Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[VegasJames]

Was out looking for the source on a small agate I had found on one of my trips to Reno with my dog Jax. Ran across a couple of mines up a wash we drove up. The first looks like a slate mine.


20181221_074415 by James Sloane, on Flickr



Slightly further up ran across this old coal mine. Never knew we had coal in Nevada. Did some research on it and turned out to be a high quality clean coal but as with many mines here the mines closed down after the railroad pulled out making transport too costly.

20181221_074805 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_074850 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_075038 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_075134 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_075212 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_075310 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_075357 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_080308 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_080335 by James Sloane, on Flickr

20181221_080511 by James Sloane, on Flickr

[lithicbeads]

 Very interesting. You ever run into clay deposits in northern Nevada? I am looking for kaolin clay , wild clay , for  an old time potter who wants to go that route one more time. I have a place to stay outside Fernley and will be down there a few times this year.

[hummingbirdstones]

Frank, what's the difference between wild kaolin and the kaolin you can buy online for pottery?

[Michael]

Hi James.  Liked your Nevada pictures.  I thought Arizona was 80% rock, but I believe Nevada tops that.

Mike

[VegasJames]

Very interesting. You ever run into clay deposits in northern Nevada? I am looking for kaolin clay , wild clay , for  an old time potter who wants to go that route one more time. I have a place to stay outside Fernley and will be down there a few times this year.

Clay is very common in Nevada. Any dry lake here for one. Common in our soil here in Las Vegas as well. Kaolinite is a less common clay, but we do have it. Here is a article on clay here in Nevada and it does mention kaolinite several times:

http://www.clays.org/journal/archive/volume%2017/17-4-211.pdf

[lithicbeads]

Thanks for the link. Kaolin has various iron levels and elite potters, wood fire potters that is , often want as iron free a kaolin as possible.They can always add iron  for certain effects. Some of it is just being adventurous , trying something new. Basalt after it is eroded makes very fine kaolin at times. I have been fooled a number of times by finding what looks like kaolin below a decomposed basalt cliff only to figure out later that it was actually volcanic ash that had accumulated there from the wind and Mt. St. Helens.

[VegasJames]

Thanks for the link. Kaolin has various iron levels and elite potters, wood fire potters that is , often want as iron free a kaolin as possible.They can always add iron  for certain effects. Some of it is just being adventurous , trying something new. Basalt after it is eroded makes very fine kaolin at times. I have been fooled a number of times by finding what looks like kaolin below a decomposed basalt cliff only to figure out later that it was actually volcanic ash that had accumulated there from the wind and Mt. St. Helens.

Nevada is very volcanic so we have a lot of basalt, but Nevada is also loaded with iron. Limonite for example is very common in the copper and gold mines here and we even have as area full of petrified wood near here that is mostly fossilized as limonite. A lot of Nevada turquoise also has a greenish cast to being green due to the high iron content. So you are not likely to find low iron kaolinite here.