Hey there everyone
I found this cool rock in a river bed.
Just wandering if anyone can tell me anything about it
Would like to know what minerals im looking at
Without examining it in person no one can give a definitive answer although there are some ‘experts’ who will most certainly do just that but in truth their level of expertise is about the same as that of an earthworm with hemorrhoids.
We can all tell you what it looks like but not what it definitely is with 100 percent of certainty.
Take a sheet of lead and scratch it with a sharp nail - the nail will leave a gouge but the lead will not flake or bits come off - gold will do that as well.
If you try to do it to Iron pyrites or copper pyrites then it will not gouge but tiny bits might break away.
In the photo its looks angular with cracks so maybe iron pyrites but I cant tell without holding it and seeing it first hand.
It looks a nice rock to have though regardless of what it is.
After writing the above I saw the enlarged photo - looks like pyrites - could be ironpyrites or arsenopyrite even.
Thanks for the information…could one assume if pyrites are being found that gold could also be present in this river?
Pyrites do not necessarily indicate that there is gold in a river so that because you find pyrites does not mean that there is gold.
The two can be found in conjunction depending on where you are. I have a rock with copper pyrites, iron pyrites and gold.
I have see pyrites in coal seams but there sure aint no gold.
I’m with Mr Lammerlaw, iron pyrites. If you knock a little piece off & hit it softly with a hammer. If it shatters it is pyrites, if it flattens it is gold. But it doesn’t look close to gold to me.
JW
The rock looks like it may be stained quartz and the shiny stuff pyrite, as Lammerlaw explained and I would say the cube type formation would tell me its most likey. That is actually a very nice specimen. Stunning. I collect the odd bit of pyrite if it looks convincing… the old fools gold as its known, catches the eye
When I was a wee squeeze & knee high to a grass hopper. My parents took me to Thames to meet an old codger who had the hell rock & mineral collection. My mother was in to rock collecting & tumble polishing to make jewellery stuff. I distinctly remembered him showing me a sizeable chunk of black as coal with what he said was gold running through it. Not knowing any better I believed him but it was most likely fools gold. My parents knew no different.
JW
I bet it was fools gold - pyrites - reminds me of the kids fairy tale, ‘Goldicocks and the Three Bares.’