# what kind of ore is it?



## handypur (Dec 27, 2013)

Hello, my name is Handy. I came from Indonesia, sorry for my bad english. I want to ask about this ore. What kind of ore is it, is it worthless to process and how to processing it? Many thanks for the answer.


Best regards

Handy


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## niteliteone (Dec 27, 2013)

(this is pointless now that the picture was posted AFTER I posted this)
Well form what I can see of that ore it is completely worthless :roll: 

Maybe a picture and a good description of where it came from would help a little.


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## handypur (Dec 27, 2013)

It came from indonesia, the ore is full of blue crystal. Thanks niteliteon for your reply. I was edit my post and attach the picture, can you see it?


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## butcher (Dec 27, 2013)

The blue crystals resemble a copper (like copper sulfate), I see a blue liquid in the dish, what was added to the dish to get that liquid? Water? Acid?

If that blue liquid came from water with the rock sitting in it, I would be very concerned about drinking water in the area, the water in creeks and rivers, and wells could be contaminated.

Is this a natural ore, or could it be where someone dumped some chemical waste solutions, the reason I ask is the copper looking crystals almost look like they may be from a copper solution recrystallized, they do not look oxidized like I would expect to see from ore exposed to the atmosphere for long periods of time, Is this natural rock in your area, is this ore mined from deep underground or did you just find a patch or spot of it where people live, or where someone may have previously had a mining operation and dumped some chemical waste.


It is hard to tell what an ore is composed of from looking at it, although I would say your ore possible has iron and copper, If this is a natural ore, it may be worth paying to get assays, you need to get the ore tested to find out what you have, and if it has any value.


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## handypur (Dec 27, 2013)

Thanks butcher for your reply. The blue liquid is came from water that i used to wash the rock. I got it from my friend, he dig it from underground a few days ago. I will follow your recommend to assay it in the lab. Thanks butcher


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## nickvc (Dec 27, 2013)

Handy we seem to be having a lot of questions regarding ores at present so please don't take this wrong but without visible gold in the ore we really can't tell if it has any value. To determine its value needs an assay and the assay needs to be a full element assay to determine not only values but any elements likely to be either dangerous or cause problems in recovery of the values. Most things seem to contain values but to very low levels that make economic recovery impossible and even higher grade ores can be uneconomic if they contain certain elements that are difficult to bypass or remove.
With falling metal prices many mines must be getting uneconomic or close to it so new finds need to be easy and cheap to process.


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## handypur (Dec 27, 2013)

Thanks nickvc, my target is to recovery copper. Sorry if i am wrong, in my head, copper, silver and gold always together in an ore. So if i can recovery copper fom ore, i hope i will found silver and gold as a bonus. But as you say, i think to test it first to know the elements in that ore. I hope you understand what i'm thinking because my english is bad.


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## nickvc (Dec 27, 2013)

Well copper miners produce big volumes of precious metals so I can understand your thinking but the copper is the primary target and it has to be economical to recover it so the precious metals become a bonus, usually they are only in very small amounts within the makeup of the ores and tonnage is needed to produce any real volumes.


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## torscot (Dec 27, 2013)

You might want try a mineral database. the best is mindat.org There is a section there specifically for mineral identification. Take very detailed photos of just one piece front and back, and post your request there. Take them in daylight, Natural light. Unaltered by any acids or liquids. Remember to state exactly where it's from. The experts there should be able to tell you the main minerals, then you can see if there are any economic ($$$$$$) minerals there. Good luck in your quest.


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## butcher (Dec 27, 2013)

Looks like that stuff is dripping with copper. Try to dissolve more of those blue salts in boiling water, keep the water hot and pour off the blue liquid, put a clean shiny piece of iron metal in the blue liquid, you should see copper powders come out (cement) if it is copper.

I have seen quite a bit of copper ore in my area, but none as water soluble as what you seem to have, yours looks to have copper sulfate crystals, or some type of water soluble copper salts, usually metals in the ground that are water soluble dissolve and seep further into the ground, minerals that are soluble get dissolved in water and seep down further into the earth, sometimes they will precipitate back out of the water, like calcium carbonate dissolved from rock or soils and seeping down in the earth and collecting in caves underground where the calcium carbonate may precipitate back out of the water in caves or dripping water in a cavern,building the beautiful crystals like the calcium carbonate stalactites and stalagmites crystals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speleothem


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## handypur (Dec 27, 2013)

@torscot: thanks for your advice. I will upload the picture in the website.
@butcher : Tomorrow i wil go to the site of that ore came from, take some picture and upload it. Hope u can give me some recommend about it. Thanks before butcher for your precious time to reply and give me some advices. 

Best regards

Handy


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## handypur (Jan 10, 2014)

Here is picture from the minning


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## Richard36 (Apr 1, 2014)

It's been a long time, but I'll post a reply ...

The dark blackish-red areas appear to be either sphalerite or zincsite, ... hope I spelled that correctly, both are zinc ores.
There are a few copper oxides that look similar, as well as a couple silver sulfides that look similar, and are often 
inter-growths and pseudo-morphs after each other ... in short simple language, they often occur together.

The blue areas are either a copper sulfate mineral of some sort as stated by butcher, or smithsonite, which is also a zinc mineral. The blue solution is a reasonably good indicator of copper content, and in concentration enough to be exploitable by mining, if the deposit of ore is large enough to be worth going after for anything beyond mineral samples and ornamental rock, which it is definitely valuable as.

Post a few more photos of samples showing mineral content with clarity enough to show mineral crystal structure and I will be of more use to you.


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