What's this stuff ?

[Goldfreak]

Perhaps some one here who is familiar with looking at crushed samples could help me. I Crushed a few rocks up after exploring an area a very old local man once told me his grandfather found a large gold nugget in. I came across two pits in the scrub about 3 meters deep and took about 3kg of stone samples from around the throw outs. Crushed it and panned it off. It doesn't look like gold but has a glow from all sides and it is also impossible to crush with my finger nails. A different sort of pyrites ? Silver coloured gold ? Regular pyrites I have never seen or felt before ? I have no idea...

what ever it is it seems to be very heavy.

 

[OzzieAu]

If youre anywhere near a mineral deposit no.4550.0, named Bugle Ranges, which was the site of a silver mine in the late 1800s. It apparently had alluvial gold associated with it. The location of the mine was in section 2882, hundred of Macclesfield.
I can share the gps coordinates with you if you want to confirm that its where your samples are from.
Cheers.

 

[Goldfreak]

Interesting. But it wasn't the bugle ranges, it's further north. There was a very old silver mine 800 meters away and the nearest gold mines about 3 kms away.

 

[user 4386]

Hardness? SG? Streak?

 

[Goldfreak]

Hardness? SG? Streak?

sorry goldilocks, I have no measuring gear. Just doesn't move around in the water like pyrites usually does and seems more white silver than brassy. Shall I hit it with some heat or something ? Could it be Galena ? It looks similar but I am only going by Google images so don't really know.

 

[Goldfreak]

Hardness? SG? Streak?

I looked up how to do a Hardness and streak test with basic materials. I will get back to this thread later with an answer hopefully.

 

[Davent]

It looks interesting to say the least!
You could put a piece of it in a small container of bleach, if it tarnishes quickly then its probably silver. Not sure how quickly it should tarnish though. Maybe put a small piece of stainless in another container to compare. The stainless shouldnt tarnish.

 

[Goldfreak]

Hello, put it in a spoon and stuck some bleach on it. Didn't seem to tarnish. Tried to scratch it with a nail but it won't scratch. Finally crushed it. Took a large amount of force to do that compared to pyrites then moved around the little shiny grains and it scratched the crap out of my stainless spoon. So is it a super hard/tough form of pyrites or something else? Tarnish test says it's not silver Hardness and shine says it's not gold.

before bleech

after bleech

easily scratches stainless. Guess if its a super pyrites that would make me a super fool :8 layful:

 

[OzzieAu]

Galena maybe Goldfreak..?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena

 

[BigWave]

Galena has a fairly high SG (7.5), but it is also quite soft (MHO 2.5), so wouldn't scratch stainless steel (MHO 5.5~6.3).
Pyrite has an SG around 5, but is much harder (MHO 6-6.5) so could scratch stainless.
Iron Pyrite will streak black (on a white un-glazed tile), usually with a tinge of green.

 

[jethro]

Hit it with a hammer and if it smells similar to Garlic its Arsenopyrites.

 

[Goldfreak]

Galena maybe Goldfreak..?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena

Not a bad guess. Certainly looks like it. I thought so too but apparently its too hard to be Galena. For the next experiment I will burn it and see if it becomes magnetic. I did this with some pyrites cubes I found in the past. Something to do with burning off the sulpher and leaving the iron apparently.

 

[Goldfreak]

Hit it with a hammer and if it smells similar to Garlic its Arsenopyrites.

thanks Jethro. I will try that. Won't sniff in too much though. Although could do wonders for any sinus problems layful:

 

[user 4386]

Hardness? SG? Streak?

I looked up how to do a Hardness and streak test with basic materials. I will get back to this thread later with an answer hopefully.

You will find that I have done an entire series on this here if you search past blogs here ("Series on identifying minerals"). Streak and hardness you could know 10 minutes from now and it would excljude extreme speculation as great as galena versus arsenorpyrite.

Incidentally, arsenopyrite would be my wild guess. It has a black streak, quite unlike its colour (pyrite also has a black streak). It also has a fairly high SG of 6.1 (compared with 5 for pyrite and 7.5 for galena - although its hardness immediately excludes galena, which you can scratch with a $1 coin or calcite). That is large enough to be diagnostic 90% of the time if you also use one of those $20 balances that I have described on here to determine SG.

Just a comment - it takes less than half an hour to get hardness testing and streak plate together without spending a cent - $25 on line will get you a superb balance for SG testing that you will get in a week, take 15 minutes to put a permanent SG testing set-up together. Then using colour as well you will identify correctly 90% of all minerals that I have ever seen posted here in less than half an hour. If still stuck you can post your results and a clear (not out of focus), detailed (very close-up) photo as a starting point to discuss with others.

