Known geology that produces silver and gold

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I have some rock sample photos to post here, I brought them back from a trip in October. The largest one stood out in a stream almost looking white compared to all the other limestone rocks in the creek. It is dense, weighing over 2lbs...almost twice as much as a similar sized limestone rock in the same stream. It is smooth unlike the other stones in the creek, it almost reminds me of cave rock due to its color and smoothness. Hairline cracks on its surface and it has a chalky feel to it, but leaves no powder on my fingers.
The darker one seems to be coal although the streaks of red along its side make me think iron is in it, it is quite light in weight. It was found in the same creek as the largest rock.
The third stone breaks away in layers easily, its color is darker gray once dry (like in the picture) but when wet has a blue hue. This rock was plucked from the roadside cut on the hill coming down into Slade, KY. I assume it is a type of shale or slate the way it flakes apart but its color drew my attention.

Any thoughts or observations? The largest stone is of primary interest to me, it almost looks melted and feels dense like slag.

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The largest stone looks to me like a piece of cement or mortar? The one on the right looks like common slate rock. The other one don't have a clue?
 

franklin said:
The largest stone looks to me like a piece of cement or mortar? The one on the right looks like common slate rock. The other one don't have a clue?
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Thanks, it certainly is the right color to be cement or mortar but it is the wrong texture...it is smooth and chalky to the touch like cave stone, not coarse and gritty. It is also abnormally heavy for its size and resembles being melted or subjected to heat. I'm going to have to retrieve a few more stones from that creek, it is the creek Boomer said the trail from the first pointer tree I found leads to, and is about two miles from the Indian Stairway and frog head rock on the cliff edge.
I agree the other looks like slate or shale, its blue hue when wet is interesting, it doesn't break smooth like slate.
The third feels and looks like coal or an adjacent layer to coal, very light in weight with a reddish streak through the middle layer.
 

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Can you leave a mark on it with a finger nail? It kind of looks like it might be talc . The sample of coal has sulfur streaks through it. And the gray one is shale. Seen many blocks of coal looked much like that over the years we burned coal to heat with.
 

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Ken S. said:
Can you leave a mark on it with a finger nail? It kind of looks like it might be talc . The sample of coal has sulfur streaks through it. And the gray one is shale. Seen many blocks of coal looked much like that over the years we burned coal to heat with.
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Not at all with a fingernail, but I can scratch it with the edge of a screwdriver and it leaves a white line. The more I handle it the more it seems like a rock dipped in a liquid and left to dry...or even dipped in a watered down clay and fired in a kiln. It is an odd rock for sure, I hope to find more in that creek later this winter. No houses for 3-4 miles of where I found this. But there is a farm near the headwaters of this creek about 2 miles up. Would be a long way to wash from if that is where it came from.
 

It resembles a chunk of clay weathered from a stream and dried in the sun. ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1545187027.672085.jpg
This is a piece I pulled from my creek and patted out and left to dry. However it crumbles easily without a binder.
 

Yep it does, except I found it in the water of the creek. The fine cracks in the surface make me think it was fired in a kiln of subjected to intense heat (furnace?). If you have ever paid attention to the floor of a cave it has the same smoothness and color as if it had carried water for centuries. I'm tempted to bag it and take a sledge hammer to it to see what is underneath.
 

KY Hiker said:
Yep it does, except I found it in the water of the creek. The fine cracks in the surface make me think it was fired in a kiln of subjected to intense heat (furnace?). If you have ever paid attention to the floor of a cave it has the same smoothness and color as if it had carried water for centuries. I'm tempted to bag it and take a sledge hammer to it to see what is underneath.
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Might surprise ya what happens if you take the big hammer to it to see what's inside. It could be Chalk or maybe Feldspar. It's the right color to be chalk, and there are instances where feldspar is white. It could be Dolomite also.
 

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I would think chalk would be light weight...dolomite is crystal structure isn't it? I have never heard of Feldspar.

Could this just have been a piece of limestone that sat on the bottom of a fire pit for many years subjected to hot coals and ash over and over and then got kicked out into the creek? Still doesn't explain its weight...
 

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Dolomite I think is a member of the limestone category of rock if I remember right. Dolomite I think can take different forms, doesn't always have to be crystal . There is dolomite deposits in the area of the gourge.
It is possible that it might have been limestone that has been subjected to heat
 

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Dolomite is used to describe both a mineral and a rock. The mineral is the pure form with a defined crystal structure and chemical formula, whereas dolomite rock is composed chiefly of the mineral Dolomite, but also contains impurities such as Calcite, Quartz, and feldspar.
Here is a site that might help in identifying rocks and minerals

www.minerals.net
 

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