Video - found some quartz crystals and other minerals beside the road

[meMiner]

Just for fun, I quickly inspected some tailings outside of a WW2 era iron mine and found some interesting specimens:

 

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[Mrdigz]

Nice find!!! I wish I could find that material in a rock dump on the side of the road!!! Did you find anything else? If so, do you have some pics of them?

 

[austin]

I do the same thing here in Texas. Within 70 miles of San Antonio, I've collected calcite geodes, quartz, granite, Llanite(pink granite with small blue calcite crystals) found in only one place in the world, garnets, topaz, gold and silver. Most from right off the highway or the creeks(mostly dry). Used to sell well at flea markets or our antique store. Tons of fossils too. Keep searching. You are correct. Never know what you will find...

 

[meMiner]

If it wasn't raining and if I had more time, I would have moved some of the rocks in the tailings piles to see what else might be interesting. Excuses, excuses. The really nice thing about tailings and roads made with tailings, is most of the work has already been done. Going in the rain is actually fairly effective, as shiny stuff really shines when wet.

 

[Eu_citzen]

I recognize that tendency. Road cuts are the purest tourist traps...

 

[meMiner]

Funny how things work out. I checked my club calendar and found out that they had a collecting trip organized for the actual mine, so I joined up last minute.

I learned more history about the area. It is a skarn deposit and loaded with many interesting crystals. It is still an active site with miles of tailings to comb through. I will definitely be going back. From my cleanup, it seems the best crystals are typically hidden in calcite and I am having fun with muriatic acid (I hate the stuff). I took a number of rocks that had a hint of something there and am pleased that some contain wonderful crystal clusters.

Here is the video of my trip, but I had to throw away much of the better video because it was a really windy day and I edited out the worst of the wind noise footage.

 

[IAMZIM]

Nice video, think I may have seen some almandine garnets and maybe some epidote crystals?