for over 40 years, a legacy starting with his great grandfather. Sterling briefly owned the lease to the Kingman and Sleeping Beauty mines, and the Baja Mexico mine, as well as a joint venture at the Hubei China mine.

The J Zachery Treatment for turquoise has been a proprietary process of Sterling Foutz and partners for 30 years. The process was first developed by scientist and inventor, James Zachery in the early 1980’s.

The process maintains the natural properties of turquoise, protects against oxidation and hardens the turquoise. The process does not add dyes, resins, oils or waxes to the turquoise like other treatments.

The J. Zachery Treatment is an industry standard. The process was studied and thoroughly tested by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and the NGTC (National Gemology & Technology of China). The GIA findings were published in the Spring 1999 issue of Gems and Gemology Magazine, and the NGTC findings were published in China’s Gemology & Technology November-December 2015.