What is in this rock?

adalabama

Jr. Member
Jun 15, 2013
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Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Its either Mica, arsenopyrite or Silver :)
We have a large rock that was buried in our back yard. We have having some grading done so we have started to chip away at the rock. We have found a lot of quartz. In some of it we are finding "silver" pieces the size of a flea. The pieces are usually found near a empty pocket in the rock. The silver isnt flaky, nor is it brittle. We are also find pockets of yellow fluffy stuff. Limonite I assume? I am in Alabama.
rocks.jpg
 

It looks like you have a replacement agate they're rare, It might be worth something to someone as a specimen. I'm not sure about yellow fluffy stuff try not to breathe it till you figure out what it is. Sorry I forgot to add did you try streak testing metal on white porcelain?
 

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Im new to this, what is streaking? The small pces laying beside are from other parts of the quartz. The rocks are just 2 of the many we have with the silver stuff embedded in.
 

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Just scrape a piece of the metal on inside of toilet lid or any white porcelain and report back which color it leaves, I think your right it's mica but we'll see.
 

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I have no porcelain. Can I streak on another rock? I did and it streaks greyish silver.
 

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I have no porcelain. Can I streak on another rock? I did and it streaks greyish silver.

Ok try testing the hardness and come back to streak test, here's a chart with little research you can figure out what to test it on, start with fingernail etc and move up in hardness.
http://www.mineraltown.com/infocoleccionar/mohs_scale_of_hardness.htm

I would recommend posting close-up pics in "Rocks and Gems" section too. I looked last night and I would guess you live near Indian mountain but I'm not from your area and can't say what amethyst/ruby looking inclusion is. The replacement metal makes it a mystery to me. Maybe someone has seen it, I think it could be a variation of a "Alabama Paintrock" but a really nice sample if it is.
 

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