Coming from roughly one mile beneath the earth's surface, a large block of granite, known as a pluton, was pushed out of the earth then eroded by glaciers and water to reveal the precious Smokey Quartz Crystals that we mine today. The mine sits at an elevation of about 8,500 feet in Central Idaho, just below the ridge peak.

Our Black Opal mine is in Nevada.  Near the mine is an oasis with hot spring ponds and plentiful foliage and wildelife.  At the actual mine, however, the soil has such a claylike texture that there are almost no plants or animals, except a chance wild donkey here or there.