Amethyst with little bits of?

[Backcountry]

Hey Folks,

I was breaking up some rough chunks of amethyst and noticed some interesting little silvery metallic pockets. The way it seems to go, I'm apt to think they are mica, but I didn't find these rocks, and I believe they came from an area that had silver mining. I did a couple little pokes with a blade and seemed to dent more than chip/flake, fwiw... The pictures are a bit poor, but might be enough to go on. Appreciate any input, thanks!

 

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[austin]

Looks to me like quartz, pyrite and yes, maybe some silver...

 

[DDancer]

I'm more for pyrite than silver. Never seen silver in conjunction with amythest and its pretty uncommon in conjunction with crystals. Wont discount it though. Looks like you'll have a hard time streak testing any of it as that would be the easiest way. Maybe try chipping out a bit of it and putting it to a torch to see if it melts for a bead. Only other way is to find someone with an XRF reader, hand held xray spectrometer, you may find one at a pawn shop or jeweler... or university geo lab. Nice looking material though.

 

[Backcountry]

Good tips thanks. There is one piece I might be able to get a streak from, but the torch sounds like a good idea as well.

 

[Backcountry]

Here's a photo of one of the larger chunks, no silvery stuff, but a nicer shot of some crystals, in case anyone just wanted to see some amethyst. I would love to clean this up more, there is a bit of a brownish film covering the crystals. I tried soaking in Coke for 5 days, but didn't have any effect.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Did you find those yourself?

The black stuff; try oxalic acid. I used it often for quartz.

 

[Backcountry]

No unfortunately I didn't find these, I inherited them from my grandma who is a bit of a rock hound. I believe they probably came from a mine near Bancroft Ontario, which is a bit of a local mineral mecca...

I will look into the Oxalic acid. I had also read about a Behr wood cleaning product that might work as well.

 

[Eu_citzen]

When cleaning specimens, buy only stuff that you know the ingredients.

Coke for example, should never be used to try and clean calcite. Same goes for oxalic acid. Both will etch the calcite.

All right, well, quartz is chemically very tough. But still, there are other minerals out there more sensitive.

Keep us posted on your cleaning process!

 

[ice9]

That's surely amethyst from near Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Clean it with Super Iron Out, six bucks at Canadian Tire, might be available at walmart too.

Do it outside! Protect eyes, lungs, skin. Give it a soak and you'll see it shine right up, then toothbrush and soap, or pressure washer.