UNIDENTIFIED MATERIAL

[ghostminer]

Located some of this on a bluff above a creek on our mining property. Anyone have a guess as to what it is?

 

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[Assembler]

Don't know. However time to crush and pan as a first test. Also look under glass with your eyes for other clues.

 

[arizau]

Azurite? I am colorblind but that is what the picture looks like to me. Any other copper minerals around?

 

[Assembler]

Azurite? I am colorblind but that is what the picture looks like to me. Any other copper minerals around?

Yes the color may indicate it may contain copper. Looking under the glass may give some more clues.

 

[Aufisher]

Crazy nice purple! Hope you find some goodies!

 

[winners58]

Lichen, algae, fungus look at it under a microscope.
.
lick it, it may be psychedelic.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Looks like spilled PVC primer.



When I was in the Gila there was a woman who spilled that stuff everywhere. That's exactly what it looked like when spilled on the dirt. Oatey brand.

 

[Bonaro]

Don't know. However time to crush and pan as a first test. Also look under glass with your eyes for other clues.

Its not gold or anything else particularly heavy looking.
Not sure what crushing and panning will do for you other than reduce it to worthless powder.
It looks like some sort of oxidized copper or maybe amethyst, nice specimen.

 

[Assembler]

Its not gold or anything else particularly heavy looking.
Not sure what crushing and panning will do for you other than reduce it to worthless powder.
It looks like some sort of oxidized copper or maybe amethyst, nice specimen.

Good point just thought if it is heavier then the surrounding rock it should pan out, may make it easier to do a assay type of test. A scratch test for hardness should be done before crushing. If there is more of this material rock then crush and assay otherwise keep as a specimen.

 

[DDancer]

Looks like copper sulfate I've seen in mines in AZ.

 

[ghostminer]

Not sure. We do have DSO iron (direct shipment ore) which is pure iron that needs no refining. We first found it in nugget form. It's shiny silver in color & we at first thought it was a platinum nugget. One of my partners took it to a mineralogist & he told him it was pure iron.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Copper Sulfate is blue - not purple. It's a man made substance not found in nature. The closest analogue to Copper Sulfate in nature would be Chalcanthite which can vary from blue to greenish but never purple.

It looks exactly like a surface spill of a chemical substance.

Heavy Pans

 

[ghostminer]

Larger view of material on bluff about 50 ft above creek.

 

[ghostminer]

Not going to tell you what this is.

 

[arizau]

Not sure. We do have DSO iron (direct shipment ore) which is pure iron that needs no refining. We first found it in nugget form. It's shiny silver in color & we at first thought it was a platinum nugget. One of my partners took it to a mineralogist & he told him it was pure iron. View attachment 1534022

Maybe not 100% pure but naturally alloyed with something to make it stainless (?), or, did you polish it?

 

[ghostminer]

No, that's the way it came out of the ground. We were told it's pure iron. It was tested.

 

[ghostminer]

We aren't mining where this comes from. One of our partners found it while hiking up a creek & climbing a bluff about 50/60 ft above the creek. A fairly large area of it exists. I showed the pictures to our geologist & he told me it may be a material associated with some type of high grade ore deposit which could possibly lie beneath this. We are not permitted in that area for large excavation but I am quite curious.

 

[Clay Diggins]

If you have a geologist analyzing it you could share what the streak, hardness, specific gravity, luster and cleavage are. With that info there should be a pretty small group of minerals to choose from. That's an unusual color and really limits the options as to what type of mineral is involved.

I'm thinking it's a chemical dump. Not unusual and it would explain the surface nature of the "deposit". Of course if it were a chemical as opposed to mineral deposit your geologist wouldn't be speculating about a "high grade ore deposit".

Maybe you could ask your geologist to confirm his speculation by taking a few readings with his XRF?

Heavy Pans

 

[ghostminer]

Yes, all he has are pictures right now. Hard for him to make a call. If it was a chemical dump someone went to a lot of trouble as the climb up to that spot is 60 ft & near vertical. It's about 1/2 mile from the old mining areas where we are permitted. We had a crew about 1000 ft south of that spot trenching that bluff on a Plan of Operation back in 2015. We dug into the bluff on that side of the creek & went 25 ft down to bedrock. Result? $5/yd. Not worth mining at that location. Moved over 1/2 mile to a faultline at the old hydraulic area. Result? $40/yd. I tend to follow the area where the old timers mined. But that area from that picture is unexplored. Might be worth a dig.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hmmmm...