Hi,

Tim4D - you were right when you said the pock-mark rock looked like garnet in graphite.  You out-did the State Geologist!

I visited JoeM's rock shop and watched him cut the rocks and after a bit of inspection, that's what we concluded too.

Attached are a few pics of the rock's inside - some of them were polished up a bit by JoeM and some were not.

Cheers,
L82Play

PS: the yet-to-be-verified emerald has yet to be identified - more work required...but stay tuned.

wow-that a big pic - sorry, I'll have to figure out how to make it smaller.

Anyways - thanks JoeM for helping solve one mystery and we'll get to the bottom of the other one.

Cheers,
L82Play

CREEK CRAWLING ROCKS!

As for photo sizing, I'm lazy and just email the photos to myself. When the email program asks what size to send, I pick "medium" and that usually works.

Well, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this.
Santa didn't bring me a new camera for Christmas so I finally
had to break down and buy one.
These pics still are not much better than the initial ones Tim took with his phone
but I'm trying, and at least they will serve to get the ball rolling again
on this Historic Find.

The question is; Is this Wake County Emerald?!?
Streak- White, Mohs- 8

I know I have better pieces for comparison around somewhere,
but these will have to do for now.
Here are a couple of personally collected pieces for comparison from the
Crabtree Emerald Mine, Michell County, NC.
The first pic is of slabbed cab material.
The second is a little slightly polished "twin" emerald crystal.
And the last is another piece with a spray of schorl and a
patch of more similar, granular, looking green,
but we know this to be emerald, however degraded.

Thanks for asking Tim,
Yes, Streak- white, Hardness- 8, are for the piece from Pop-Pop Point.
Which means the black is probably Mica and not Graphite.
The hardness is a little more sketchy because of the rough, un-smooth surface to scratch,
but it looks to me like 7.5- 8.
I would love to "smooth" it down on one side to make a good
surface to scratch, but would want L82play to be present.

This piece is really looking like emerald to me, so I really don't want to do anything to it
until I know definitely. It may have to be ground down a little to positively identify.
I'm afraid it is time to visit the professionals.
If it does turn out to be emerald I'm calling the News and Observer!

These graphite and graphite schist beds are quite extensive in the Raleigh area. There is another one in Rocky Branch that runs through the park on Kaplan Dr.  I've found graphite of various purity, graphite schist with small rust iron garnets, even some kyanite. Occasionally you'll find a few rough quartz crystals and banded quartz in the stream bed.

Well, Scaro, thank you very much for your kind offer and,
since I don't seem to be making any headway, we will gladly take you up on it.
It would be nice to get positive confirmation on the piece.
Check with your prof and if it's a go we will get the Wake County Emerald Specimen to you.
It should be plenty big enough for you to get what you need for the testing and still have enough
of the specimen left for display in the Wake County Historical Museum,
along with Robert's, the finders, picture!

I'm also curious what you would call the emerald green mineral
on the chromite ore from Wake County? I'll get you a piece of it to study.
It may be the fuchite mentioned as a component of the ore
but I'm wondring if it could be Nickel Hydroxide, sometimes called Theophrasite?
Joe