r/southafrica • u/AdEducational5819 • 17d ago
Geologists of South Africa! Help me Id this “mystery ore” please. Was thought to be hematite but ruled that out with a streak test. Creates a black streak. Ask r/southafrica
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u/marcustia186 17d ago
Geologist here, difficult to tell with these photos. Some of the crystals appear to be translucent and others opaque with metallic/or matt lustre? Is this correct? Quite convinced I'm seeing crystals within the isometric crystal system (the latter), not sure about the first mentioned ones (translucent ones). As for the matrix, it is likely ultramafic/mafic, might be a few things. If you're able to send better photos I'd be happy to help.
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u/AdEducational5819 17d ago
Thanks for your comment! So I would agree yes that some of the crystals are more matte, specifically the tiny black ones and then there’s yellowish orange crystals which appear to be translucent or really just for the utter laywoman, they resemble that typical kind of citrine crystal, though I wouldn’t think actually citrine, just by way of reconciling the translucent nature.
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u/AdEducational5819 17d ago
I’ve had two people from other subreddits link this https://rruff.info/Sphalerite/R050140 Sphalerite. Though I’m not sure. I think I’m just stumped by the ore rock portion being so smooth on my rock, whereas the Sphalerite seems more bumpy. Though it is a zinc ore and ultramafic I believe.
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u/Left_Tackle688 17d ago edited 17d ago
Hard from the photos but my guess is the black fine grained mineral is chromite and the bigger crystals are pyrite (slightly oxidized maybe). Chalcopyrite doesn't form nice crystals to my knowledge and even a crappy magnet should be attracted to magnetite. If I'm correct then it's probably from the Bushveld Complext or the Great Dyke and there should be some PGE's in there.
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u/AdEducational5819 15d ago
Thanks ! Even in person it’s hard to figure out especially not having geographical info and just not familiar with testing methods in general but I did have a look at chromite and visually the similarities are there.
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u/Jason-Skyborn 15d ago
South Africanite
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u/AdEducational5819 15d ago
Must be a junk status rock then 🤣
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u/Jason-Skyborn 15d ago
You must know mos.
Its from the destroyed planet South Africa, the last remant of a medeor of hope for better economy.
Under the light of the braai fire, the rare south africanians have super human cooking and hungar(possibly other effects too).
The South Africanite is thier weakness, utilized by Lex Zuma as a weapon.
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u/AdEducational5819 15d ago
The imagination is strong with this one. I applaud 👏
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u/Jason-Skyborn 15d ago
We also have advanced quantum technology(taxi)
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u/AdEducational5819 15d ago
Well they certainly have advanced quantum overtaking and pushing in lanes skills 🥲
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u/RockerKEI 17d ago
Pyrite is cubic, this does not look all that cubic but can’t really see the crystal faces that well, bad photo. Where specifically did you find it?
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u/AdEducational5819 17d ago
I agree it’s not pyrite. Sorry, the photos aren’t high quality, was struggling to get my phone camera to focus. I didn’t find it so I don’t have location details, though I do know it’s likely local or in the broader Southern African proximity ( Maybe Zim for example). I’ve toyed with the idea of chromite but I’m not sure.
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u/AdEducational5819 17d ago
Some people have said magnetite which I think is possible but I only have one pathetic magnet on hand to test and it isn’t a good gauge for magnetic attraction.
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u/Robknowswhat 17d ago
I'm not a geologist either but it looks very similar to a sample of iron pyrite I had when I was younger
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u/Padre7 Western Cape 17d ago
Not a geologist, but it could be Chalcopyrite