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Post by vegasjames on Apr 3, 2024 8:18:03 GMT -5
Welcome Dan from Southern Nevada.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 3, 2024 8:16:53 GMT -5
A lot of people started claiming materials found on public land a few years ago, watched the TV shows and thought it was easy money. Most of those claims have either been abandoned or are just being operated as hobby claims. Turns out the cost to truly operate commercially is a lot more than the claim fees. If you want to dig with hand tools a claim is relatively inexpensive, of course filing it is an invitation to every thief who watches the BLM and FS websites, but that's a different story. If you want to really dig with tractors and stuff, there are other permits, bonds, and reclamation plans to deal with, my friends who do it have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in some high risk operations. If they gear up for a new mining season and the seam runs out after a few chunks, gone forever, they still are obligated to return the site to "original condition", generally a lot nicer than they found it. And if some government agency or a chinese company that wants to dig a huge ugly lithium pit decides you can't mine it anymore, all is gone. They have even prevented miners from doing the reclamation, then kept their bond because they didn't do what they were not allowed to do. Yes, I looked in to getting a claim on an old abandoned mine where I get the naturally hard turquoise. Talked with BLM who first told me I was not responsible for the reclamation on the pre-existing work. Then they later changed that to I was responsible for that reclamation when I asked again to confirm. That alone could have been at least a million dollars. Then they said I had to pay a mine inspection fee, a mining safety course, then if I wanted to work on the road to the mine there would be permits and fees for that. It would cost more just to get started than I could ever make.
I feel BLM does this more to block mining by small operations. They have put some long held family claims out of business here in Nevada by hitting them suddenly with massive, ridiculous reclamation fees.
There is also a case here in Nevada where someone found rare earth metals on his claim and the BLM came in an immediately shut him down. The only active rare earth mine in the U.S. is just over the Stateline in California and is owned by the Chinese.
All these National Monuments they are forming and expanding are not protecting anything either. If you check the maps they go off every which direction encompassing every old mine out there so they cannot be reopened. Mojave National Preserve in California, which was expanded fairly recently and the Avi Kwa Ame (Spirit Mountain) National Monument here in Southern Nevada are great examples. Neither were formed to really protect any plant or animal, they just encompass all the old mines in these areas.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 16:32:13 GMT -5
Seems like starting with a hole saw would be a lot faster and easier and would create a lot less waste. Then finish them off with a lathe instead. Hole saw could probably work for the initial tube shape, but then you have to find dead center to drill the hole, vice versa if you drill the hole first you'd have to line up the hole saw perfectly. And if it's an elongated bead, that'd be a 1-3" deep hole with the hole saw, that'd take some time. He does use a lathe and diamond files/burs for finishing steps, the jig is just to hold a steady angle against the wheel when making the cone profile. His technique is to drill the hole first, then spin the bead on a spindle. The jig's purpose is to hold the spindle at a fixed distance and angle, so you can get perfect symmetry when you flip the bead. Not sure you could get that precision with a lathe and hand tools, unless you had some other jig. If using a lathe for the second part then you would not have to line up perfectly with the hole. Just get close since the lathe is going to remove the excess material, which would center the hole automatically. Just like if you took a square of wood to a lathe. Even if you were slightly off from center on the wood, as you round the wood, the round would become an equal distance from the center when the wood is rounded.
Therefore, the hole could be drilled, then a hole saw slightly larger than the intended bead size used to cut the preform, then when lathed, the drilled hole will automatically be centered when the bead is lathed.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 16:25:11 GMT -5
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 16:23:07 GMT -5
I'm really unsure as to what this specimen is. It was reported to have been smelted and given to a friend who provided roadside assistance to the gifter. It was reportely poured in a heart shape and apparently has been sliced in half to expose a myriad of crystall inside. It is spectacularly colorful in direct sunlight and when moved relative to a light source. My read is that berylium is toxic to handle and breath and thus I'm unsure why anyone would make a decorative piece of it. It is dense, primarily gold in color similar to pyrite, and going to remain wrapped in plastic until I find out more about it. 20240327_100904 by Thomas Fritts, on Flickr Bismuth? Yes, bismuth is a low melting point metal. The giveaway that this is bismuth are the squarish crystal shapes. Oxidation of the surface will form various bright colors.
You can make these crystals from Pepto Bismol, which is a bismuth aspirin compound, but it is much easier to just buy the metal and melt it in an old pan.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 15:28:50 GMT -5
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 15:22:38 GMT -5
Bismuth crystal. Has a very low melting point, and so these crystals can be made using your stove top.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 15:21:27 GMT -5
Seems like starting with a hole saw would be a lot faster and easier and would create a lot less waste.
Then finish them off with a lathe instead.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 2, 2024 3:04:55 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada.
I have tried the corn cob method in a vibe tumbler. I got the crushed corn cob from a feed store and added some polish. Cannot tell you how it worked though as the cabachons I was polishing are still in the vibe covered with corn cob and polish dust. I did not take them out and clean them. The crushed corn cob was not very expensive though, but does come in 50 pound bags.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 1, 2024 22:29:00 GMT -5
The millions of years old rock from the ground is there to have, once you own the title or the mineral rights... all rock, minerals and metal ore. Property cost and property taxes and extraction costs are part of the equation... the demand for the extracted material sets the value. For example, Rubies are valuable... beyond the known extraction costs. Yes, high quality natural rubies (red sapphires) are way more rare and massively more valuable than diamonds.
