Gem / Diamond question

[Golden_Crab]

Has it ever been heard of finding a diamond as part of a quartz matrix? Having trouble getting a concise answer on google

Will post picture in a bit of specimen in question.

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

Very doubtful. Nearly all the diamonds that are brought to the surface are in kimberlite pipes. Others are brought up in lamproite pipes. I guess it's possible that a loose diamond, from an older era and from an old placer deposit, could be brought to the surface by a later volcano, and then quartz got deposited in cracks in the rhyolite, or basalt, but the odds against all that happening are astronomical.
Jim

 

[DDancer]

I agree with Jim. It'd be stiff odds for such an occurance as he described but who knows~ nature is funny that way sometimes. Topaz or apatite might be a better answer than diamond. Be interesting to see what you have there.

 

[Golden_Crab]

Very doubtful. Nearly all the diamonds that are brought to the surface are in kimberlite pipes. Others are brought up in lamproite pipes. I guess it's possible that a loose diamond, from an older era and from an old placer deposit, could be brought to the surface by a later volcano, and then quartz got deposited in cracks in the rhyolite, or basalt, but the odds against all that happening are astronomical.
Jim

Well its exactly in that setting I found it... andesite / ryhotlite suite, triassic mafic dike intrusions cross cutting deepest formations.



Best I could do for pictures... I don't know much about gems personally. Was told it'd make a nice stone but worthless, they kept tripping over their words. It was probably just coincidence, I figured it was just some plain old quartz. Theres metal inclusions where the quartz and quartz? separate. Gold possibly but I believe pyrite.

I think topaz matches what I'm seeing in person. It has the same parallel striations and "fire" (refraction?) I forgot to get the stone wet before taking pictures, camera really doesn't do it justice at all.

 

[Chiltepin]

For the size it would make a nice Cuff/Bracelet wire framed, if it has "fire".

Its very hard to get that sparkle in a digital photo.

 

[stdenis_jd]

have you tested the hardness yet? Sure looks like topaz to me but a hardness test would help greatly...

 

[Golden_Crab]

Not yet. I'd probably just sell it as is, it's really quite a nifty piece to look at in person. The inclusions cause the light to be reflected back through the stone to the point where its painful to look at my phone cameras LED (stupidly powerful) through the stone.. I'll try for a better pic tomorrow (wet) and there is a side that has what looks like some sort of organic material.

 

[Golden_Crab]

Citrine. Thanks?

 

[DDancer]

I'd call it citrine. It appears to be a compacted mass of very gemmy crystal with a fair few cracks in it though the majority of them might be boundry's in the crystals themselves. Though the photo's dont show it what you report for its in hand appearance I've no doubt its a shiny pretty

 

[Eu_citzen]

Not sure what it is, quartz or topaz? But not sure it's citrine, since the color does not appear uniform or zoned in a traditional manner.
Rather, it seems concentrated in cracks or even the surface?
Kinda hard to tell.

 

[IAMZIM]

I don't want to stir up trouble, but topaz has a perfect cleavage, one direction, the shattering on the piece makes me think quartz. Like you said, with metal inclusions, it looks like what we call here "dirty quartz" which is exactly what we are looking for when we are searching for gold. Remember, I am not an expert. But the color looks like iron staining inside the fractures.....

 

[Clay Diggins]

It could be Citrine. Hard to tell from the photos but it looks very much like some Apatite I've see coming out of some mines in northern Mexico.

Apatite has a conchodial fracture, a very high refractive index (higher than quartz) but is relatively soft at Mohs 5. Try scratching it with a quality steel knife and of course a streak test can help a lot for ID.