Can someone help identify this?

[NC Will]

I've been doing some gold prospecting in my creek and came across what looks like to be a old quartz vein. I live near a large emerald deposit and want to know if there could be gems within this, or near it for that matter.

here are the pictures.












Does anyone know what type of quartz or mineral this is? And if so is it possible that it contains gems of any kind?

 

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[ice9]

Looks like quartz. If you want to know what's in it, you could:

1) inspect it closely, 2) break some up and see, or 3) pan/screen the creek below it in case anything interesting has been released by erosion.

 

[NC Will]

Okay thanks. I'll give it a try and post if I find anything.

 

[thehunter123]

This looks a lot like a pegmatite to me. Bust into that rock and you should find some nice material (smoky quartz, crystal quartz, possibly emeralds, aquamarine etc).

 

[Rasputin]

Pegmatite for sure. That's feldspar, not quartz. Try to find a quartz vein within the pegmatite and dig under it. If no quartz is present, just dig under the K-spar instead. I'm not sure why, but beryl tends to crystallize under the quartz (or feldspar). That's not to say there won't be some around the vein, but the largest crystals tend to be under it. At least that is my experience here in Georgia.

 

[therobertsmith]

Are you out near the Hiddenite area? That stuff looks like some of what I have here probably not far from you. I have a major quartz vein that we found last year. The specimens we have got are beautiful. I wish I could find some of those emeralds

 

[Rockhunter1620]

Hey Will, have you been able to determine yer surrounding country rock or bedrock type that this pegmatite was formed in, that is granite or basalt. Pegmatites can be some strangest, coolest formations you'll come across. They're like mineral fingerprints, (no two are exactly alike). I could write ya 3+ pages on the varying mineralogy of it all plus some. You could do a lot by researching or reading up on the mineralogy of yer locality. Ifn that were my crick an my pegmatite, me an 2-3 friends would spend a whole summer tearin into it with pick & hammer as deep as I could without blasting. At the same time we'd be shoveling, classifying an sluicing all the sand and gravel downstream from there, (carefully an meticulously checking my classifier screens b'fore dumpin em). How deep is the clay in the creek bed, if it's just a few inches to bedrock I'd be checkin that too, the clay will stop most gold on top but larger gold can settle to bedrock. But still do more research, start with NCGS an USGS an mining history for yer area, good luck brother.


RH

 

[Buckshotnc]

I'm west of you in the South Mtn. Gold belt and I agree with the thought of that being pegmatite from the pics and as close as you are to hiddenite would look at it closely. I've uncovered a pegmatite on my farm while plowing a deer food plot for my son just under 2 ft. deep and have done a lot of busting but no green yet but your odds are better than mine because of your location but I've not given up on it yet.

 

[NC Will]

The creek is full of thick clay areas, particularly underneath gravel beds or in the sides of the bank. The clay varies from orange/white to blue/green/gray. And it's very thick. I've classified some of the material in the creek near this pegmatite and I've found some chunks of granite, but most of the rocks in the creek are quartz, actually 90% of them are...

I'm still trying to figure out what this false bedrock is in the creek, I believe this is what the pegmatite formed in but it seems as it is either oxidized bedrock or some other kind of material. Here is a picture.




I'll try to find some more of it and get some close ups. Does anyone know what this is? It runs all through the creek.