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Post by Rockoonz on Feb 20, 2023 12:18:22 GMT -5
Took another field trip with our club, the west valley rock and mineral club, this one was to the Rawley mine near Gila Bend, for AZ Blue Chryssocolla. Those who were at the PowWow in Q-site may have seen his booth. One of the short aisles on the highway side of the building 2 spots in on the west side, not far from Chrystopher. Pretty and spendy large specimens along with slabs and rough. I went with a pretty large group, but with about 4 acres of tailings piles as much as about 15 foot deep there was plenty of spots to dig in. When I parked at the end of a previously scooped out area and went to the back to grab water and gear, first thing I find right behind the rig. I may try polishing this tonight. Ed Davis, the claim owner, and his partner were quite helpful. When returning to my hole from a break and a walk with the camera, the partner, whose name I forgot, pointed out another spot no one had tried and I returned with full hands and pockets. The host material was identified as a red rhyolite and seems to polish well without stabilizing, most of the blue I collected seems gemmy and solid, we'll see when I start playing with it. Digging and scenery pics. There are 3 deep shafts on the site, as deep as 300 feet. Off limits of course. They are working at about 150 feet from what they say. Personally I have no interest in going down there but I wish I had at least got a few pics of the specimens available for sale they pulled out of there. I believe the concrete piers were probably from an ore crusher when the mine was producing copper, silver, platinum and palladium I think he said. More pics of some of the haul on my washing table. vegasjames any insight? All but the lighter shades of blue seem solid and harder than what one might think for chryssocolla, but I think Ed or previous mine owners would have ID'd it if it were something more valuable. I'll attempt to get a hardness check soon, but specific gravity tester and chemistry set will not be in my near future. All in all, a nice vacation from all the projects here on Rancho de la Rocas.
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Post by rockjunquie on Feb 20, 2023 12:33:11 GMT -5
Nice haul! I see lots of blue.
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Post by mohs on Feb 20, 2023 13:46:39 GMT -5
very cool & gemmy !
that spot been on my butte list painted rock
I was hounding some azure in the Salt just the other day
long story, of course.....
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Post by fernwood on Feb 20, 2023 15:21:35 GMT -5
Nice pieces. Thanks for posting the report.
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Mark K
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Post by Mark K on Feb 20, 2023 15:45:32 GMT -5
The host rock looks like cuprite to me.
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AzRockGeek
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Post by AzRockGeek on Feb 20, 2023 19:45:05 GMT -5
That looks like it was a fun trip with great weather. I have never been to the Rowley mine, but I have been on a few trips that Ed D. and Bill G. sponsored to their other mines and they are always fun.
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Post by drocknut on Feb 20, 2023 19:59:00 GMT -5
Looks like a fun trip with lots of great rock. Thanks for taking us along with you.
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Mark K
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Post by Mark K on Feb 20, 2023 19:59:09 GMT -5
Is this the same mine where they were getting the wuffinite and it became so dangerous that they closed it down?
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hummingbirdstones2
fully equipped rock polisher
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Post by hummingbirdstones2 on Feb 20, 2023 20:00:00 GMT -5
Lucky you. Our club goes places that have nothing like that.
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Post by realrockhound on Feb 20, 2023 21:06:15 GMT -5
Think I need some of that.
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gunsil
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Post by gunsil on Feb 20, 2023 22:12:28 GMT -5
Oh man, that makes my mouth water!! I love good hard chrysocolla but it's over 2,000 miles from here. Lots of good fossils around but few cutting materials. Looks nice and warm there in the desert!
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hummingbirdstones2
fully equipped rock polisher
Vince A., 1958-2023
Member since August 2018
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Post by hummingbirdstones2 on Feb 20, 2023 22:48:26 GMT -5
Think I need some of that. Wanna' trade for some turquoise...?
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Post by realrockhound on Feb 20, 2023 22:59:03 GMT -5
Think I need some of that. Wanna' trade for some turquoise...? Maybe I don’t need it that bad now that I think about it 😂
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Post by Rockoonz on Feb 21, 2023 4:11:30 GMT -5
Is this the same mine where they were getting the wuffinite and it became so dangerous that they closed it down? Ed did say that it was once the most dangerous mine in AZ, and they had gone to great effort to make it safer again. Personally 150 feet underground is NOT on my bucket list.
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Post by vegasjames on Feb 21, 2023 9:57:10 GMT -5
There are a number of blue minerals that come from that mine. A good, clear close up of the surface as well as hardness and specific gravity can all help with ID. Specific gravity you really only need a cheap digital scale. Take a small sample of all the same blue material to test. Weight the sample dry, then tie to a thread. Put a small container of water on the scale and zero it out. Then weigh the specimen again suspended in the water. Then there is a formula to take those two weights to get the specific gravity. Although hardness alone may give you the answer as most the copper and zinc-copper ores that color are pretty soft. It it is around 7 then this would be a chalcedony making it gem silica.
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Post by Rockoonz on Feb 21, 2023 13:33:25 GMT -5
There are a number of blue minerals that come from that mine. A good, clear close up of the surface as well as hardness and specific gravity can all help with ID. Specific gravity you really only need a cheap digital scale. Take a small sample of all the same blue material to test. Weight the sample dry, then tie to a thread. Put a small container of water on the scale and zero it out. Then weigh the specimen again suspended in the water. Then there is a formula to take those two weights to get the specific gravity. Although hardness alone may give you the answer as most the copper and zinc-copper ores that color are pretty soft. It it is around 7 then this would be a chalcedony making it gem silica. Thanks James, seems I have overcomplicated the specific gravity test, I used to test samples on the machine at work that had 2 super precise scales and an enclosed test chamber, never realizing that the test is just a water displacement to weight ratio. The machine did the math too. Since the polymers needed testing to a 2 or 3 place decimal and some were lighter than water, they needed more than I do to get a ball park for comparison. Today is another shop roof prep day, followed by a 5 hourish work shift, but we will set up a test rig soon, lots of ?? samples lying about that we can test and label. Thanks again for the education, I appreciate your knowledge and ability to make things understandable.
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brybry
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Post by brybry on Feb 21, 2023 23:11:47 GMT -5
Looks like a great day with awesome finds brother!
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Post by vegasjames on Feb 22, 2023 0:42:14 GMT -5
There are a number of blue minerals that come from that mine. A good, clear close up of the surface as well as hardness and specific gravity can all help with ID. Specific gravity you really only need a cheap digital scale. Take a small sample of all the same blue material to test. Weight the sample dry, then tie to a thread. Put a small container of water on the scale and zero it out. Then weigh the specimen again suspended in the water. Then there is a formula to take those two weights to get the specific gravity. Although hardness alone may give you the answer as most the copper and zinc-copper ores that color are pretty soft. It it is around 7 then this would be a chalcedony making it gem silica. Thanks James, seems I have overcomplicated the specific gravity test, I used to test samples on the machine at work that had 2 super precise scales and an enclosed test chamber, never realizing that the test is just a water displacement to weight ratio. The machine did the math too. Since the polymers needed testing to a 2 or 3 place decimal and some were lighter than water, they needed more than I do to get a ball park for comparison. Today is another shop roof prep day, followed by a 5 hourish work shift, but we will set up a test rig soon, lots of ?? samples lying about that we can test and label. Thanks again for the education, I appreciate your knowledge and ability to make things understandable.
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Post by Rockoonz on Feb 22, 2023 2:38:38 GMT -5
vegasjames that is the exact video I looked at this morning.
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