Rock Identification

[Hare_Twigga]

Chalcopyrite? I have this in purple,blue and green.

 

[HeadsUp]

I was digging a flat area to put a trampoline for the kids before Christmas and found this rock. Any Ideas? https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...es/1994/1390522327_a009_-_20140124_110252.jpg
https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...es/1994/1390522358_a010_-_20140124_110349.jpg

Amber or tree sap ?

 

[Heatho]

chalcedony???

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Was out loaming today and came across some quartz rubble,I broke some open and it has either pyrite or galena or something in it. Is there any easy way to tell which it might be?

 

[Goldpick]

Chalcopyrite? I have this in purple,blue and green.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...es/1994/1390543692_a012_-_20140124_170450.jpg

Might be bornite, aka peacock ore, it has a multi coloured lustre, along with some chalcopyrite.

Also haematite veining can give a deceiving iridescent tarnish in blue, yellow, purple as pictured (different form of haematite shown).

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Thank's Goldpick, I think you could be right! I'm thinking the last picture's could be arsenopyrite maybe...

 

[Goldpick]

Give it a scatch and have a bit of a sniff, arsenopyrite gives off a garlic type smell.

 

[Hare_Twigga]

It didn't seem to smell but my nose is crap during summer so I asked my kids but they couldn't give me a strait answer... So I tasted it but it seemed to have no taste. Should I dolly some up and try it on some toast maybe?

 

[Village]

Like always I would say without testing you were right the first time

 

[Village]

seriously are we licking rock's, please tell me we are not, and if we are look up permenantable and non per permenantable

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Yeah... Think I saw it on geology kitchen.

 

[Village]

Geology Kitchen, great show, entertaining, demonstrates the principles behind what happens,

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Like always I would say without testing you were right the first time

So if I have pyrite in the quartz but can't get any gold from loaming around the area it would be considered barren?

 

[HeadsUp]

Like always I would say without testing you were right the first time

So if I have pyrite in the quartz but can't get any gold from loaming around the area it would be considered barren?

barren where ?

barren when ?

there may have been gold there 31,374,237 years ago in a reef that eroded from 40 metres up a hill that is no longer there and the gold could have been washed 30 miles away downstream or out to the ocean already leaving no fragments remaining where you are.

or there could be gold in a vein that is 40 metres underground

or it could have always been barren in that location :8

if you loamed with a pan and with a detector and found nothing , then there is no gold within a detectable distance. :/

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Thanks HeadsUp. I will ignore it and continue loaming!

 

[HeadsUp]

Thanks HeadsUp. I will ignore it and continue loaming!

my answer wasnt much of an answer

you're already doing everything to determine if there is winnable / payable gold there

go forth and prosper mate , you will have a win.

 

[Village]

Like always I would say without testing you were right the first time

So if I have pyrite in the quartz but can't get any gold from loaming around the area it would be considered barren?

G day mate

no not necessarily, there have been fields where the intrusion included gold hidden in the pyrite. When your taking about the the origin of the gold, well there is a little study you have to do. Did you know that nuggets even have different origins, some weren't nuggets at all. It is elusive we all know, I think that if you have a couple of needles in green, of course the biggest is if your trolling an old field, then you have go about either proving or disproving your the feeling you had. I have said before in other posts where the geology has proven me wrong. That example that I showed in the post about using a gps in looming, you know I held back the page with the results so as not to create another argument, but the the total of the find was 116 grams, after refining.

I will be honest, personally geologists aren't really going to find gold any quicker or easier then yourself. Sheer will and determination, the drive to keep searching, sure a little research is good. headsup is right, you sample and test and only when your satisfied. You were right on the galena trail, and lead and gold have a long association. I think it would be worth a look, but the question is, is it origin where you found it. If it's a housing estate, your 50/50 chance.

Like headsup infers, you never know until you sample it.

John

 

[Hare_Twigga]

The latest spot I'm working has some good patches of gold in the creek. I had a good day there a few years ago and won 8grms of rough gold quartz attached not far downstream from where this pyrite/galena type rock appears on the surface. the geo map shows an anticline fault runs under this area. It's like you know the gold hasn't traveled far but finding color on the hillsides is starting to seem unlikely.
I'll give it another week or 2 of sampling and move on. I hate giving up without a win though...

 

[Hare_Twigga]

Couldn't help myself I had to have a look for the reef the galena was in, I found it and it also has this stuff in it? Looks a bit different to the other stuff to me... ?

 

[HeadsUp]

for your perusal here are a few pictures of host rock that has been known to associate with gold in the Stuart Town area

its a bit confusement' when you look at the wide range of variety in appearances