What rock?

[22shells]

Hi, I find a bit of this rock when detecting and I'm not sure what it's called. Normally only small bits about 5mm but this one was a bigger chunk about 10c coin size. It normally annoys me because it gives a good signal. I call it hematite or magnetite but only guessing and if anyone knows for sure that would be good. It is not magnetic.

 

[Heatho]

I'd say most likely Magnetite or Hematite also. Though could possibly be Ilmenite. If you have a ceramic tile you can do a streak test by scraping your mineral on the rough underside of the tile. Hematite will leave an orange/red streak Magnetite will leave a black streak.

Could also be Hornblende due to the angle of the cleavage. It is brittle and often leaves cleavage debris behind instead of a streak.

 

[silver]

You could crush one up and see how it performs in a pan with a handful of builders sand ( pan the sand first by itself to ensure it has no black sands in it), it wouldn't prove anything, but you would know to expect black sands in the creek thereabouts if that's how it behaves in the pan ,... And if it is in only one area then the creek where it's ending up could be panned for gold and gems just incase what your finding is something pointing (uphill) to a protruding seam of something like a new Biggenden mine (look that up), they probably found stuff like that (maybe) there in the old days that would have helped lead them to the show ,... more in it really than what is it, that might be just the start of a journey there mate !

 

[AtomRat]

Even reminds me of tourmaline a little bit but I'm guessing its magnetic

 

[22shells]

I don't think it's tourmaline, there's black tourmaline (schorl?) nearby and it's different- although in the photo it does look a bit like it. Don't get a signal from tourmaline. This stuff is definitely not magnetic. There's plenty of black sand in the creek and some of this stuff, also quite a bit of fine gold, although it takes about a year to get a gram! On average might get about 30 little specks of gold from a couple buckets of dirt. Might have to try a streak test, cheers!

 

[AtomRat]

Of course tourmaline doesn't pick up on a wand..sorry..don't know why I thought that unless I figured you picked it up. The texture of it is what confused me with schorl indeed. I don't think its antimony either. I'm also guessing its heavy and can rule out charcoal?

 

[shivan]

Could it be a clinopyroxene like Augite? Looks like it could have the 90 degree cleavage. Or maybe an amphibole like Heatho said, though I think hornblend has slightly larger cleavage angles, but hard to tell from the photo.
No idea why it would sound the detector if it was though....

 

[22shells]

No worries mate, I know it's difficult to tell just by looking at a picture. Yep, quite heavy and not charcoal. Getting a strong signal on the GPX 5000. The SDC also gets a signal from this stuff. These detectors are pretty good with hot rocks generally. The Eureka Gold used to go off on just about everything!

 

[davent]

Hi, I find a bit of this rock when detecting and I'm not sure what it's called. Normally only small bits about 5mm but this one was a bigger chunk about 10c coin size. It normally annoys me because it gives a good signal. I call it hematite or magnetite but only guessing and if anyone knows for sure that would be good. It is not magnetic.https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3817/1458473714_p3200954.jpg

Similar to this from near Pine Creek NT.I thought it was magnatite.

 

[Zenato]

May can be some Wolframite, it's hard to tell.

 

[Moneybox]

I'm just going to throw another one in. Possibly Galena (tin) although it doesn't look to be shiny enough.

 

[shivan]

If it is Wolframiten it should be soft enough that you could easily scratch it with a steel pen knife.

Galena is a lead ore and normally has a metallic luster with a silver/grey colour, cassiterite is the tin ore.