Grandfather?s passed-on collection of ore

[sickrocks]

HI All,

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and getting out hunting for treasure.

To keep the story short;

My grandfather was a rock hound. He spent years of retirement hunting cool places in the California sierras. Long story short, I inherited most of his tools and rock collection. I?ve had them for over 35 years in the shed. The rocks posted here I recently cut open. They were all from Calaveras County Mother Load. This is per his notes and I?m sure could be traced. I have several, including a few larger pieces of 20+lbs.

I?m having it assayed since my rockhound friend thinks they are silver, copper, gold ore. There are some pieces of native copper on a few. Lots of gold flake and silver flake can be seen in clear sections of the polished work.

While I wait on the assay can anyone say if they?ve seen t his variety and is it jasper and hematite or other?

Much appreciated for any help.

 

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[sickrocks]

View attachment 1946017

 

[crashbandicoot]

That,s pretty,I ve seen jasper used to build fly rod guides,the first guide coming from the reel and they,re pretty.

 

[sickrocks]

Thsnks Crashbandicoot. Interesting too

That,s pretty,I ve seen jasper used to build fly rod guides,the first guide coming from the reel and they,re pretty.

I?ve seen fly rods like this too. Makes sense because jasper is 6.5-7ish on moh. I have a lot of jasper from my own rockhounding but none look this tight and color rich so I was scratching my head when I cut This one. They have a lot of beautiful hematite crystals too on some of the stones.

 

[xaos]

Given how jaspar is formed, it is very unlikely to have any gold or silver in it...

 

[crashbandicoot]

I?ve seen fly rods like this too. Makes sense because jasper is 6.5-7ish on moh. I have a lot of jasper from my own rockhounding but none look this tight and color rich so I was scratching my head when I cut This one. They have a lot of beautiful hematite crystals too on some of the stones.

Polishes up real nice and smooth too.

 

[Clay Diggins]

The rock is jasper from a banded iron formation (BIF).

BIFs are sometimes associated with gold deposits. I seem to recall there was a small BIF deposit near Mariposa, California although I don't think it was associated with gold.