Nevada Nugget Hunters

RexB · Site Admin Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 599

Well, I went out to an area fairly close to home and came up with some sort of metallic looking mineral. I don't know if it's some sort of oxide, hydroxide, sulfide, telluride, etc. The streak is black of course but that doesn't tell me a whole lot. The general appearance is sort of a bluish lead gray color. I guess I would have to get some tests done if I really wanted to find out what it is. The area does have quite a bit of brown and reddish iron staining on some parts of the rocks. There is also some quartz but not a whole lot. I may take a few more photos of the area since it looks interesting geologically speaking. I've collected more buckets of dirt and will see what I come up with, at least I know there is black sand since there was some present in the last sample. whao

Yeah, I know probably no gold to be found, but again I enjoy geology and seeing what I can find. It looks like promising geology for this region. Here are some photos of the metallic looking mineral. For a little more on the area and gold geology in general you can go to this thread:

http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost....=6&t=7322&st=0#entry56074

Rex

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Bob977 · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:48 pm Post subject:

Is it magnetic?
Have you filed off the crust to see what is just below the surface in a small spot?
Does it feel very heavy or just right for that size rock?

RexB · Site Admin Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 599

Bob977,

I haven't checked whether it is magnetic yet. The crust is very thin and the pink rock is just below it on the portion I removed. The rock is almost completely composed of the pink granite and feels normal for that size. I will check the magnetic properties. I just didn't think about doing that since it doesn't quite look like black sand when ground off and it is not really oxidizing. It looks sort of black blue and sparkling when powdered, but I will be sure to check the magnetic properties since that is probably one of the first things I should have done.

Rex
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Reno Chris · Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 11:57 am Post subject:

Ok - a wild guess based on the photo and your description:

Stibnite. Antimony Sulfide.

Thats a reasonable guess, but its hard to say just from pictures.

Any yellow oxide coatings around there? (like something close to banana yellow). Some forms of Antimony oxide are yellow.

Chris
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RexB · Site Admin Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 599

Well, hmm ? It's magnetic, guess that mystery is solved. I should have checked that right off. So, I would assume that means it's magnetite. Nice sparkly and fresh magnetite for sure. Maybe it has some impurities mixed in it. A small powdered sample sticks to a neodymium magnet but the magnet appears to have no attraction to the thin crust on the rock.

The crystals don't look much like I would picture magnetite, I guess they just aren't well formed. Chris I've found a few greenish yellow rocks maybe a quarter mile away, but none right around the immediate area. I spent the afternoon in the same area today. I will post a few pics later. Mainly just geology rock type photos. I saw a few more samples of the same material. Either on rocks too large to take home or on rocks smaller than the one pictured here. I dunno

Rex

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