The agate-location Sierra Pintada is located near to the township of San Rafael in the Pre-Cordilleras in Mendoza County in Argentina.

Those agates are branded as “Condor-Agates from Patagonia” in the United Staates of America. There´s no relation between birds or fireland to these agates - this practice of given non scientific product-names is only to protect the trade.

At this location vein-agates were found since the 1950ies. The location is on private property, but occasionally collecting for rockhounds is allowed.

Typically for Sierra Pintada-agates are vein-agates from a parallel or polygonal shape. Typical for this deposit is a colorization that is not in relation to the common fortification-banding of the agate. This pattern, caused by secondary colorization is called “chromatography”.

Very rare pseudomorphs after globular shaped carbonate agates do occur. Extremly rare are “Water-level-agates” from Sierra Pintada.