# nice ore



## danec (Aug 14, 2014)

Have to show this one.went into an old mine I know about back in the woods were I have a few hardrock claims.back near a stope where there is quite abit of nice ore still I found a section of vein that was nothing but solid pyrite and sulfides for the ore material.theres still a good section to follow of this stuff.I know from records this was a rich mine but back in the late 1880s and early 1890s when they discovered thi sectoin of vein they had a hard time with recovery because of the mAterial.I know a guy that had similar material tested of this same vein on the otherside of the hill and it came back 16 ounces to the ton.wether this is as good or better I dont know.its to bad it such hard ore to work with very little free milling gold and most locked up with the pyrites and sulfides otherwise I might be more interested in pursuing spending money on assays.this rock im holding probably weighs 4 or 5 pounds


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## Smack (Aug 15, 2014)

Ebay it. It sure is purrdy, nice specimen.


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## shaftsinkerawc (Aug 15, 2014)

What does the backside look like? Any way to get a close up of the left top half, there's a crystal with markings not familiar to me with pyrite. How big is the vein and what other minerals are present? Any chance it's a fault? Nice looking sample.


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## g_axelsson (Aug 15, 2014)

shaftsinkerawc said:


> What does the backside look like? Any way to get a close up of the left top half, there's a crystal with markings not familiar to me with pyrite. How big is the vein and what other minerals are present? Any chance it's a fault? Nice looking sample.


There is a copper iron sulfide called cubanite that forms striated crystals like that, but then I would expect more copper sulfides with it. I think that is pyrite, it can form striated crystals too in certain conditions.

Here is an example of a striated crystal from my collection (Self collected at 825m depth in Prinztskjöld shaft, Malmberget, Sweden)



Göran


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## shaftsinkerawc (Aug 15, 2014)

Thanks Goran, Nice sample as well. It does look pretty similar. What was the country rock where you collected yours and was it a fault or a vein setting?


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## g_axelsson (Aug 15, 2014)

I collected that one deep in the mine. It was a deep crack / fault that went straight through the mountain, probably at least down 200 m to the next level. There was a lot of crystals sitting on the surfaces, feldspar, pyrite up to 10 cm in size (didn't get it loose  ), apatite crystals up to 10 cm, stellerite balls, vermiculite, magnetite (the host rock), scapolite, hornblende and probably 10-20 more minor mineral species. The crack was big enough for 10 people to crawl into it at the same time and searc for minerals.
Since this was deep inside one of the ore bodies the surrounding rock was almost pure magnetite.

... ahhh, that's a happy memory. 8) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmberget_mine

Göran


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## danec (Aug 15, 2014)

These veins are in shear zones.theres 3 that run parallel.country rock is serpentine.this would be about the level where the veins turn into pyrites and sulfides and less free gold.never thought about it as an ebay item.what does something like this sell for


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## Smack (Sep 5, 2014)

Collectors will pay a good price for the right specimen.


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## butcher (Sep 5, 2014)

Make yourself a radio out of that chunk of pyrite.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=pyrite+crystal+radio


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