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VictorK
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Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Feb 3rd, 2018 at 11:14am
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This piece is from the eastern Slate Belt, just west of the boundary between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of N.C. The area's geology involves basalt flows through a granite matrix. The landowner asked that no exact location be given. This combination piece has a large area of iron mineralization - limonite on its surface, as well as some surface copper. There are tiny crystals with a lot of sparkle to them, which I believe are siderite. A close-up photo shows the yellow-brown siderate crystals, and some of these are infused with green from the copper.
  

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JoeM
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #1 - Feb 4th, 2018 at 3:58pm
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Very interesting, Victor, thanks for the pictures.
The color and clarity of your little Siderite(?) crystals makes me immediately think of Titanite? I wonder? I hope you take a closer look at that.
Now that "they" want to change the name of the "Slate Belts" in NC to "Carolina Terranes" I suppose it will be called the Eastern Carolina Terrane Belt? Whatever, it is a very interesting area. I used to spend a lot of time down that way when I was still artifact hunting. It can be very hard to recognize what is Carolina Terrane as so much of it is covered with Coastal Plain sediments.
  
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VictorK
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #2 - Feb 4th, 2018 at 6:48pm
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Joe,  These crystals are so small I couldn't test hardness or specific gravity, so "siderite" is a guess. It's hard to clearly see their shape in the photo, but they are rhombohedral crystals that intersect and have grown one on top of another -- and this makes their shape hard to recognize. So I thought of calcite, but the limonite-iron led to a guess of siderite.
  
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #3 - Feb 5th, 2018 at 8:07am
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Very interesting indeed.  I'd love to take a look at that with a loupe. Awesome find Victor. Thanks for posting!
  

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VictorK
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #4 - Feb 6th, 2018 at 9:12am
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Scott,   I'll bring the piece with me to the Tarheel Gem and Mineral show in April and you can look at it -- I'll have 2 tables to the far left of the main entrance.
  
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #5 - Feb 6th, 2018 at 1:31pm
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VictorK wrote on Feb 6th, 2018 at 9:12am:
Scott,   I'll bring the piece with me to the Tarheel Gem and Mineral show in April and you can look at it -- I'll have 2 tables to the far left of the main entrance.


Great! I'll definitely have to come out and check it out in that case.
  

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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #6 - Feb 7th, 2018 at 11:00am
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Great find
  
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VictorK
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #7 - Jul 7th, 2022 at 9:18pm
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July 2022 update:  I gave this specimen to NC geologist Kenny Gay to study and identify, and he sent it for an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.  The result is that these small surface crystals are the zeolite clinoptiloite.  Kenny said: Clinoptiloite has been reported from the clays of NC's Coastal Plain, but this will be the first report of a "hard rock" clinoptiloite.
  
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JoeM
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Re: Iron & Copper Minerals from Eastern North Carolina
Reply #8 - Jul 8th, 2022 at 1:58pm
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Thank you, and Kenny, very much, Victor, That is great information!
We have been missing that completely. Good to have something else to look for!  Smiley
  
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