I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this.
A couple years ago my wife and I decided to leave Portland Oregon and move to Quartzsite Arizona because we wanted to do some prospecting and mining in search of Gem Silica.
After finding a place and setting up our lapidary shop we started advertising locally to do lapidary cutting and cabbing as well as faceting.
A gentleman brought in a piece of lapidary rough to be cut and slabbed and after a few minutes I knew this was Unique material. He named his Claim the Santa Esmeralda and was calling the material Santa Esmeralda Jasper. After seeing a few variations of the material from his claim and working them to see how stable the material was and how it would polish, I suggested getting enough of the material to take to Quartzsite and Tucson.
After several digging trips to the claim we only had about 50 pounds of material and had lost the vein. So not enough material to make a big introduction in Quartzsite or Tucson and unable to find more we have decided to first try and figure out what we have and if it is really unique or just that I have never seen it and therefor am unable to research it online.
I have posted a few pics and would appreciate any input on what it might be. Also recommendations on where to have it analyzed if necessary.
I tend to think it is more of a Chrysocolla type conglomerate than Jasper. The different variations are different layers of the same seam from the vein.
I am really hoping some one with the knowledge would say this is the kind of material you find just before you find Gem Silica
Well, it looks like a breccia of some sort, with the broken brown pieces filled in with the white. The green and red has got to be chrysocolla and cuprite as you've no doubt guessed, maybe as some sort of later infiltration along cracks or maybe leached out of the brown material. The white does look like agate, which would be ideal. So my overall guess would be it falls in the wide range of 'silicified secondary copper minerals', like Sonora Sunrise or Parrot Wing and all those varieties. The solid one with the fleshy pink bands is a bit odd, though.
As to the gem silica, best of luck. Clearly you've got secondary copper minerals and probably agate in the same place, so maybe somewhere the conditions were right. Maybe you'll hit something like the classic Needles Blue agate:
Post subject: Re: New find ? New material? Quartzsite Az.
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:23 am
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Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:01 pm Posts: 1902 Location: Pine City, NY and Dothan, AL
Quartzsite is a long way from Bisbee, but there's coppery stuff all over Arizona. I've poked around abandoned copper mines in the hills around Quartzsite.
What type of test would be required to determine the major components in these cabs. I will see if I still have a piece of rough that shows all the different variation in the orders they formed, but If I remember correctly the cab in the upper left of the first pic which is the orangish pinky stuff was the bottom most layer.
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