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Blue Lace Agate from Ysterputs Southern Namibia

Contents

1. Blue Lace Agate Farm 254 Ysterputs
2. George Swanson South African Cowboy
3. Blue Lace Agate | End of the Road
4. Article Photos

Blue Lace Agate Farm 254 Ysterputs

Blue lace agate is a rare variety of the mineral chalcedony.  It's characterised by distinctive blue and white wavy bands.  Although some material can resemble blue agate, it's not the same stone.

The vast majority of blue lace agate comes from one location in Southern Namibia.  Farm 254 Ysterputs, Karasburg West is not far from the border with South Africa.  The area is incredibly dry and barren and rain is exceptionally rare.  Temperatures by day can be almost unbearable but at night they can drop to below freezing.

The deposit where blue lace agate is found is believed to date back approximately 54 million years.

Blue lace agate is synonymous with George Swanson who it's claimed discovered the mine around 1962.  That's not quite accurate however because it was discovered by Willy Preiss.  Preiss lived some 400 miles away in Namibia's capital Windhoek which made managing operations there very difficult.

When George Swanson was given the opportunity to run the mine from his home in Springbok (South Africa) which is much closer, he worked hard to make it a success.

In 1969 a deal was struck whereby Preiss handed ownership over to Swanson.  The deposit remained under his control and was mined extensively until his death in 2010.George SwansonMining blue lace agate was never easy.  The stone is located deep inside a narrow trench and was extracted initially by hand.  As recently as 2015 miners were climbing down chain ladders to get to it.  After being removed with chisels and jackhammers the stone was raised in buckets.  They were attached by chains to a crane at the side of the pit.  For this reason large pieces of blue lace agate are extremely rare.

Mining operations are believed to have started in 1962.  The first official production figures didn't appear until three years later.  For the next fifty years huge quantities of blue lace agate were excavated and traded around the world.

Following his death George Swanson's son took over the business.  Due to lack of interest, poor management or a bit of both, mining operations were dramatically scaled back.  Since 2017 no blue lace agate has been mined from Ysterputs on farm 254.  Visitor access is forbidden.

The first time I bought blue lace agate for Stone Mania was in Jaipur in India in 2004.  The cabochons which we had mounted as pendants were always popular.

During my first trip in 2010 to buy rocks and minerals in South Africa, blue lace agate was high on my list.  I bought many amazing pieces but with each subsequent visit the amount of stone available to buy decreased.

By 2014 apart from tumbled stones, there was nothing left worth buying.  Only then did I learn where it came from.  With George Swanson having passed away mining operations had already been scaled back.

George Swanson South African Cowboy

Having recently found a new supplier in South Africa who had a limited quantity of blue lace agate, I asked him about George Swanson and the situation with the Ysterputs mine.  He told me the following story;

"Mrs Swanson was a pioneer in the Northern Cape in the heyday of hunting for minerals.  George followed in her footsteps and developed the industry further.  He had moved with his family to South Africa from America whilst very young but later returned to study agriculture.

Upon returning to South Africa he became interested in minerals and prospecting for rare stones.  The change in direction is likely to have come about because of influence from his mother. 

George was one of the founder members of the Cape Town Gem and Mineral Club.  By the time I met him he was already an old guy.  He was a classic cowboy as in he looked exactly how you'd expect a cowboy to look.  He always wore a bolo tie and massive belt buckle both of which had a blue lace agate.  He also wore a large hat.blue lace agate polished stoneDuring the early years he struggled to sell the newly found blue lace agate.  That changed when a celebrity saw one of his polished spheres at the Tucson Mineral show.  They said it looked like the view of Earth from space and the comment put George on the map.

All of the blue lace agate stone mined at Ysterputs was taken back to his yard in Springbok.  There it was cleaned up and processed before being sold to dealers across South Africa and around the world.

Visitors were welcome but he wasn't an easy man to do business with.  We stopped by the yard every now and then to see what he had. He was a tough bugger and we paid good money for the stone.  He rarely gave discounts especially to people like us because we only bought in small quantities.  With some haggling we would sometimes get a few cents off in the end if we were lucky. 

Many bad things were said about old George but each month he made the long drive to the Cape Town Gem and Mineral Club to sell his blue lace agate.  He was totally committed.  He would also do many fairs even if he did sometimes turn up a day or so late.     

After George passed away his son Lionel took over the business.  I believe he now lives in the USA. He quickly sold everything off and not much has been heard from him since.polished blue lace agate stoneThe ownership of the blue lace agate mine in Ysterputs is now in dispute between different parties.  Nothing has been done about it for many years.  On going back to the mine it was really scary, they left things in a terrible state.  Anyone taking over will have huge health and safety concerns to contend with which is likely to make any future mining operations extremely difficult.

The supervisors who still live there are trying to make ends meet.  They're not allowed to mine or remove any of the blue lace agate.  That just leaves them with a material known as crazy lace which although quite good, is not amazing.  They're struggling to get by but are coping.  Later this year there's a field trip in the area and a few of the guys will no doubt pop in to make sure they're okay.

The blue lace agate from Ysterputs is really fantastic.  It cuts and polishes very well, the colour is deeper than the Zambian or Malawi material and in terms of final finish when polished, it's much better than anything from the other sources.

Good old George, a tough bugger but a character none of us will forget."

two rough pieces of blue lace agate

Blue Lace Agate | End of the Road

The blue lace agate I received from this supplier was really outstanding.  Sadly there's now almost nothing left available to buy.  

Namibian Blue Lace is an amazing website that features many incredible photos.  It's only for information purposes so stone cannot be bought online or from the owner directly. 

Article Photos

The photo of George Swanson was taken prior to 2001. The rough and polished blue lace agate comes Farm 254, Ysterputs, Karasburg.

The rough and polished stones featured in this article are from our collection. Photos are clickable and redirect to the original image. 

shop now explore our collection of blue lace agate
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