❓Your Mineral Identification Questions answered here

[Heatho]

Definitely not a ruby due to the colour, to be honest I'm not sure if it's a sapphire either but hey it could be.

 

[Firepanther]

Yeah i thought unless it was a pink to red colour then it was a sapphire. I was told uv lights show rubies due to the chromium content in them? It definitely looks like a sapphire and can see through it pretty well but thats why i thought I'd ask here as I am not very experienced. If not sapphire i wonder what else it could be? Thanks for the input heatho

 

[Pat Hogen]

I have this challenge for you Goldierocks, found associating with Chalcedony geodes and a stone that appears to be limestone origin as in coral;

 

[Firepanther]

Im an idiot the missus asked if the reason it glows might be because its a mixture of a blue sapphire and ruby to make purple like colours do. Quick google search proved her theory to be correct. Apparently purple has trace amounts of elements found in both sapphires and rubies. I'll never hear the end of how she was right :8

 

[Lefty]

Im an idiot the missus asked if the reason it glows might be because its a mixture of a blue sapphire and ruby to make purple like colours do. Quick google search proved her theory to be correct. Apparently purple has trace amounts of elements found in both sapphires and rubies. I'll never hear the end of how she was right :8

Mate, they are always right layful:

 

[Firepanther]

Im an idiot the missus asked if the reason it glows might be because its a mixture of a blue sapphire and ruby to make purple like colours do. Quick google search proved her theory to be correct. Apparently purple has trace amounts of elements found in both sapphires and rubies. I'll never hear the end of how she was right :8

Mate, they are always right layful:

Ain't that the truth :lol:

 

[Lucky leprechaun]

I'm new to all this and wanted some expert eyes on it before I crush it. Found this little fella in the river near Canberra while doing a clean up, it was shinny even though it was overcast, various shades of copper and gold when its not wet and not in light, I'm thinking quartz and Pyrite but guess if it holds it color in the shade maybe not. It weighs 260grms if that means much, it seems heavy for its size. cheers

 

[user 4386]

I have this challenge for you Goldierocks, found associating with Chalcedony geodes and a stone that appears to be limestone origin as in coral;

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1811.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1812.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1813.jpg

I suspect that you might be looking at material of quite different ages. The older consisting of a radial crystal aggregate of tremolite or actinolite (although there might be other possibilities). The younger - your "limestone" a weathering calcrete where the tremolite is near surface.

 

[user 4386]

I have this challenge for you Goldierocks, found associating with Chalcedony geodes and a stone that appears to be limestone origin as in coral;

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1811.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1812.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/11720/1539246212_dscn1813.jpg

I suspect that you might be looking at material of quite different ages. The older consisting of a radial crystal aggregate of tremolite or actinolite (although there might be other possibilities). The younger - your "limestone" a weathering calcrete where the tremolite is near surface.

Referred to here as actinolite asbestos (asbestos just means fibrous):

https://www.asbestos.com/wp-content/uploads/actinolite-asbestos-1.jpg

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/...jpg_srz_1245_830_85_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srz

 

[Pat Hogen]

Interesting; the specimen appears to be a puffball of ...crete hosted by a radial something. Your posts bring the combination to an interesting deduction.

 

[Lucky leprechaun]

Had a closer look today, Goldie is right, its sedimentary. I hit it with the hand shovel and nothing when I found it, its harder than limestone I've found before so didn't think it was conglomerate, but there you have it.

 

[user 4386]

Had a closer look today, Goldie is right, its sedimentary. I hit it with the hand shovel and nothing when I found it, its harder than limestone I've found before so didn't think it was conglomerate, but there you have it.

It is what we call pedogenic (soil) calcrete and has the composition of limestone. Usually rocks (such as the tremolite rock) break down by weathering at surface into fragments to form loose gravel. However at certain latitudes and under certain conditions (rainfall, topography), a layer of calcrete soil forms near surface and cements the gravel pebbles together to form pedogenic (soil) calcrete.

 

[22shells]

Found this yesterday, thought it was a garnet embedded in rock. But it has pentagon sides, and I think garnets have diamond shaped sides? So probably not a garnet? It's pretty small, about a couple mm across, so it's hard to do tests on.

 

[user 4386]

Found this yesterday, thought it was a garnet embedded in rock. But it has pentagon sides, and I think garnets have diamond shaped sides? So probably not a garnet? It's pretty small, about a couple mm across, so it's hard to do tests on.https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3817/1539506592_pa141048.jpg

Limonite after pyrite in pentagonal dodecahedron form?:

https://ricenorthwestmuseum.org/2015/09/30/whats-in-the-box-shaping-up/

 

[Firepanther]

So thought this was quartz but couldn't get a scratch from topaz on it but sapphire leaves mark. Has like black crystal veins? running through it.

 

[Dave79]

Nice, have got a few bits with those black spikes in them from up there. Im thinking its tourmaline, will chuck em in the tumbler and see how they come out.

 

[Firepanther]

Yeah it looks weird. 46ct so not small.

 

[Lefty]

Looks like waterworn smoky quartz, but you say it's too hard to be that?

I was shown some brown topaz crystals while digging kn far north QLD - the colour of them would have had me saying they were smoky quartz but the un-weatherd crystal in its perfect original shape showed that they were indeed topaz.

Interestngly, I believe that treated blue topaz is made that colour by first irradiatiing colourless topaz which turns brown in response. The brown topaz is then heated and turns intense blue.

 

[Firepanther]

Looks like waterworn smoky quartz, but you say it's too hard to be that?

I was shown some brown topaz crystals while digging kn far north QLD - the colour of them would have had me saying they were smoky quartz but the un-weatherd crystal in its perfect original shape showed that they were indeed topaz.

Interestngly, I believe that treated blue topaz is made that colour by first irradiatiing colourless topaz which turns brown in response. The brown topaz is then heated and turns intense blue.

So after you said a smokey quartz which was my 1st instinct i tried several areas for scratch tests. The clearer areas left no visible marks but the darker area left marks. So im guessing its quartz but i should test more area next time. Is it common to have a spots that matk and other spots not?

 

[Lefty]

Can be directional though i wouldnt have tnought quartz would show that feature strongly.