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❓Your Mineral Identification Questions answered here
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ken2m
Ken
ken2m said:
Also worth noting is that it looks like it has flow lines in one area, but it is not noticeable in the photo's I have taken. The photo is backlit with a LED spotlight 500 lumen's.
The camera would not focus with the brightness of the spotlight. Ken.
goldierocks said:
Here's an example of some garnet that looks quite similar to the stuff that 22shells has found with the hexagonal crystal structure. To me his stones look more garnet that corundum but hey it's possible that it is corundum, I've just never seen corundum like it before and I've seen alot of it.
https://roughrockshop.co.uk/almandine-garnet-rough-for-tumbling
ken2m said:
Pretty sure it is obsidian.
Morion Smokey Quartz is my guess.. And found around Eldorado.. As far as Mindat says, Obsidian is only found near Geelong....
LW....
LW....
ken2m
Ken
Ok thanks guys for your opinion's. Ken.
Thanks for the replies. :Y: Heatho the garnets in that link does look like similar material, but they have the garnet shape. Whereas the stuff I found is more elongated. You're probably used to seeing proper corundum from NSW or QLD! This stuff is from SA, whatever it is. I'll keep trying to see if I can find some better bits. In the meantime here's another pic:Heatho said:
A scratch test and specific gravity test will probably need to be done now to gain any further insight into what they are. Garnet has quite a wide specific gravity between specimens from 3.5 to 4.3 whereas corundum is between 3.95 to 4.1. Corundum is much harder than garnet as well.
Elliott
Elliott
Hey everyone 
I really hope I'm ok posting this here, I'm 100% new to fossicking in general and it's so hard to know where to look online or who to ask...
But I'm based in south east QLD, and I live right by what is an ancient volcano (beautiful red soil, big mountain). There's a creek I often go to and on a whim one day I decided to just see what sort of nice rocks and such I could find in the stream, and within an hour I had found a collection of really beautiful items. But I really have no idea what I am looking at and I was hoping some of you might be able to give me some idea? I've gone through the creekbed a few times and each time I find nice formations of what I assume to be some kind of quartz - tubular shapes, spades, some kind agate I think (Jasper? you can see in the pictures);
Recently I wasn't having much luck finding more in the stream, so I went about 20m up stream to where a huge landslide had occured many years ago (boulders as big as trucks), and on a whim tossed some large stones aside and started having a dig in the clay... so much clay. But very quickly I pulled two nice pieces of quartz (is it quartz?) out of the clay;
My thoughts are that the things I am finding all come from the hillside, and that the land slide simply released some which was then washed out by rain and deposited in the creek. Can anyone help identify what I'm looking at here, and perhaps confirm that digging through the clay itself might be a more sensible way to go?
And please, if I am in the wrong place I would really love some direction of where better to ask. Thank you!! :Y:
I really hope I'm ok posting this here, I'm 100% new to fossicking in general and it's so hard to know where to look online or who to ask...
But I'm based in south east QLD, and I live right by what is an ancient volcano (beautiful red soil, big mountain). There's a creek I often go to and on a whim one day I decided to just see what sort of nice rocks and such I could find in the stream, and within an hour I had found a collection of really beautiful items. But I really have no idea what I am looking at and I was hoping some of you might be able to give me some idea? I've gone through the creekbed a few times and each time I find nice formations of what I assume to be some kind of quartz - tubular shapes, spades, some kind agate I think (Jasper? you can see in the pictures);
Recently I wasn't having much luck finding more in the stream, so I went about 20m up stream to where a huge landslide had occured many years ago (boulders as big as trucks), and on a whim tossed some large stones aside and started having a dig in the clay... so much clay. But very quickly I pulled two nice pieces of quartz (is it quartz?) out of the clay;
My thoughts are that the things I am finding all come from the hillside, and that the land slide simply released some which was then washed out by rain and deposited in the creek. Can anyone help identify what I'm looking at here, and perhaps confirm that digging through the clay itself might be a more sensible way to go?
And please, if I am in the wrong place I would really love some direction of where better to ask. Thank you!! :Y:
Welcome to the Forum Elliott, and love your avatar great photo of an animal lover.
Nice stones and someone on here will help.
Mackka
Nice stones and someone on here will help.
Mackka
Right place to ask is right here where you are.... :lol:
Do they feel Waxy?..... I think you have some Chalcedony there.... very nice finds... and yes the Clay should be better digging....
LW....
Do they feel Waxy?..... I think you have some Chalcedony there.... very nice finds... and yes the Clay should be better digging....
