Quartz found.

[G Freeman]

Found a quartz vein here in mountains of Va. some rocks weigh 15 to 20 pounds. Got a lot of hard minerals in the ground running with this vein that is really yellow and red and don't know what it is, but a pick will bounce off of it.Been digging at this vein for about three weeks now and have found about 10 five gallon buckets, some are clear pieces. Is this stuff worth anything other than the fun I am having getting it out of the ground

 

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What's this? Quartz?

 

[G Freeman]

What's this? Quartz?

Yeah I would say that is quartz. Nice find.

 

[63bkpkr]

I think it would be interesting so see what does end up staying in the pan. I would suggest classifying it first through some 1/4" mesh hardware cloth. Be interested to hear what showed up or didn't......................63bkpkr

 

[G Freeman]

Goldhog, I like that info. Something else I wanted to ask you. I been panning in a branch here at home in va and everything in the branch is black, the gravel too, all black.Is there a chance of finding anything in this branch? Can you tell my why the gravel is black.

 

[63bkpkr]

G Freeman,
"I been panning in a branch here at home in va and everything in the branch is black, the gravel too, all black.Is there a chance of finding anything in this branch? Can you tell my why the gravel is black".

That is another interesting bit of information. What happens when you drag a magnet over the black material? If not magnetic and with GH's or LO's permission you could send him/them a small 1 oz. bag of it for them to examine??

That is one dickens of a lot of quartz you have there! You've commented before about finding some Quartz crystals and your latest pictures really have a lot of them on the surface. Loco Oro - what causes Quartz crystals to grow, has to be something unique as otherwise there would just be large mountains of just quartz without crystals. GF - this is one interesting adventure, than you for sharing it with Tnet!
All sorts of puzzles to consider.............................63bkpkr

As an afterthought I will guess that all the black sand and the large amount of Quartz could indicate a geological zone of great change with divergent materials on either side of or all around the zone.

Possibly sending a letter off to the Department of Geological Survey and asking them for some help understanding the geology of the area you are in could shed some light on this Quest.

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks 63bkpkr. Here are some more pics of the stuff I am getting now and this stuff will fall apart very easy and one picture is a clump of the hard minerals that is always in the way.Hard to break even with a hammer.

 

[loco oro]

your orangish material is degraded ,iron rich bedrock, the other is quartz mass . as for black stained streams , this is usualy a byproduct of stripmining , some streams can be red , some black . acid runoff. do you have strip mining areas upstream?black staining also can be biological, if you can wash it off easily,its likely biological, if not its acid stained.

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco, no strip mining in this area.This branch is below a pond about 3 tenths of a mile straight down from where I am getting my quartz.Water underground is feeding the pond from springs in the field between my quartz digging hole and the pond. Overflow from the pond is the branch I was talking about. Pond been there about 50 yrs.

 

[loco oro]

63bkpkr,crystals grow when there is space, time ,temperature and pressure ,try to picture quartz as a fluid,it has just about all minerals known mixed up within it,these quartz veins are essentialy steam and gases trying to escape volcanic actions deep within the crust,they find the path of least resistance upward towards the surface, which is usualy cracks in the various types of bedrock, but most times it doesnt find an outlet,and becomes trapped, and begins to cool ,when this happens, gases seperate from more solid material, cooling continues creating walls around these gases ,creating pockets,the deeper and slower the cooling the larger the crystals can grow,when there is no space ,you will get quartz masses, when there is space and pressure, temp,and time you get crystals,that will grow in the perfect set of conditions.that is why they are pecious,the same processes take place for different mins,and gemy material,just the combination of these is what seperates the species.

 

[loco oro]

there is something coloring your stream , not every rock or pebble in any stream will be all the same color , andbeing colored any paticular color would have little to do with it being gold bearing or not,agriculture can discolor soils and rock ,acidic runoff from farming, i.e. dairy farms , lots of livstock

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco, Went to quartz vein today and the hole is getting too far back in the bank for me. Tried to find vein going the other way when we first started. Cant find the vein going the other way and the bedrock took over at that end of the vein in the bottom and sides and end so don't know where to continue and may be done due to bedrock. Mostly white and black rock in the hole now but still has quartz in it, but it breaks apart when I touch it. Comes out in pieces so not looking good. If there is more quartz going the other way and somehow was under the bedrock would be hard to get.

 

[loco oro]

when you were panning, have any luck?in your stream?virginia has more gold than alot realize,there are a good many streams that are gold bearing,i hope you find a crazy big nugget, its out there. as for your hole without a hoe to remove the over burben, i would be extremly causious ,degrading bedrock is prone to collapse,very frail,equipment would be safest bet, if you have a backhoe on your farm maybe take afew swipes to clear anything over head,also would let you know whether to procede or if the goodys would be to deep to to be feasable,i.e cost /time/impact.

 

[AZADAM]

Freeman,
You have some very large looking Quartz crystals there. That's where your money is at. Dig for those !

 

[G Freeman]

Yeah AZADAM ,been digging for those but vein ended or went under bedrock and without proper equipment will be hard to find again, but I have had fun getting the quartz out that I did get. Hope to find the vein again. Thanks to you and everyone that has shared my adventure thus far.

 

[shaman15771]

Hi Freeman,

That looks quite a bit like the rock on my property. I'm in Franklin Co, Va and sitting on top of a whole hill of quartz, it's all over the place. Just trying to find out what we have. If I can, will post pictures of some of it. But as I say, the stuff is all over, boulders, rocks, etc. Looks like a war happened here LOL.