Quartz found.

[G Freeman]

Found a quartz vein here in mountains of Va. some rocks weigh 15 to 20 pounds. Got a lot of hard minerals in the ground running with this vein that is really yellow and red and don't know what it is, but a pick will bounce off of it.Been digging at this vein for about three weeks now and have found about 10 five gallon buckets, some are clear pieces. Is this stuff worth anything other than the fun I am having getting it out of the ground

 

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[loco oro]

would like to see more pics, is that reflection on left side of pic, i would crush some that have lots of inclusions, as quartz masses dont have much value, generaly only well defined crystals have value, rose quartz masses from viens do have value, smokey quartz also,but clear/milky masses not much value.but i would definately explore those veins until you were certain there was no gold.

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco, here are some more pics of some of the rocks I got from the same vein and they are not cleaned up very good. Some rocks I am getting now are white with black and red I think iron stains on them. I did crush one or two of these white and black quartz rocks and they are mostly white inside. Tried to pan this stuff but I am new at panning too and seemed like everything looked white to me. Thanks for the interest and any help would be great.

 

[loco oro]

what you have looks like maybe a hydroyhermal lead/zinc ,the silvery min may be galeana ,a lead ore, would explain your weight, the honey colored material along side it looks like sphalerite, a zinc ore,i see calcite,and quartz. in your area i would def keep exploring that vein, i am from central pa and we have a deposit just like that ,if i can figure out how to post pics i will show you pieces just like it. i have limited access to this area , but if you have good access keep digging, most of our deposit sits under amish land,or state gamelands ,neither are prospector freindly

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco. Yeah the place we are digging is on the family farm and my brotherinlaw was pushing out a place with his tractor on top of a hill to put a building and hit this quartz vein about 4 feet below the grass line so we are just digging into the bank trying to follow the vein of quartz. If we continue we will soon have a cave to go into and then braces for the ceiling. But we are having fun and hope your project works out good for you.Would like to see the pics you have. Thanks.

 

[63bkpkr]

GF,

Loco Oro has given you some good advice including names of the minerals in the quartz. That is a very large quartz deposit! Goodness only knows what you will come across but one of them could be some very nice quartz crystals. The crystal specimens are somewhat collectable and in some cases nice quartz crystals are used for some type of healing, I think, and bring some money in.

Be careful while you are having this adventure as stuff falls from overhead so safety helmets would be worth your investment if you do get to digging a tunnel. Please take pictures of your work and efforts and share them with us as we are living vicariously off of your adventure. Welcome to Tnet!.............63bkpkr

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks 63bkpkr haven't taken any pictures of digging hole yet but glad you said that and the next time I go there I will take my camera with me and share them.

 

[loco oro]

i am curious of the host rock around your vien , in your area the old timers ,circa 1830s were getting gold in good quanitys from a degrading bedrock called saprolite, i think that it was greenish in color and very soft , easy digging stuff.i am sure the color verys greatly but several of the virginia mines were in the greenish/earthy colored,but it was decomposed and is unmistakable because it crumbles rather than break,just something to lookout for because this was mined over a large area,your area.

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco, we are digging in a hole we dug in a bank. here is some more pictures of some of the quartz and pictures of the location as you can see the vein keeps going in the back of the vein.That yellow dirt is really hard on the bank following the vein. do you know what that mineral is that is yellow? The info you gave me is interesting. Thank you for that.

 

[goldhog]

Here's what your looking for...
This is under a 100x microscope from today.
Pretty stuff...

 

[TerryC]

Freeman, I checked a database app that I have, using just "yellow" mineral and came up with 212 possibilities. Can you give more properties of the "yellow dirt".... except the yellow dirt (as in yellow snow)? TTC

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks GOLDHOG, for the info, don't have a microscope like that just a camera that is so so. My arms are about like Hulk Hogan now after about a month of digging LOL. never give up.

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks TerryC that yellow dirt has a black mineral that runs through it and sounds like a rock when I hit it with a shovel. a pick will bounce off of it. Has red hard stuff in it too. Hope that helps.

 

[63bkpkr]

G Freeman,
Thank you for the pictures! They tell a unique story though, not being a miner, I do not understand what that story is. It looks like you are digging the quartz out of dirt and not out of a mountain rock wall with some earth (decomposed humus material from plants) over the rock. Are there any solid rock walls around your dig site or are there just pieces of rocks within the dirt? I'm asking these questions as I'm trying to understand why there is a vein of quartz in a mound of dirt.

Maybe the rock was of a type mentioned earlier by loco oro that has rotted leaving only the more solid rock material behind. Here in California we have humus material deposited over solid rock and then we have historic stream beds trapped between solid rock and then we have open placer areas (areas deposited by water movement with usually obviously rounded rocks) that may have humus material deposited over them. Since I lack in experience I am at a loss to explain what I see in your great pictures. I will also admit that my caution flags jumped right out of my brain when I saw your holes in dirt walls, those walls not shored up could fall at any time. If I am correct that you are digging mostly in dirt with some rocks in it from time to time then I would suggest some of your time would be devoted to learning how to support the walls of your dig so that you are as safe as possible in a crumbling wall situation.