LW....
Elliott
Elliott
Mackka said:
Thank you for the welcome! Haha the goat in my avatar was my boy Manny, he was like a brother to me. He was actually in hospital when that picture was taken so he was really feeling down, needed a hug
LoneWolf said:
Phew! Glad I stumbled into the right place! It's so hard to know sometimes. Chalcedony seems like the winner... no matter how many ways you spin a google search on just 'quartz' I could not find any images that resembled the tubular structures and such that I found. But searching by Chalcedony, found quite a few. That's really neat!! And good to know about the clay, next time I will bring some better gear and really get stuck into it, I just love digging, always have since I was a kid... went to lightning ridge, camping out past Broken Hill, all over the place. I have a big bowl of thunder eggs and opal and such at home, souvenirs from childhood trips through the middle of nowhere
I'm also curious if the presence of these particular minerals, combined with the volcanic nature of the area, at all suggests what else may be found there? I would hate to be skipping certain 'rocks' on a whim because I'm not looking closely enough as I dig frantically! Oh also, they are all really dry and rough. The only one that has a slight 'wax' to it would be the piece with the red core. What does a waxy feeling indicate?
Waxy feel is an indication of Chalcedony, one of it's 'properties' .... You also have some Agates as well I think... There isn't much to find around your area according to some sites.... But that doesn't mean you won't find something of interest...... Here is a good site to help with your searches and identification....
https://www.mindat.org/
A Prime example of this is, just over the Border, some of the Best Crystal Clusters I have seen for years, from many areas, but there is No mention anywhere about them... And some are right on the coastline too.... Amethyst, Smokey Quartz and Sceptre Crystals, All from Ballina north to Currumbin...
LW.....
https://www.mindat.org/
A Prime example of this is, just over the Border, some of the Best Crystal Clusters I have seen for years, from many areas, but there is No mention anywhere about them... And some are right on the coastline too.... Amethyst, Smokey Quartz and Sceptre Crystals, All from Ballina north to Currumbin...
LW.....
Elliott
Elliott
What a great website, thank you!! As you say, my area is not really noted as having anything of particular interest. Funny thing, over the years I have come across really old historical documents for my particular suburb, from waaaay back in the early days and there are quite a few references to opal being found here. And yet, no one today seems to know anything of it or have heard anything about it. Makes me wonder...
Nothing more rewarding than finding a treasure trove of goodies that everyone else missed hey! Sounds like you have a few hidden gems of your own, that's awesome
Nothing more rewarding than finding a treasure trove of goodies that everyone else missed hey! Sounds like you have a few hidden gems of your own, that's awesome
Yes the Opal you mentioned is a Volcanic Opal, not like the Sedimentary Opal of Lightning Ridge ect.... If you do find some, keep it in water or it may crack-up... It's simular to the Opal found around Tintenbar in North NSW.... :Y:
LW...
LW...
Chiron52
Dave
This is a crystal I found last year at Sapphire Bend.
It is terminated on both ends and even has a tiny crystal growing on the top (in the photo).
I think it is just a quartz crystal but the colour is unusual.
It was found in the grey, clayey "wash" layer.
I just wanted some confirmation that it is probably just a stained quartz crystal.
Cheers.
It is terminated on both ends and even has a tiny crystal growing on the top (in the photo).
I think it is just a quartz crystal but the colour is unusual.
It was found in the grey, clayey "wash" layer.
I just wanted some confirmation that it is probably just a stained quartz crystal.
Cheers.
Yes I would have to agree about the Staining, But Interestingly in your pic you can see the path of the small Crystal and the 'exit' point on the opposite side... :Y:
LW....
LW....
This piece I found about a year ago and forgot about it, even forgot where I found it. I find a lot of black tourmaline schorl, but the problem is it all seems to be black. Could this be an elusive bit of not-black tourmaline? There is some black tourmaline on it as well, but it has several different crystals too. Once again, it's quite small and a scratch test not really possible. SG test wouldn't really work either.
Goldpick
Chris Johnson
Could be beryl crystals, they can vary from nearly clear through to an emerald green hue. Both can be typically found around pegmatite outcrops.
Reminds me of the tourmalines I used to see working around the Tanami Desert, with schorl tourmaline crystal ends the size of bread plates. The station also had an outcrop of pegmatite bearing gem quality blue/green tourmaline.
Reminds me of the tourmalines I used to see working around the Tanami Desert, with schorl tourmaline crystal ends the size of bread plates. The station also had an outcrop of pegmatite bearing gem quality blue/green tourmaline.
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