Colorado Rare Earth Minerals Options

[MikeS]

What time is it?.... IT'S XENOTIME!!!

While we were diggin on the claim on Monday, my longtime friend (and co-owner) was getting into a nice pocket of gemmy smokies when he found a odd crystal we had never seen before. We suspected Zircon because of the crystal shape and it felt very heavy. After a specific gravity test it appears to be Xenotime. It is also on the heavy side of Xenotime which would suggest that the Yttrium in it has been replaced with a heavier mineral/element like Uranium or Thorite. It may have mild radioactivity. If I get the chance to test it for radiation I'll post results. If your wondering how to pronounce Xenotime here is a link with audio: Oxford Dictionaries





The crew and I just before the rare find. (I'm on the left)

[Woody]

Here is a picture of one of my unknown minerals.

It is about an inch and a half long and growing on the side of a broken chunk of Smokey Quartz crystal. It is Semi-translucent and when you hold it up to the light you can see a reddish, purple hue to it. I seen you mention Xenotime and had no idear what that was so I Googled it. At first it looked like a real good possible fit. -Grows in association with other minerals, -normally a dark brown color, -can display a reddish hue to it, -heavier than Quartz. Those all seem to fit nicely and the first picture I looked at had a shape kind of similar to this specimen. But then after studying the description a little more I think it falls out of that category. It is much harder than in the "4" range and the specific gravity of this piece is not nearly high enough. I have to lean to this just being an odd piece of Root Beer colored Quartz with a show of Fluorite and maybe something else in it. It is not Xenotime, but it was fun looking.

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[MikeS]

Well.. it looks like it might be Quartz Woody. A specific gravity test should at least tell you if the piece is all quartz or a mixed combo. If it comes out heavy or light for quartz then you may have something different there. Zircon and Xenotime have a tetragonal crystal structure. What you have there appears to have a hexagonal structure like Quartz. There are a few rare earth minerals with a hexagonal structure like Bastnäsite, but Bastnäsite tends to have a flat termination as opposed to a point like Quartz. Sometimes knowing some of the rare stuff around the area helps. This Peak To Peak Website is quite detailed on what minerals can be found in specific areas of Colorado including many of the rare earth minerals and other rare stuff. Take a quick look at the mineral list on the first page. Lots of different and rare stuff to find in the Centennial State!