Field Trip Report - [NOT] Magnetite in Jade

Thanks Randy. Your in better condition than I. I am coming back from an injury/surgery in 2009. The new medicine is certainly making me feel alive and vigorous. Maybe next time. NO. Strike that. NEXT TIME FOR SURE!!

I do have a plan for next trip including parking closer and the possible use of wheeled implements!

I would have carried the mountain on one shoulder and smiling...

Yeah, Scott, I was going to ask you if there was a way to find out if you had the magnetite sprays before carrying it down the mountain. Did chipping reveal any sort of patterns or fans in the rough at all?. The jade I had with little magnetite rods in it from Porterville would not attract a magnet when rough, but when slabbed, would attract a very light weight refrigerator magnet ( magnetic business card type) enough for it to stick to the slab.

I know how that is about condition. When I was mining poppy jasper up by our ranch, a neighbor used to let me take a shortcut up a road through their ranch. I could get close enough to use a wheeled cart to haul my take a couple of hundred yards. Then an NBA basketball player bought that ranch and gated me out of the road. So I figured, what the heck, I'd hike in the long way ( only a few miles) and pack my jasper back out. Went in and dug about 70 pounds, and buried about 20 of it as it was too sharp edged for the pack. Hiked out with my shovel, pick, sidearm etc. No way around it, I almost died. That was a very rough hike with lots of steep ups and downs. Sure taught me 60 yrs old ain't ain't 30. I was wheezing like a broken steam engine when I got back to the truck *L*. From then on I waited till it was dry and four wheeled it in......Mel

That is a compliment. Thank you.

But you went from creative photographer to movie producer! That mi amigo is a HUUUUUGE leap!

Mel, glad to see you survived the march of death jasper! I did not push myself nearly that hard. I was too busy trying to NOT FALL!! hahaha

I will still hold out hope something is inside. I can make rock class tuesday to cut it. MOre pix then!

Chipping? What's that?.... haha! That stuff would not chip! I was swinging a 22 ounce estwing rock hammer with all my might and a corner would not break off. Three blows to the same corner, no results. It was then I was pretty sure I have jade!

OK. I do not have nephrite!

I went to class tonight for the sole purpose of cutting up one of my jade stones. LarryB, the boss of our class, always loves a challenge and jade is certainly a challenge to identify. Everytime I find something oddball he takes me aside and talks my ear off, all the while pounding the stone to dust. He puts this into a carbon arc spectrophotometer. The powdered stone is placed in a ceramic tray, then the sample is maneuvered into the path of a low voltage high current arc. Then the light given off is read against known "films". These are literally films of spectra lines from various metals.

This is only qualitative analysis. We can see the qualities of the sample. It is NOT quantitive in that we cannot say percentages of the various elements.

The first thing we learned, because I was certain I had nephrite, was calcium. The sample lacked calcium. In fact the only two metals he saw were sodium and iron. Pure sodium-iron silicate is aegirite. It seems the nature of my sample rules this out and what is left is Jadeite. It's next in the series and more likely because jadeite is less pure than aegirite.

We did an SG too 3.4!

Daylight photos tomorrow We can see the color.

Last little note. I showed my trip report to some offroad motorcycle friends. They call that mountain "Nipple Mountain". Dunno why but they have been calling it that for 30 years. So I think I'll call my jadeite "Nipple Mountain Jade". Cannot wait to see it on daylight. Wanna see translucency.

Matt, I do have jade. Jadeite jade not nephrite jade. The sad part for me is it's not magnetite in jade...

I'l be back and take the mountain by storm. Nipple Mountain here I come!

Mel; You could be right. That was a topic of discussion last night. The synopsis was that ratios of iron to aluminum is a bit flexible. A solution series as it were. No solutions are perfectly the same every time.

Other factors came into play:

It seems Aluminum is difficult to see in this machine.

This stuff melted into a glass like jadeite. No aegirite for comparison!

It's certainly a rock and not a pure mineral.

So, what should I call it? I have no ego involved with this. Just wanna communicate well. Would it help to send you a sample?

Gee, I missed this post completely. Maybe this fall we can do a group day trip out there? I always wanted to find that material but heard the mine was filled in by the BLM. So much for stories.