Jasper is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow or brown in color. This mineral breaks with a smooth surface, and is used for ornamentation or as a semi –precious gemstone. It can be highly polished to a high gloss finish and is often carved for cabochons, vases, spheres, animals, hearts, plates and all other forms of carved ornamentation.
Jasper can have many shades of different colors from red to yellow and blue due to mineral impurities. Patterns can arise from the formation process and from flow patterns in the sediment or volcanic ashthat was saturated with silica to form jasper, yielding bands or swirls in the rock.
Jasper may be permeated by dendriticminerals providing the appearance of vegetative growths. The jasper may have been fractured and/or distorted after formation, later rebinding into discontinuous patterns or filling with another material. Heat or environmental factors may have created surface rinds (such as varnish) or interior stresses leading to fracturing.
A brown jasper that occurs as nodules in the Libyan desert and in the Nile valley is known as Egyptian jasper or Egyptian pebble.
Picture jaspers simultaneously exhibit several of these variations (such as banding, flow patterns, dendrites or color variations) resulting in what appear to be scenes or images in a cut section. Spherical flow patterns produce a distinctive orbicular appearance. Complex mixes of impurities produce color variations. Healed fractures produce brecciated jasper. Examples of this can be seen at Llanddwyn Island.
Another type of Jasper is Leopard Jasper, also known as Orbicular Jasper. It is composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is a variety of Chalcedony, a type of quartz. Leopard jasper is usually an opaque combination of tan, gray, black or reddish-brown circles or 'spots' of color, hence its name.
The Royal Jasper Mine offers different varieties of jasper which have colored stripes or bands and is commonly known in gem trade as striped or banded jasper.
The Nevada Royal Jasper Mine is a new mine and quarry development owned and operated by Western Blasting Technologies, Inc. which is a full drilling and blasting service.