ColoradoProspector   CP Club Membership Info.

Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register )

Looking for help trying to identify find
Woody
post Oct 29 2012, 08:18 PM
Post #1


Rock Bar!
****

Group: Members
Posts: 637
Joined: 5-April 11
From: All of Colorado
Member No.: 15,615



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

Attached thumbnail(s)
Attached Image


Attached Image


Attached Image

 


--------------------
Proud CP Lifetime Member
(currently working hard in the procurement department)
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post

Posts in this topic


Reply to this topicStart new topic
1 User(s) are reading this topic (1 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:

 



Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 18th July 2025 - 11:59 AM