Magnetite...Any Value?

[swizzle]

I've got a few chunks of magnetite. The biggest one is the size of a quarter. Is magnetite worth anything? If so who buys it? Jason

 

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[ghost surf]

I found a few peices of magnetite too and took it to a mineral show..A few people said to keep it and that there are collecters who do buy it and put it in their collections.All depends on who wants it at the time.There are mineral shops all over the net, contact a few and see what they think.

 

[bakergeol]

Nugget hunters are quite familiar with magnetite.
It is an FeO that is a "hot rock" that detectors pick up when we are searching for gold. We just kick them?aside and move along. I suppose if you had some spectacular mineral specimens with magnetite and associated minerals it would be worth something to a collector. Perhaps large magnetite crystals? Quite a bit of the black sand in placer deposits is magnetite. After dredging for a day you may have 50 lbs of magnetite concentrate. After removing the gold, the magnetite is pitched out. So magnetite is a very common mineral out there.

George

 

[swizzle]

Here's the chunk in question. I didn't know there was 2 types of magnetite. Its definately magnetite though. Its highly magnetic, it sets off my detector and it left a black streak on the toliet top. I'm hoping to find bigger chunks because I think it looks cool. Too bad it wasn't a gold nugget though. Jason

 

[oldestjim]

Jason--- This variety is commonly known as "kidney ore." You might take a look at <www.mineralsunlimited.com> They have been in business since 1948.? ?

 

[meMiner]

I would not be allowed to use my toilet as a streak plate. My wife would kill me.

I think you have a nice looking specimen of magnetite. I would keep it and use it for hot rock detector practice. Now, if you have a bucket of them, maybe try posting on eBay to see what the response is from collectors or find somebody who travels all the mineral shows. There is a market for everything if you can figure out where to look.

 

[goldog]

I wish. I'm in an area that has literally tons. I've wondered if it's worth it.

 

[NeoTokyo]

The biggest chunk that I have found has to be 30lbs and about the size of an underinflated volley ball.
I found it last weekend when I was detecting along some false bedrock on the Sacramento River between Redding and Anderson.
It had a 1/8" thick light colored vein going through it.

It set my FORS Gold into overload immediately in all settings and gave no VDI number.

Immediately after that a bear started destroying the brush no more than 50 feet from me.
I hollered at it in my deep voice and was pretty much against the river! lol
I even barked (and I have a mean bark too) at the damn thing but it didn't care, and then a second just upstream of it made its appearance.

Mind you, it was dusk and I was using my flashlight and LED light on the FORS Gold to detect.
Damn dem eyes were wide apart on the one smashing the small tree's and bushes.

I live only about a mile from there and was surprised to see bear's down this low.
I will have to go back and pick it up.


PS. It could just be a really strong cold rock as it was sounding off as Iron, it was pretty dark and hard to see, again, I will have to go back and get it.

 

[woof!]

There's lots of magnetite kickin' around. Nice specimens (macrocrystals, attract a nail, etc.) have minor value as rockhound material. If you have a million tons of the stuff, you may have a valuable iron ore mine, EU Citizen (who posts mostly on the rock and mineral identification forum) can explain.

 

[woof!]

The biggest chunk that I have found has to be 30lbs and about the size of an underinflated volley ball.
I found it last weekend when I was detecting along some false bedrock on the Sacramento River between Redding and Anderson.
It had a 1/8" thick light colored vein going through it.

It set my FORS Gold into overload immediately in all settings and gave no VDI number.

Immediately after that a bear started destroying the brush no more than 50 feet from me.
I hollered at it in my deep voice and was pretty much against the river! lol
I even barked (and I have a mean bark too) at the damn thing but it didn't care, and then a second just upstream of it made its appearance.

Mind you, it was dusk and I was using my flashlight and LED light on the FORS Gold to detect.
Damn dem eyes were wide apart on the one smashing the small tree's and bushes.

I live only about a mile from there and was surprised to see bear's down this low.
I will have to go back and pick it up.

Okay, there's some elements missing in this story. You have to go back and pick what up? Sackamenna River, what ever happened to the truism expressed as a question "does a bear schitt in the woods?" Zen koan: "What is the sound of one man barking" ..... at a bear!

*******

Fogie story coming up, we fogies do that. Sutter Buttes, 1965. Buddy of mine & me decide to climb to the top. Private land, but back then it was legally accessible. When we got to the top we discovered that the slope below us was greater than the canonical 27 degrees, and that we could push rocks loose and they'd gain momentum rather than losing it. Some went a good 1/4 mile. We were hoping not to hit any cows. And luckily we didn't. The sound was like rifle shots.

Well, the landowners happened to hear the sound, and came to question us as we were on our way back down. Hear any gunshots? Nope. Got guns stashed away somewhere? Nope. ....The outcome was that they "knew" they'd heard shooting in the vicinity of their beef-on-the-hoof, they knew we were lying about something, and they had nothing on us. We parted ways.

To this day I don't know how someone can live on a piece of real estate like that, and never have bothered to climb to the top and gotten curious what happens when you push a rock downhill.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Whelp when "Hey Bear" and just hollering does not work, what else is there? LOL
The barking did help enough to keep them from progressing to my only exit, but they didn't run off like I had hoped.

What I was hoping for was that MAYBE I would fool the bears into thinking that I had a dog with me. I dunno. lol
Sound and look bigger and badder than you are is what I was going for.

The thing that I am going to go back and pick up is the large magnetite or cold rock, whichever it is.
I left it because I wasn't about to try to haul out a 30lb worthless rock in this situation.

The reason why I was surprised to see Bear's here is because this is a pretty populated area next to the freeway and I have never seen any signs of bear before.

 

[meMiner]

Some bears don't care about dogs or populated areas. I have two labs and the house behind me had a big black bear on her deck last spring (eating from the bird feed). My dogs went nuts with their barking and the bear just kept eating. Most times however, bears and dogs respect each other and don't confront. Best thing with a black bear is make yourself look as big as possible, even if it means holding your shovel over your head. On the other hand, sitting down panning is making yourself small and attractive as bear food. Most times, bears will find something else to eat if they can (nuts, berries, fruit, fish, young grass, etc). More problems with them if there are no food sources. I have stopped worrying about bears (still respect them and give grizzlies more of that respect). I have come to realize there is probably more danger driving to the claim than once I am there.

Sorry, this is way off topic.