Looking for help trying to identify find Options

[Woody]

By chance anyone have a clue as to what this mineral/Rock/Gem might be?

I was out this weekend rooting around in the ground and found a spot where someone long ago had dug for fluorite. I was looking though their debris pile and had found several small, low grade pieces with some purple and green showing. Often when I am out and about I will keep pieces or chunks of smoky quartz, especially if they are deep black, “Ooh Shiny”. So when I picked this piece up that’s what I thought it was smoky quartz. I never would have kept such a small piece, “it is only 1 inch wide and about 1 ½ inches long” but once I picked it up I could tell the fracture was not what one would expect from quartz. I couldn’t bring myself to through it away so I tossed it in my pack knowing I could look at it again after I cleaned it off.

So I got home and was washing all my finds off and got to this one. When I picked it up this time I did not have gloves on and immediately noticed another strange characteristic, it was unusually heavy for its size. After I cleaned it off I could see that although it looked black at first, I believe it is actually an intense red. There is one small spot that is damaged and it shows dark red. Difficult to tell though as light will not pass through it.

Additional info/Re-cap;
1. Intense black and shiny.
2. Does not fracture like quartz. It is uneven and chunky.
3. Does not scratch with good knife or file.
4. Very heavy in weight. I would say it has a specific gravity about that of iron.
5. It is extremely opaque, light will not pass through it even around the edges.
6. Small damaged area shows red.
7. It is associated with decomposing granite on one end and microcline on the other.

That’s about all I got. Any guesses? Woody

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[CP]

Hi Schwartzz,

Hope your mother in law is feeling a bit better now.

Those are great pics of the inclusions, very neat! I do not know of an easy way to tell those differences. The amethyst coloration is caused by the iron inclusions if I remember it right, I've never looked at one this close to see that, or if any I've had in hand over the years had them. very cool!
Let us know what you find out in the end, there are some quartz crystals found here in Colorado that have a brilliant red solid coloration with specks that might be caused by the same inclusions. Be cool to know what's causing that color in the quartz crystals.....and then of course, go find some more of them! Rats! Winter just started..... Have to wait for spring to get a bit closer.

[theschwartzz]

Hi Schwartzz,

Hope your mother in law is feeling a bit better now.

Those are great pics of the inclusions, very neat! I do not know of an easy way to tell those differences. The amethyst coloration is caused by the iron inclusions if I remember it right, I've never looked at one this close to see that, or if any I've had in hand over the years had them. very cool!
Let us know what you find out in the end, there are some quartz crystals found here in Colorado that have a brilliant red solid coloration with specks that might be caused by the same inclusions. Be cool to know what's causing that color in the quartz crystals.....and then of course, go find some more of them! Rats! Winter just started..... Have to wait for spring to get a bit closer.

Happy New Year!!!

Unfortunately she is not doing well and likely will have to go under the scalpel today.
You are correct Iron is the coloring agent in Amethyst. This cluster has darker purple phantoms sprinkled about and none of the parroting phantoms with the black specs showed up well in a picture. I may try to take a picture through the stereoscope. Used a Nikon with a Macro to take these close up images.
I have about 40 Amethyst clusters with Goethite, but have only looked at a handful through the stereoscope.