Silver rocks in quarts vein

BIGRED said:

I'll try the things you have said but it did tast weird

Click to expand...

Lol.....Yeh as Heatho mentions dont go sprinkling the stuff of your Fettuccine Carbonara!

So i read that it gives of toxic fumes when heated.
But does that mean its toxic to handle or is it ok to pick up and handle?

I'm sure you will be ok after tasting it, would not do it regularly though as there are some really nasty minerals that are very toxic. In saying that I've seen people wash gemstones in tubs with animal turds floating around in the water and then stick the gemstones in their gob for a errrrr better clean.......... Obviously they never heard of parasitic infestations.

Anyway did it have a bitter Almond type taste? Arsenic supposedly has that flavour and odour. Read stuff below.

Here's a relavent post:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10111

From the other thread:

G'Day all

Yep that is arsenopyritie and you can tell from the rhomboidal shaped crystals - sort of like a squashed diamond shape in cross section. Arsenopyrite in that are is an indication of gold bearing reef systems. But remember that almost all gold bearing reefs in that region carry arsenic that does not work the other way around. It will give off an odor of bitter almonds when hit. Arsenic in that form is not harmful but I would not eat much of it.

Araluen

Yeh its ok to handle as concentration levels are fairly low but as already stated, give your hands a wash afterwards especially before handling food etc just to be on the safe side.
It would take multiple scenario's of accidental ingestion over a longer term to have any detrimental effect on you.

Breathing toxic fumes from heating is quite different, if you got to heat it, use a good mask!

Cheers

Edit; Sorry Heatho, didnt see ya there!

Good info mate!

Nice example for some geology students to study, or some geo..

Nice find regardless

Cheers, Tone

Pretty sure you've got yourself a nice specimen of molybdenite. Highly metallic luster, slight purple tinge, should be reasonably soft to scratch. Oberon has a few moly deposits around the place. Nice specimen for your collection!

Thanks guys I was quite happy with the find it was exciting
Glad to know what it is i don't have a lot of experience but super keen

Right or wrong I would get some cross checking done into molybdenum. You find enough of that and you won't need a detector to find gold. Although used commonly in steel strengthening (in alloys) it is a somewhat rare occuring commodity in abundance. My retirement (aka super) had been given a few good boosts thanks to a couple of companies that have successfully pulled this commodity out of the ground. (Rhenium can also occur in the same deposit that can spin some staggering financial figures) Have a bit of a search around mate.

A simple scratch test should tell the difference between Molybdenite and Arsenopyrite. As ILikeGold said Molybdenite is very soft and should be easily scratched, even a fingernail should do the job, where as Arsenopyrite would not scratch easily at all even with a knife.
Molybdenite should also show excellent cleavage in one direction where Arsenopyrite has none.

I haven't had a chance to scratch it with a nail or something but in the beginning I did bite it.
It's hard

Having the peacock colours in there I'd say there is some Copper in that that too so mix of chalcopyrite/arsenopyrite

what happened to my posts ? seams to be removed for some reason ? :|