Diamonds don't jump in price until 5 carats. Rubies jump in price after 2 carats.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 1, 2024 22:23:52 GMT -5
I wonder about some of this. I have read plenty of accounts of some pretty rocks being found somewhere and people are excited about it until someone comes along with a backhoe and removes all of it. It seems like that is a bit of a common theme. I don't know how I feel about that. I guess if someone owns the land or has mineral rights or a claim or something that's fine and makes sense. But sometimes the impression I get is it's a public space and someone just robs it blind. I don't know a lot about how any of that works, but it seems strange and sad to me, and I wonder how that affects the cost of some slabs? Have personally experienced this. Too many damn people now days just out to make a profit. No love for the material itself. I have also. For example, took a group of people on a trip to several locations here in Southern Nevada. Knew 2 of the people, but not the rest. One of the spots I took them to was a mine where the opening was covered with orange chalcedony, which is rare, and the top of the mine was all purple chalcedony. The location is remote and virtually impossible to find without being led there. Was driving by a month later, so I swung in. All the orange chalcedony and a large portion of the purple chalcedony had been removed. Being how remote and hard it would be to find the location, I am certain someone that went on the trip went back to clean the spot out.
This is why I am very careful now about who I take to certain locations. For example, the mine where I dig the naturally hard turquoise. I have only taken 4 people there, and all people I knew well and trusted.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 1, 2024 18:26:24 GMT -5
Also keep in mind the cost of traveling to obtain the material if not purchasing rough from a dealer. That is time, and with the cost of gas these days this has to be factored in.
Even rough from dealers is going to go up as fuel prices increase as it costs them more to ship.
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Post by vegasjames on Apr 1, 2024 7:05:35 GMT -5
Looks like a desert rose, so could be either barite or gypsum crystals.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 17:46:22 GMT -5
Slabs
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 17:09:52 GMT -5
Looks interesting. Hoping you are going to polish so we can see what it looks like then. I cut the smaller pieces in to small slabs. Will get some photos shortly.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 17:08:19 GMT -5
Do you know what they are? The one on the left I think is a coral, and the right stromatolite. Both are pretty common here in Southern Nevada. Crinoids, bryozoans and fossil sponges are also pretty common here in Southern Nevada.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 17:04:25 GMT -5
vegasjames do you have names that go with the rhyolite images? Also, I did not know Goldfield Jasper ( #2 & #10 above) was a rhyolite. Thanks for the post. I am not a big rhyolites fan in general because many do not polish well but Goldfield Jasper is one of my favorites. Most the rhyolites do not have names, so I name some of them such as the fine grained multicolored ones I simply call confetti stone.
The green one took me many years to identify, and only comes from one small location not easy to access. About a mile hike up and down some very steep terrain to reach the main deposit.
Most of these rhyolites are from the Goldfield District (1, 2, 3, 8-14, 18-20). Some from the Gemfield area, but not the claim. I know several areas around Gemfield that have really nice common opal and rhyolite that is generally better quality. The material from the claim though is mainly rhyolite, known as sandstorm rhyolite or candy rhyolite, and there is some common opal, and green jasper at the claim as well.
The owners do have the material misidentified as "chalcedony". The only chalcedony at the claim is the dark green jasper. The colorful stones with flow banding is rhyolite, which gets the flow banding from the flow of the viscous lava. Chalcedonies are the dehydration product of opals and thus do not have flow banding.
These rhyolites do take an excellent polish. I water tumble them (no grit or polish) in the rotary tumbler for a month, then water polish them in the vibe tumbler for a week and they come out very glossy. I have done this with chalcedonies as well, which works, but they do not get as high of a polish. I think this is because the rhyolite is slightly softer being a mix of feldspar and quartz and so grinds a bit easier creating a smoother surface faster. I may just have to water tumble the chalcedonies longer to get more of a polish.
Here is a video of the water tumbled candy rhyolite. Water tumbling helps maintain more of the stones natural shape rather than rounding the stones, which tumbling with grit will do.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 16:44:19 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada. Best to get more Apache tear to tumble it with since you need more rocks to tumble since they need to rub against each other. And it would be hard to get the same hardness. If you are near Southern Nevada, there are several places to find abundant Apache tear that yo could full the tumbler up with. There are previous threads on here on tumbling these stones. As for the name, there is nothing disrespectful about the name. It is part of a Native American legend. owlcation.com/humanities/apache-leap-the-legend-of-apache-tears I am part Apache, my grandmother being full blooded Apache and Cherokee, born on the White Cloud Reservation. So, I am very much in to Native American tradition and do not find the name offensive at all.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 16:31:14 GMT -5
The metal rims on my old barrel were digging in to the rubber on the rods and damaging the metal rods as well, finally wearing the metal on the barrel rims til they broke. So I bought new barrels and this time I cut rubber strip and glued the strips around the metal barrel rims with Goop (super strong silicone compound) to protect the barrel rims and reduce damage to the rollers.
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Post by vegasjames on Mar 31, 2024 16:26:17 GMT -5
Welcome from Southern Nevada
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