Old Hwy 93 and Mine visit (Pic Heavy)
Mar 18, 2019 18:46:34 GMT -5
RWA3006, quartz, and 7 more like this
Post by NevadaBill on Mar 18, 2019 18:46:34 GMT -5
The weather is perfect out here today and I didn't want it to go to waste. Another adventure could be had.
I got on to Hwy 93/95 and drove about 9.65 miles South of the Hoover Dam, and pulled off on to the dirt road known as "Old Hwy 93" to search some of the washes for rocks.
Only a short distance away was a wash which appeared to have some mine tailings on it. Great!
I was seeing all kinds of Quartz in the wash all the way up, along all kinds of other rocks which I am not familiar with. When I got to the base of the hill, the view back over the Colorado River basin and surrounding hills was pretty cool:
Behind me was a mine, and some tailings. Here is what the hill looked like:
The tailings were full of interesting Quartz. Some with Garnet-like coloration to it. I would come back to go through the tailings pile, but first a closer look at the hole in the ground.
It's hard to tell, but it is gated very securely with an iron door. I looked up the steep hill, and there appeared to be an air vent shaft about 75 yards beyond. I didn't climb up there. Even if the mine was open, I wouldn't have gone in (far). I'm too chicken.
Here is what the rock around looked like. I should have dropped something for scale, but the veins were usually 4-8 inches wide.
The Quartz looked young. I have been outside a few California Gold mines in days past, and it is my understanding that Gold usually likes to hang around old, decomposed Quartz. Not new stuff.
I wonder what they were digging? Let's look through the tailings pile. I started to pick up interesting Quartz, which I will put in the yard by flowers.
The thing is, one or two of them don't look like Quartz. They kind of look like something else. Here is another picture.
So, not being a rock expert, I now have a mystery on my hands. The blue-green stuff is kind of interesting. So, I start digging around on the small tailings pile, and after about 20 minutes I came up with this stuff:
Other than a couple of them which are solid and will get tumbled, there are no superior rocks here. But, clearly there was something blue-green which was attached to these rocks. Like another rock or something. Some of these rocks, though only 1 inch by 1 inch, are solid, and light green. But I don't think I have anything of value.
I grabbed enough so that maybe someone could do a rock identification hopefully?
After I got home I looked up Mindat, and there is no documentation of what comes from this hole in the ground. It is long, inactive. Maybe it is worth going back to the pile some day. I'm not sure.
My guess is possibly Turquoise, Malachite, or Chrysocolla green Rock?
But I'm a rock dummy. Does anyone else have a guess?
I got on to Hwy 93/95 and drove about 9.65 miles South of the Hoover Dam, and pulled off on to the dirt road known as "Old Hwy 93" to search some of the washes for rocks.
Only a short distance away was a wash which appeared to have some mine tailings on it. Great!
I was seeing all kinds of Quartz in the wash all the way up, along all kinds of other rocks which I am not familiar with. When I got to the base of the hill, the view back over the Colorado River basin and surrounding hills was pretty cool:
Behind me was a mine, and some tailings. Here is what the hill looked like:
The tailings were full of interesting Quartz. Some with Garnet-like coloration to it. I would come back to go through the tailings pile, but first a closer look at the hole in the ground.
It's hard to tell, but it is gated very securely with an iron door. I looked up the steep hill, and there appeared to be an air vent shaft about 75 yards beyond. I didn't climb up there. Even if the mine was open, I wouldn't have gone in (far). I'm too chicken.
Here is what the rock around looked like. I should have dropped something for scale, but the veins were usually 4-8 inches wide.
The Quartz looked young. I have been outside a few California Gold mines in days past, and it is my understanding that Gold usually likes to hang around old, decomposed Quartz. Not new stuff.
I wonder what they were digging? Let's look through the tailings pile. I started to pick up interesting Quartz, which I will put in the yard by flowers.
The thing is, one or two of them don't look like Quartz. They kind of look like something else. Here is another picture.
So, not being a rock expert, I now have a mystery on my hands. The blue-green stuff is kind of interesting. So, I start digging around on the small tailings pile, and after about 20 minutes I came up with this stuff:
Other than a couple of them which are solid and will get tumbled, there are no superior rocks here. But, clearly there was something blue-green which was attached to these rocks. Like another rock or something. Some of these rocks, though only 1 inch by 1 inch, are solid, and light green. But I don't think I have anything of value.
I grabbed enough so that maybe someone could do a rock identification hopefully?
After I got home I looked up Mindat, and there is no documentation of what comes from this hole in the ground. It is long, inactive. Maybe it is worth going back to the pile some day. I'm not sure.
My guess is possibly Turquoise, Malachite, or Chrysocolla green Rock?
But I'm a rock dummy. Does anyone else have a guess?