Although widely and mistakenly marketed as "White Buffalo Turquoise," it contains no copper and lacks the chemical composition of true turquoise. It is predominantly composed of magnesite, calcite, alumite, and quartz, surrounded by a striking black or brown chert matrix.

White Buffalo stone is a high-contrast black and white mineral mined exclusively by the Otteson family at the Dry Creek Mine in Tonopah, Nevada. Sometimes the stones are mostly black with a small amount of white. Some people refer to this as black buffalo, however it is the same stone as white buffalo.