Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Identifications of Materials => Topic started by: R.U. Sirius on September 28, 2021, 04:07:09 PM
-
Native copper is relatively common, but these two confusionites look like they're something else... Both were found in a 1970s collection with apparently lots of material from Central and South America.
The first one is a dark slab with silver-golden veins running through. Judging by the Ohm meter (practically metallic), my guess is native silver.
The second one is a peach-colored, massive rough with patches of golden-colored inclusions peppered throughout. The inclusions have these dark halos around them, presumably from oxidation. The resistivity is on the order of hundreds of Ohms per mm length between the probes, so either not native metal, or a very fine-grained metal with lots of discontinuities. My guess is chalcopyrite.
-
i always thought of doing this lol!
-
It just dawned on me that the first example above likely is something other than native silver: the metallic veins show no signs of tarnishing, and are as bright as when found this slab years ago.
Some cobalt/nickel ore? Do platinum or palladium ever form these kinds of structures?
-
First one looks like the chalcopyrite in the black schist of Apache Gold. There's also Pulsite, and other similar materials.
I don't have any experience with anything like your second one, but we've cut lots of Apache Gold.