I am just amazed that a large quartz vein exists in those conditions. I would love to come see it but I'm stuck here. Work safely as no amount of valuable mineral is worth even one human life!..........................63bkpkr

A note here:

When driving by excavations in streets where the majority of the digging was done by a hydraulic powered shovel on an excavation machine, at some point steel walls are lowered into the dig site and are then cross braced so that the dirt walls have no ability to move or fall or burst out as the steel supports the dirt. Caves/Tunnels are different as the walls and ceilings both need support.

 

[TerryC]

Thanks TerryC that yellow dirt has a black mineral that runs through it and sounds like a rock when I hit it with a shovel. a pick will bounce off of it. Has red hard stuff in it too. Hope that helps.

Black mineral... possibly magnetite or hematite. (I have accepted your "friend" request... tnx.) Still no further guess on the yellow stuff (sulfur?). TTC

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks-63bkpkr Around here we have lots of forest and lots of farming when we farmed we plowed out quartz loaded them up and throwed them in fence lines out of the way some of the crystals we kept for show now most of our fields are in hay . but we have no rock walls just dirt in this vien the dirt on one side is yellow with black spots and lines probably lead and on the other side the dirt is red with black spots and shinny mixed in theyellow is very hard also the dig isn't really to far back in the hill yet we are being very careful.No water of any kind at this place.

 

[loco oro]

wow it appears you are in it, the reason it seems like a vein in dirt is because its well on its way to becoming dirt, this is degrading bedrock , i would venture a guess and say that the yellowish redish /black is degrading pyritic rich material,when pyrite oxidizes it rusts and leaches reds yellowsand blacks and stains the rock or soil around it.when i said (easydigging) i meant that it is much easyier than blasting caps and numatic drills,but i would be excited ,alot of the gold in virginia is associated with this pyritic / iron , and as i said before this in your area was degraded, whether it be oxidation or chemical i dont know ,not sure if the old timers asked that question ,they knew it contained gold and that was enough for them.i see from pics you are just on the (tip of the iceberg) definitately cool . keep digging. but keep in the back of your mind as you explore this vein that it is likely hydrothermal , which means that it was deposited by extreme heated ground water that wasnt aloud to escape the bedrock, and gold being gold is heavy it would solidify( visibly ) moreso at the margins of your quartz vein ,likey a little deeper, but would still be thourghout the matrix, but very small, dont let the lack of visible gold deter you just yet. very cool , very cool ,also the large well defined quartz sugests a slower cooling which means the chance for larger visible gold is good, very goodkeep digging

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks Loco for the information. I have noticed that the rocks I am getting out now have some little green sparkling stuff maybe on one side of some rocks growing out of it. Looks like pyrite but is green instead of gold or orange. Don't know what it is but the rocks I found this on all seem degraded on that side of the rock. There is not much of this green stuff but it is still interesting. I am having a great time doing this and talking to you guys about it. I try to go there every day its not raining and spend 3 or 4 hours with my screwdriver and hammer. I am 68 and can't jump as many fences as I used to.Don't know how far back in this hillside this vein goes but it has quartz from our chin to our feet when we are standing at the opening of the hole we are digging. Another thing I have noticed is that hard yellow black and red stuff (bedrock) runs on both sides of the quartz vein and the quartz runs in the middle.Dont know how deep this vein goes in the ground but that is a story down the road.

 

[63bkpkr]

There's a road underneath the Quartz, that would be handy! (just pulling your leg)

Very interesting site and adventure! Wish I knew more about geology, there that is it. Do you have a College near by or a good high school chemistry class? IF so I would suggest taking a good hunk of the materials on either side of the vein to either of the above schools and ask for some guidance. All they can say is no but if they are curious, what science major isn't, you might possibly find out what the various materials are and that could be helpful. It would give loco oro a good idea of what's going on.

This coming April I turn 70 years of age. I do not consider myself old yet as I still carry an 85 pound backpack at the start of a two week backpacking trip. Yes I do not jump over fences quite as good as I used to but I still go over them. I also rappel over cliffs when I want to get to the water that's down there, the rope is a highway to some sweet fishing! I must be good to my shoulders so sometimes I carry some heavy gear with me, like an 8000 lb capacity cable hoist to do most of the work I used to make my shoulders/arms do.

Sounds like you are doing some heavy work so if your arms/shoulders are hurting back off a little as shoulder surgery is not fun!

I look forward to more of the adventure...........................63bkpkr

 

[G Freeman]

Thanks 63bkpkr.Maybe I should pan some of that yellow dirt and see what I get.