Help Identifying this rock

[crystalraye0379]

Found this in Colorado Near Minturn. Very heavy and hard to break with hammer. I did get a little chunk off and that’s where the reddish part is with glistening. I am new to this so if there is anything else you need to know to help identify please let me know. Thanks.

 

[DDancer]

I suggest a streak test to confirm however it appears you have a pyrite specimen there. Good find. When you test it have a smell of the streak and see if you smell sulfur, smell of burnt matches, that will also help define whether its an arsenopyrite.

 

[Mine Shaft]

I have found stones that look like yours, mine is heavily magnetic. Dose iron ore have pyrite in it ?

 

[DDancer]

Pyrite is a sulfide of iron so yes iron ore is a derivative and mixed specimens can be magnetic. The iron usually takes the form of magnetite.

 

[Mine Shaft]

Second Question. Why would they mix this type of materiel with "asphalt" ? I was camping one time up in the sierras and noticed something shiny at the edge of the road picked it up and this is what i found. The road was loaded with this Iron Ore stuff.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Second Question. Why would they mix this type of materiel with "asphalt" ? I was camping one time up in the sierras and noticed something shiny at the edge of the road picked it up and this is what i found. The road was loaded with this Iron Ore stuff.

Simple. Because it came from the quarry with the other rocks for the asphalt. More accidental then any reason.

 

[DDancer]

One can find many rocks and minerals in concrete, asphalt and other building materials. One member here showed off a nice agate he dug outta his driveway and people have picked gold nuggets in others. I recently picked up some pyrite and tourmaline bits in the gravel foundation material of the new building I work out of that was dug from a granite quarry.

 

[hvacker]

I once thought crushed glass would be a good addition for asphalt. There are mountains of the stuff but someone told me they did that but it made the road too slippery.

 

[IAMZIM]

I've found gold in a bag of gravel from Home Depot. The highway dept. and gravel plants end up with all kinds of minerals depending on where they are gathering their material from. I myself have found fossils in asphalt in my uncle's driveway, because of where the material the asphalt plant came from, it was loaded with them!