Royal Sahara Jasper Cabochon

From the Sahara Desert in North Africa comes Royal Sahara nodules, discovered by a couple of Washington State native explorers. Who would’ve guessed! Around this time (Nov) in 2006, the couple who discovered the nodules found what appeared to be an ancient creek bed where the bulk of the best material was found. Through the following year, they had people return to the site to unbury it from continuously shifting sands and get more material to the US. Based on similar fossils found in the area and embedded in the same rocks, they estimated it to be 35-45 million years old and possibly formed from molten mudflows. They mined and brought back as much as they could of this material and in the last couple years, seem to have retired peacefully with their rocks, as their shop is no longer open.