I tried to get all queries together under "Your Mineral Idention Questions". This had the advantage that I checked there regularly, even more an issue now that I less commonly log onto this prospectingaustralia site because of all the flaming and attempts to stop discussions. It also has the advantage that people learn how to do it, as I cannot afford the time saying the same thing each time (asking streak, hardness, colour, sg - the last which people mistakenly think is difficult to determine when it is easy and highly diagnostic, with similar-looking and hardness sulphide minerals varying over a much greater range in SG than any of these other variables).

That is not meant as criticism in the slightest - how could people instinctively know these things - I am just pointing out that if people used that blog site and tried to give some basic mineral properties right from their first post, I could continue to assist usefully (and be a bit less silently frustrated in the process)? I can't afford the time otherwise - I have written all this dozens of times now - better to devote my efforts to getting you all a quick and conclusive result.

It is a pity that "Identifying Minerals" is not made a major sub-heading under "Gemstones. Minerals and Fossils" on the home page, to lead people there.

 

[Mackka]

Welcome back
Mackka

 

[Goldfreak]

Hardness? SG? Streak?

I looked up how to do a Hardness and streak test with basic materials. I will get back to this thread later with an answer hopefully.

You will find that I have done an entire series on this here if you search past blogs here ("Series on identifying minerals"). Streak and hardness you could know 10 minutes from now and it would excljude extreme speculation as great as galena versus arsenorpyrite.

Incidentally, arsenopyrite would be my wild guess. It has a black streak, quite unlike its colour (pyrite also has a black streak). It also has a fairly high SG of 6.1 (compared with 5 for pyrite and 7.5 for galena - although its hardness immediately excludes galena, which you can scratch with a $1 coin or calcite). That is large enough to be diagnostic 90% of the time if you also use one of those $20 balances that I have described on here to determine SG.

Just a comment - it takes less than half an hour to get hardness testing and streak plate together without spending a cent - $25 on line will get you a superb balance for SG testing that you will get in a week, take 15 minutes to put a permanent SG testing set-up together. Then using colour as well you will identify correctly 90% of all minerals that I have ever seen posted here in less than half an hour. If still stuck you can post your results and a clear (not out of focus), detailed (very close-up) photo as a starting point to discuss with others.

I tried to get all queries together under "Your Mineral Idention Questions". This had the advantage that I checked there regularly, even more an issue now that I less commonly log onto this prospectingaustralia site because of all the flaming and attempts to stop discussions. It also has the advantage that people learn how to do it, as I cannot afford the time saying the same thing each time (asking streak, hardness, colour, sg - the last which people mistakenly think is difficult to determine when it is easy and highly diagnostic, with similar-looking and hardness sulphide minerals varying over a much greater range in SG than any of these other variables).

That is not meant as criticism in the slightest - how could people instinctively know these things - I am just pointing out that if people used that blog site and tried to give some basic mineral properties right from their first post, I could continue to assist usefully (and be a bit less silently frustrated in the process)? I can't afford the time otherwise - I have written all this dozens of times now - better to devote my efforts to getting you all a quick and conclusive result.

It is a pity that "Identifying Minerals" is not made a major sub-heading under "Gemstones. Minerals and Fossils" on the home page, to lead people there.

please pm me a link to those scales you mentioned goldierocks.

 

[user 4386]

Goldfreak - this is the type of thing - this one now sold out, but look for similar ones that can weigh up to 300-500 g and can read to an accuracy of 0.01 g

https://www.ebay.com.au/p/902396907...m=273058847798&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

[user 4386]

This has some for less than $6 - you can perhaps understand why I am so suprised that so few people here seem to buy them and measure SG

https://www.ebay.com.au/b/Microbalance-Lab-Scales-Beam-Balances/185218/bn_7116619377

 

[OzzieAu]

All you need is some digital scales and a paper cup.
http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/specific_gravity.htm

 

[user 4386]

Goldfreak - this is the type of thing - this one now sold out, but look for similar ones that can weigh up to 300-500 g and can read to an accuracy of 0.01 g. You rarely need to determine the SG of specimens more than 300-500 g in mass (they are usually impure when that big, and one can break a tiny bit off most specimens anyway unless they are gems - and gems that size are rare). A scale that can only read to 0.1 g is not accurate enough for SG determination of small specimens.

https://www.ebay.com.au/p/902396907...m=273058847798&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851