Acanthite in Chrysocolla? Opinions....

[Steve1236]

I busted open some different chrysocolla in quartz specimens looking for gold from the same area I didn't see any but I'm curious is to what this silverish in black mineral is, streak is black, I googled some images and it kind of looks like acanthite but I honestly have no idea, what do you all think, that front side I grinded in with my dremel diamond cutting wheel, I think it will make some nice cabochons.

sunlight

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[Steve1236]

Never mind, the way it breaks it can't be, acanthite is sectile, geothite or specular hematite maybe, black streak still is still confusing, even black specular hematite has a rust red streak so I'm thinking geothite maybe?

 

[DDancer]

Likely geothite after pyrite if its crumbly. Got some nice color but those inclusions probably wont take a polish well if they are on the surface.

 

[Steve1236]

Geothite after pyrite, I like the sound of that, just another thought, how about pyrargyrite? The black red grey silverish stuff is a pain, its brittle but I've gotten this far, any tips on keeping the black stuff together, little chips break out with my dremel diamond cutting wheel when I'm trying to smooth it out, maybe do it by hand with sandpaper?

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

That is going to turn out to be a very nice cabochon when you finish it.A silver smith could make a beautiful bracelet with it.

 

[DDancer]

You can try to stabilize it with an epoxy resin or varnish but the material is pretty brittle as your finding out. I'm with Back of the Boat, its turning out pretty nice. Hand polishing will help reduce flaking due to the dremels vibrations.

 

[Steve1236]

It's really hard to list stuff without knowing what you have lol, I'm really thinking pyrargyrite, here's a picture of pyrargyrite from online and here's the piece I first found that made me search the area, they are both brittle and both have a red hue please be blunt if you don't agree.
sunlight
It has that red hue of pyrargyrite/proustite/acanthite

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Beautiful material.

 

[Steve1236]

Probably driving some of you all crazy with this blue stuff but I seek another opinion, the vien material above and in the first picture and this deep teal green wont scratch with a steel pushpin, also my tounge doesn't stick to it at all, my tounge sticks to the lighter blue areas but not on the deep blues or greens, you guys think this could be a mix of turquoise and chrysocolla?
Thanks in advance for any opinions.
Steve.

 

[DDancer]

To hard for chrysocolla IMO. It identifies with turquoise at that hardness.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hmmm... a copper mineral that's dark with a reddish hue - think it might be copper ore?

Sometimes the simplest explanation is actually the right one.

It's Cuprite a very common mineral in copper deposits.

 

[Steve1236]

Clay, you talking about the dark red crystals? DDancer I agree it's to hard for chrysocolla and has no adhesion to my tounge or wet finger but if not turquoise I think I might have nailed it down but to know for sure I would need get an assay done, I started to see what people are mining nearby and a very close mine called queen of sheba has a mineral called plancheite and has a hardness of six, I actually have some material from out at my spot with druzy/quartz crystals and they either have shucktite or plancheite inclusions acicular sprays of deep royal blue, I'm leaning plancheite because of the hardness of everything I'm finding out there but the light blue chrysocolla of course, here's some pics of my druzy specimens and a pic of plancheite from mindat that could explain that vien material.