Hunting Amazonite... Options

[colo_heff]

Wow... what a great adventure last weekend... Woody got in touch with me and we made arrangements to go prospecting for amazonite... the day was outstanding, the weather was a perfect temperature, Woody's dog Aspen gave me the OK to be prospecting with the two of them, and off we went to Woody's secret spot. I say prospecting however Woody had already keyed in on great spot, told me exactly what to look for and in no time amazonite was coming out of the ground. I can't say enough about Woody's hospitality, he showed me where to go, even let me dig in a spot that he already had going, and carried down the rocks to boot... All in all, two thumbs up... thanks again for a great day...

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[Denise]

Great pieces Bill with fantastic color!! I'm thinking that the red is actually an iron stain. If you do a cleaning with Iron out, I'm thinking it may go away? It's worth a try. Have you seen the specimen cleaning thread yet Bill?

[colo_heff]

Thanks Denise... I did use Iron out to help clean up these samples... the red part of that particular sample is actually encrusted on the rock, I have a few other samples that have it as well... definitely was in solution form during deposition and after crystal formation of the Amazonite, very hard as well... Woody showed me a place he had dug @20 yards downhill that had feldspar crystal formation with smaller quartz-albite crystallization on top and a black encrustation on top of both, very hard as well... I suspect a silica based in-situ solution with maganese impurities where it's black and oxidized iron impurities where it's red... just a guess though...