.
The
Laguna Agates are well renowned for their wide variety
of vivid colors, numbers of bands per
specimen, shadowy effects, colorful inclusions and
anything else that makes them so desirable.
The most common colors are white, gray, lavender, and
pink. and they can come
in any colors except emerald green and cobalt blue
colors. A single specimen can have a combination of
two or more different colors.
Despite some mining efforts in 1960s, the lagunas
agates were sparse until 1990s when NAFTA opened the
way for the mining of Mexican agates. They came from
several claims
around Estacion Ojo Laguna such as Conejeros,
Alianza, Gabe, Macedonia, Diana, and Mesquite. The
Conejeros (Conijeros) claim mined in 1994-96, had
produced some of the most outstanding Laguna agates.
Because of their popularity,
it's actually quite hard to obtain the good roughs and
that becomes more difficult over time. It must be kept
in mind is that the best agates seen in any books take
up less than 1 % of all laguna roughs. Anyone who want
the best high-end specimens may have to either fork
over large amount of money for them or do nothing but
just dream about them (which I wouldn't recommend).
There had been a few recent mining expeditions that
provided some additional stocks of Laguna agates.
Rough Appearance: Rounded to irregular shaped nodules with
rough texture, greenish to reddish coating and crumbly red
basalt.
May show bluish to white agate, sometimes with colors or
tight banding. White, lavender and pink colors are to be
expected in most specimens.
