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RE: Nature Identification Thread #7- Now Paying out Steem Basic Income Memberships to participants

in #nature7 years ago

Quartzite with some copper mineral (based on the green color)? I've definitely seen both massive and non-massive quartzite, and the hammer scratching/ non-HCl reactivity seems indicative.

The green mineral is the tricky bit- if it were a copper mineral, I'd be hard-pressed to say whether it was a sulfide or oxide. The schists and the (what I think is quartzite) slightly bias me against the copper being a sulfide from a hydrothermal system, and make me think it's more likely disssolved copper oxides deposited in the sedimentary protoliths by water moving through the rock.

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Great guesses. This piece is very likely part of the copper-rich quartz vein they were hunting at the champion mine. So I would say its not quartzite, but quartz since it deposited in a vein rather than being metamorphosed into a quartzite.

As for the greenish blue mineral, the locals called it azurite. I doubt that, it's the wrong color. My guess is chrysocolla, which is a hydrous copper silicate. There were no sulfide minerals spotted in the area.

It does look like chrysocolla, now that you mention it! And yeah, I totally forgot that copper silicates were an option too.

I guess I just automatically assumed that it was metamorphosed from the schist mentions.

Very cool!

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Thanks! I appreciate it. I'll sign up for the Steemit basic income. I also have plenty more rocks for you to look at in the future ;)

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