Broke open some quartz today - what the ???

[Wally69]

Broke open some quartz today that has been buried in my rock box in the back of the garage for some time now; it came home because of an interesting crystalline formation that has more than surprised me.

Definitely not gold; seems I have an attraction to the wrong colour metal.

Can anyone tell me what I have ???

 

[Redmanti]

Galena?

 

[jethro]

Not easy to tell from the photo but Id say in may be black jack, zincblende the common or old miners name for zinc sulfide.
May also be galena or molybdenite.

 

[Ben78]

Arsenopyrites if it came from a goldfield area, very common in association with reef gold.

 

[Wally69]

Thanks for the info, looking forward to researching the possibilities based on the info provided.

Did not realise that there are so many variations of minerals and metals. Should keep me busy for quite some time.

 

[Ziggyv27]

what is best used to open up big bits of quartz??

 

[Goldpick]

A sledge hammer and some safety glasses! Regarding the rock in this thread, give the grey material a bit of a scratch, and smell it, if it is Arsenopyrite, it should give off a garlic smell.

 

[Naynay]

Love this forum! The wealth of knowledge is so awesome. I would never have known that.