Help with Identification

[curiousn00b]

Hello-
I bought a house at 8,500ft in the Colorado mountains and have been finding all sorts of stuff, nothing rare Im sure. Mostly garnets, tons of Mica with quartz, Hematite, Magnetite, and the house is surrounded in pink granite outcroppings, some showing crystallization. It also looks like someone has done a lot of digging around in the past, and removed pieces of granite

Anyway, Im learning gold and gem prospecting on my own. found a couple things in my yard Id like opinion on-

Im guessing the big chunk with small crystals is quartz? Is it worth anything? Pardon the specs of white paint, I stumbled on it while painting my deck. It looks to have been placed there and found somewhere else

For the pics without crystals - Are those black spots compact/black mica? seem like they could be flaky

Appreciate the help

 

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[JoeCrow]

The two images with the dark crystals are a bit blurry but that looks like a form biotite mica crystals can make. If it has strong cleavage and you can indeed flake it off, that has got to be it.

 

[curiousn00b]

That makes perfect sense

 

[curiousn00b]

Another one

Also found this in the yard - Pyrite?

 

[Steve1236]

If you ever have the free time you should crush that and then pan it out, gold can occur with pyrite and it's the right kind of quartz, ya never know....

 

[JoeCrow]

The easiest way to test pyrite vs gold in situ like that is hardness. Moh's hardness scale goes from 1 (talc) - 10 (diamond). Pyrite is 6-6.5 and gold is 2.5-3. A steel pocket knife or safety pin has a hardness of 5-6.5. This really shouldn't scratch pyrite, but it will really scratch gold. So if it scratches, or doesn't...

 

[curiousn00b]

Just This spot was big enough and clearly scratched with 501 steel, mostly just the pressure from the weight of the knife. There is a cluster of speckles of the same color to the right of it, however the rest towards the top appears more copper-like in color if you see it in person.

I might give it a go with the pan. Im going to look for more first, so hopefully I can eventually make a day out of it...

 

[curiousn00b]

I stuck that rock in some 35% peroxide - That was fun. Ended violently as I watched from a distance

Im not sure what it is, definitely has a good bit of pyrite and then a whole lot of a heavy silver colored metal. Doesnt seem like silver to me but Ill try melting the loose pieces that came off from the peroxide soak. I know colorado is known for its gold/silver mixes but I just dont think Im that lucky yet.

It looks a lot cooler now too IMO. Will prob take to a local rock shop to see what they think...

 

[curiousn00b]

I found records of mines near by - Gold and Beryllium....