🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Narrowed Down to a Mountain

[DeadDonkey]

It is a story of personal fortitude.

I moved to a new area in the fall, and then started hiking the area and started noticing mineralization I did not expect to see. As I hiked the mountains I said, "it seems like gold would be here", never realizing my thought would morph into something much wilder in terms of discovery.

That put me in a region of 30,000 acres, then further research knocked it down to 14,000 acres, then with more research; down to a single mountain peak. A 2-mile hike brought me close to the peak of the mountain yesterday and unmistakable intrinsic pegmatite inclusions in the host rock. I kept hiking upwards (why is all the great discoveries always up steep hillsides?). I finally got to some broken rock. Inclusions brought be to a big rock with some hints at more within. A few chisel blows, and I got this.

But what is it?

I think I got the black specks pegged as biotite's. The orange spot suggests Scheelite, and the quartz being rose quartz. But what about the larger black inclusions? At first I thought it was green, but water proved it is black in color. Maybe the rose quartz is an indicator, if titanium causes its color, then maybe ilmenite? I'm seeing plenty of rose quartz all over the area, but this kind of thing was concentrated onto one mountain. All I can say is, I sure wish my donkey was still around to pack out all my rock samples. (Teasing due to my username).

(My notations on all inclusions are guesses and not definitive)

 

[DeadDonkey]

Just noticed: if you zoom in on the picture GREEN does show up on the questionable inclusions? Green tourmaline?

 

[fuss]

The pinkish and tan color minerals are Feldspar, the clear is Quartz and the black may be Biotite or Hornblende, the green possibly Epidote... so it looks to be a Granite rock. The location would be most helpful when looking for ID help.

 

[DeadDonkey]

Oh I know there is granite host rock: the whole darn mountain is pink granite, but it is definitely a pegmatite dyke that I have found. Lots of triangular black glassy crystals embedded deep in the host rock, some muscovite cubits, but also smoky and rose quartz in small bands. I wish to be finding larger pieces, but hey; doesn't every prospector! :-)

How big the dyke is, I am not sure. It seems to be primarily on the top of this mountain, so about a square mile in size, but I saw similar stuff on another mountain top initially that kept me in this area. Repeated hikes have caused me to hyper-focus on this mountain.

But it is so hard. It is constantly wet here, so the forest is covered with heavy moss over everything, not just on the north side, but all sides, then between bands of rock, deep peat bogs, so finding quartz veining is hard as there just is so little bare ground to see. And there are no wide quartz veins. They are thin, often disseminated, and dip and strike at odd cants, then... just disappear.