Working WITH the Earth

There’s a kind of knowing you don’t learn from a book. The miners I’ve known over the years - the good ones, the real ones - they don’t just dig. They read the land. They understand the rock. They feel the weight of the earth and know when it’s ready to give something up… and when it’s not.

Working WITH the Earth

There’s a kind of knowing you don’t learn from a book.

The miners I’ve known over the years - the good ones, the real ones - they don’t just dig. They read the land. They understand the rock. They feel the weight of the earth and know when it’s ready to give something up… and when it’s not.

That’s work most folks never see.

Take Carico Lake, for instance. That ground has a voice all its own. It doesn’t give itself away easily. You don’t rush it. You pay attention. The miners who work that land know the difference between promising color and false hope. They know how the stone changes with depth, how a seam bends, how pressure and time leave their signature. That knowledge doesn’t come fast - it slowly reveals.

But Carico Lake is just one chapter.

Across Northern Nevada, the greater Southwest - and around the globe, there’s a whole brotherhood (along with sisters) of miners who share that same respect for the land.

Some of them have been doing it their whole lives, learning from a parent or a grandparent. Others entered as adults and never looked back. Some work large claims with whole teams and the equipment to match - others stick to small claims on remote, unforgiving ground. All of them understand one thing - you don’t conquer the earth, you cooperate with it.

That’s true here, and it’s true around the world.

Over the years, I’ve built relationships with miners far beyond our backyard. Different languages, different landscapes, same respect. The tools may change. The climate may change. But the rhythm is the same. Care. Patience. Responsibility. An understanding that what you take from the ground carries meaning long after it leaves your hands.

At Sunwest, we don’t just mine or buy stone. We honor where it comes from and who
brought it up. Every piece of turquoise starts long before a silversmith ever touches it. It starts with someone willing to listen - to the land, to the rock, to generations of hard-earned knowledge.

We’re proud to know them. We’re proud to work with them. And we never forget that without those hands in the dirt, there would be no story
for us to tell.