Mystery Gemstone, HELP! Options

[Gold Seeker]

A friend of mine found this a couple of years ago, and has had a couple of Geologists looks at it and I think one Gemologist and they were stumped as to what it is, can anyone ID it???

This is a quote from my friend "a few years ago I found a very unusual stone imbedded in a quartz vein pocket. it has ultra fine gold stringers running all thru it. its some sort of gemstone, but nothing thats common."

I have 13 pictures of it I'll post just a few, and then more if necessary.

[Gold Seeker]

I know that it looks like it has been "cut" but this is the way it looked when he found it, he just popped it off of the quartz it was attached to.

[Gold Seeker]

Here is another quote concerning other qualities of this specimen...

"very hard...wont dent,flake or scratch

a pocketknife wont make a dent.

very very heavy-weight over 60 grams

WILL carve or shape with high speed diamond wheel, and will polish.

it laughs at a solution of 80% red fuming nitric acid"

[russau]

very pretty and interesting stone.

[Denise]

A very cool piece of Rutile?
Just my guess.......... Im no geologist or gemologist.

[CP]

Cool find and thanks for sharing.

I agree with my sweetheart .......rutile is a good guess from the pics and hardness would be inline with what was quoted at 6-6.5
Have there been any streak tests done on this piece?

If it is rutile, then it's a pretty cool piece as the shape (pyramidal) is a unique form of rutile......SWEET ONE!

Let us know when the piece has a positive id, we would love to hear more.

CP

[tlcarrig]

Beautimus!!! Just look at the crystalization planes in it. Third picture down, could that be a garnet stuck (growed to it) in the lower right corner? What color is it on polishing?

[Gold Seeker]

Thanks,

For your help and replies, I ask my friend about the streak test and this was his reply:

"it wont streak test. this sucker is about as hard as a diamond. you cant scratch it with anything except a diamond wheel"

So where do we go from here?

Have ya'll ever heard of a rock that wouldn't do a streak test?

Would it help to post a few more pictures?

He is beginning to think that it something that no one has ever seen or documented

[chadrack]

Hello all. My guess would be specular hematite. Hematite, when cut ultra thin is translucent and red. Your specimen shows a common crystal pattern of such, "grown just right". Weathering and oxidation has separated individual outer plates just enough for light to pass through them causing the redness and "depth" you see. On my claims in NM this is not an uncommon material to find. And it does sometimes carry gold within its plates. Rather troublesome, actually. I could be easily wrong here, but that stuff sure looks familiar. Your streak test is the wrench in my works. good luck. c

[CP]

Hi Chad,
Welcome to the forums and thanks for the input.

Ok, after the last update post for streak and hardness and a bit more reading/research......
I'm gonna guess it's a nifty corundum.
Checking the Mindat.org-Corundum page the hardness (9), and streak (white) could definately be right. Also the little crystal form in lower right of pic #3 gives another clue?
White streak on a white tile could be why it didn't show?

What do ya'll think?

CP