Back in 2004 while selling fossils from the US in the weekend mercado (market) in Coyoacan, next to Mexico City. We befriended a few artesanos, a couple archeologists and came in contact with many travelers who worked their way up from South America to northern Mexico and then back down again. Bringing with them polished and raw gems and minerals, trading and selling as they passed through the mercado, telling their tales, some were genuinely amazing people which we are glad we had the chance to meet on our path.

Setting up camp in Queretaro, we became obsorbed in the fire opal craze, unfortunately just as alot of the veins were beginning to dry out. We decided to venture north to Aguascalientes and there we spent many a day in the Sierra Madre mountain range in a small pueblo known as Calvillo. Making long-term friendships with a couple of miners and their amazing families.Which brings us a few years ago to Colima, attracted by the biosphere and volcano, we have found new connections (still keeping many of our old ones as well) out of Guadalajara that hopefully will bring us new friendships and amazing stones for years to come.

As we sell and deal in Méxican opals and fire agates, learn the history and get first hand information direct from the mineros. Making close, personal relationships with a few of the honest and reliable miners around, with whom we have now gained a trust. Sharing in the profits of the polished and raw stones we sell on our websites with them and their families. In return, they save us some of the best opals and fire agates they find in the mines.

We, in return, offer the best possible deals to our clients on the internet - no rip-offs, no false claims. If we got a deal on something, we pass it along to you. The past couple of years things have been very tough on the miners and their families. In 2006 the fire agate mines in Magdalena closed and soon their opal mines are expected to close in the not too distant future. Our fire agates come exclusively from Calvillo in Aguascalientes and our fire opals solely from the Tequisquiapan area of Querétaro. We abide by the wishes of our mining amigos as to minimum prices to sell their products at, so not to devalue their "labor intense" work. High quality gemstones are already depleting rapidly today compared to the abundance, size and quality of opals that were available in the 1960's and 1970's.

B u y e r   B e w a r e
Unfortunately on the internet (and websites like eBay) their are dealers that not only overprice opals and fire agates, but outright lie to the consumer about their rarity. Having you to believe that opals in cantera are gems and as such, they price them by the carat. Not only is this dishonest, but a terrible injustice to the consumer, the miners and the true value of the opal itself. You can only price an opal in cantera by grams, to give a carat value an opal must be completely free of any cantera.

The same goes for fire agate, no chalcedony, nor dark dead spots without fire - a fire agate must be at least 75% fire before it can be valued by carat. Please be careful when purchasing from these types of dealers, we see them selling items at 3 to 4 times for what we sell them for and sometimes their quality is extremely poor. We have been amazed bt some of the excuses they give too, like their cost pertains to the high cost of living in the United States or some other country. The question you need to ask yourself is; "why am I paying for their living standards?"

Fire Agate Price Chart

H e l p
If you have any questions about any opals or fire agate, feel free to contact us and we will try to help you, if we can. But please remember, these stones are part of nature, no two are alike and some color variations are so rare and unusual that we may never find another one similiar again. We do keep want lists and pass them on to our pulidors (polishers) in the mines, who do keep an eye open for special stones - if they should happen to appear.

S h i p p i n g
Follow this link to our chart of complete shipping information throughout the world. We ship via Mexican Postal Service (Sepomex) and by all of the large international carriers, like: FedEx, UPS and DHL.