Posted by: RhodoRose Sep 2 2014, 04:40 AM
Hey All!
Since sharing makes things twice as fun, I thought I'd start a thread on which to post information and pics of all the fun rockhounding stuff I've done and cool things I've found. Enjoy!
Cheers 
-
RhodoRose
Posted by: RhodoRose Sep 2 2014, 05:11 AM
Here's some pics from the Anglo-Ashanti/Cripple Creek & Victor (CC&V) Gold Mine tour I took this summer. I thought it was very impressive, a 3-hour taste of what it's like to work in an open pit mega-mining operation, served with generous sides of geology and history. A CC&V employee loads you on a bus and takes you to the lowest level of the Cresson mine, where you get to stand in a control room along-side the operators only feet from monster trucks unloading 250 tons of ore. CC&V offers the tour (http://www.victorcolorado.com/mining.htm) from Memorial thru Labor Day, although I see this year (2014) they have weekend tours thru Sept 14. Tour signup is at http://www.supersaas.com/schedule/VictorLTMuseum/CCV_Mine_Tours_2014.
Now this was interesting; visible along the pit walls are shafts and crosscuts from the 1890's - dug the old fashioned way. The crushers regularly turn up tons of rails, ore carts, and mining tools from the shafts. Last year a pair of pistols showed up - in good condition!
Here the ore is transported via conveyor belt to a series of crushers. A leach field with black tubes running down the sides is visible in the background.
The icing on the cake - a chance to be a kid again and crawl around on a retired monster ore truck!
Posted by: Crusty Sep 2 2014, 06:03 AM
Great name for the thread!
My wife has done that tour and agrees it is pretty cool! Will have to get up and do it myself! I know they're in it for nothing for the gold, but it's sad there isn't time to spend time exploring the old mining artifacts, losing all that history.
Posted by: Mrs.CP Sep 2 2014, 08:37 AM
Fantastic pictures! Sure gives one the urge to dig! 
I have never been on the tour but it looks like a blast. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us, looked like it was a great time.
Posted by: ColoradoProspector Sep 5 2014, 11:23 AM
Thanks for sharing the great pics, looks like you had an awesome time on the tour. 
I'd love to see some of the stuff they've found in those old tunnels. I bet an ore cart doesn't fly worth a darn, but can fall/land with a good clank! 
Posted by: RhodoRose Sep 7 2014, 10:34 PM
Greetings, Fellow CPers!
Here's the next batch of pics - these are goodies I found in my August rock hounding treks. Some of them I can identify, others, not so much - so any help from all you CP experts is appreciated!
First up, one of the more exciting finds of the summer - check out these lovely bivalve fossils! I've never found marine fossils before! 
Along side the fossils was this odd little... whatever it is. Hmmm...any guesses?
Another first for me - real, genuine agates (banded chalcedony variant)! Aren't they purty?
These nice specimens of petrified wood and assorted stones come from road cuts in Elbert and El Paso County - some of them north, and some south of the Calhan Paint Mines. (Note for newbies and guests: collecting is not allowed in the Paint Mines Interpretive Park, so don't do it
- there's plenty of other, legal places to go!)
Here's where I got a bit stumped. These are a handful of stones I picked out of a dry creekbed in Park County near the 39-Mile Lava Field. Is that whitish, translucent stone what I think it is - a moss (dendritic) agate?
And, lastly, some samples I've had laying around since June. All the samples shown below are from the same roadbed in an area with many historic gold mines - I took several photos with varying light sources. The single sample is a no-brainer, with the telltale bronze color and cubic shape of chalcopyrite. But what about the other three? Distinctly different color, no crystalline shape to speak of, looks like gold sprinkles covering the face of each sample. Is it Au (or Au/Ag telluride)? How can I tell for sure?
Cheers!
RhodoRose
Posted by: swizz Sep 8 2014, 07:03 AM
Awesome finds and pics Rhodo! I think that the odd piece is a bubbly agate but I could be wrong. I really like the agates and clam fossils, great work!
Not sure on the ore samples.
Posted by: Woody Sep 8 2014, 09:56 PM
Nice pictures Rhodo;
That is the best quality clam specimens as I have seen anywhere around here. Those Agates are easy on the eye as well. Looks like there might be a small section of a Geode in the mix as well.
-I'd say you nailed the Moss Agate.
-That Bubbly piece, is it notably heavier than the rest? Like maybe Iron heavy?
-Hard to tell about the ore samples. They obviously show variants of Pyrite, possibly Tellurides. Don't see any 100 percent certain Gold but would not expect to from just pictures of anything but high-grade ore. Might not be able to tell unless you sacrifice a piece for assaying.
Sure hope you find the source of those Agates. Have a good one, Woody.
Posted by: Mrs.CP Sep 9 2014, 06:37 AM
Great finds RhodoRose! Dark bubbly piece could possibly be Hematite. Would be a bit heavier for it's size and streak red.
