Newbie needs help from diamond prospectors, Haven't been able to find someone to positively identify |
Newbie needs help from diamond prospectors, Haven't been able to find someone to positively identify |
Aug 8 2015, 08:07 PM
Post
#1
|
||||
Diggin' In! Group: Members Posts: 16 Joined: 8-August 15 Member No.: 121,288 |
Okay, to start off with, this is my first post, here. I'm not from Colorado, and neither are the minerals I'm asking for help with. I hope that's not a rules violation. To make a long story short I was doing some gold prospecting in NE Illinois. Yes, Illinois. In with my black sands, which turned out to have some gold, but not enough to mess with, I found these:
After doing a little research, they look to be pyrope, I think. Let me know if you disagree. Then I found a few rocks like this: So, I extracted a bunch of the small crystals. Which look like this: A lot of them still have a bit of the host rock still stuck to them, but, as is, I did a Specific Gravity test and came up with between 3.1 and 3.2 with less than lab-grade equipment. I'm working on cleaning them up some more & when completed in a day or so, will redo my SG test. I also did check the SG of the host rock and that came back at 2.5. My guess is that the cleaning will raise SG to 3.5, or so. The way I did my SG test was to weigh out a sample, then put them into a graduated cylinder half full of water to see how much water was displaced. Using water I had a bit of a problem with air bubbles that just were a bear to get rid of. Would it be better to use a light oil when I rerun my test? I've also subjected them to scratch tests up to mohs 8 (beryl). I don't have any corundum to check further, unfortunately. I've also soaked them in strong, hot acids, and also in lye, none of which has any affect on them. The only thing I've done that had an adverse affect was to heat a couple of them over an open, natural gas flame, 'til they were red-hot, which turned them an opaque white. I've taken these to jewelry shops, rock shops, and a lapidary museum. So far, no one has been able to positively identify these crystals. |
|||
|
||||
Aug 10 2015, 08:25 AM
Post
#2
|
|
Master Mucker! Group: Admin Posts: 7,187 Joined: 7-October 03 From: Colorado Member No.: 4 |
Welcome to the CP forums TheRookie. Make yourself at home around the site, we have several threads that could also be helpful to you.
Some great questions and no worries, no rule violations here. It looks like Astrobleme has given you some great info. He would definitely be the man to talk to about Diamonds. Good luck out there and stay safe. We would love to hear how it turns out. -------------------- Education is the key to the future,
and participation opens the door to opportunity. Discover your prospecting independence & success! ColoradoProspector.com Owner/Webmaster Core team member ♥ |
|
|
Aug 10 2015, 08:58 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Diggin' In! Group: Members Posts: 16 Joined: 8-August 15 Member No.: 121,288 |
Welcome to the CP forums TheRookie. Make yourself at home around the site, we have several threads that could also be helpful to you. Some great questions and no worries, no rule violations here. It looks like Astrobleme has given you some great info. He would definitely be the man to talk to about Diamonds. Good luck out there and stay safe. We would love to hear how it turns out. Thank you. I've been lurking, on and off, for a while now. Have perused some of those other threads, was hoping for feedback from Astrobleme, and a few others, actually. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, whatever, I'm pretty open. So far, I've only screened a couple yards of sand/gravel, & found about 2 lbs. of the reddish colored rock above. As of right now, I have around 12 grams of the crystals extracted. What I haven't broken up looks like it contains about 6-8 more grams. Depending on what they turn out to be, I've got 50-75 more yards of material to go through. The larger gravel is going in my driveway, the smaller gravel on a separate pile, in case it warrants further processing. Large rocks will be used for landscaping. The sand, I'll use to break up the hard clay soil we have around here. The hole that will be left will get lined & filled with water, for a small goldfish/irrigation pond. If nothing else, I have my own, personal, gravel pit, right in my backyard. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 29th April 2024 - 04:24 AM |