We found this sample in Butte Co on a freind's property. First we were looking at all the quartz around thinking that it was the vein material but it contained little mineralization. The copper green color caught my eye and then I noticed the specks of gold. It seems to be a layer of granite and then the green material and on top of that is a very thin layer of a black material which contains the gold. On top of this black material is another layer of blackish brown that looks like a type of granite but I'm not sure. The black gold containing layer also has a purplish color in parts of it. Does anyone have any idea about what the different layers are and if there might be other minerals besides the copper and gold?
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN1023-1.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN10313.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN10342.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN103112.jpg
The property has an old mine on it and recently the entrance had collapsed. There is a steady small trickle of water coming out still. I thought about taking a backhoe and cleaning up the entrance. The mine had belonged to a Chinese man who was said to be one of the wealthier men in the area. The remains of his house are about 20 yards away from the entrance to the mine. He lived out the last of his days there and it's a rumor that he didn't use banks and that all of his money was not recovered but it seems like that story always follows the death of someone wealthy back then. Not sure if this was his only mine and plan on doing some research on him soon.
Is this small vein enough to keep a hardrock mine going? The specks are awfully small even if they're numerous. With the amount of quartz around is it possible that this is just a fluke peice of ore out of the mine and not the main vein? We're going to try and move some of the soil overburden to try and find the main piles of material that were taken out of the mine. Any comments on this sample would be great! Thanks.
Michael G.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN1023-1.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN10313.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN10342.jpg
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm181/mghcal/rock sample/DSCN103112.jpg
The property has an old mine on it and recently the entrance had collapsed. There is a steady small trickle of water coming out still. I thought about taking a backhoe and cleaning up the entrance. The mine had belonged to a Chinese man who was said to be one of the wealthier men in the area. The remains of his house are about 20 yards away from the entrance to the mine. He lived out the last of his days there and it's a rumor that he didn't use banks and that all of his money was not recovered but it seems like that story always follows the death of someone wealthy back then. Not sure if this was his only mine and plan on doing some research on him soon.
Is this small vein enough to keep a hardrock mine going? The specks are awfully small even if they're numerous. With the amount of quartz around is it possible that this is just a fluke peice of ore out of the mine and not the main vein? We're going to try and move some of the soil overburden to try and find the main piles of material that were taken out of the mine. Any comments on this sample would be great! Thanks.
Michael G.
