this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
27 points (88.6% liked)
Geology
390 readers
1 users here now
For all things geology, including serious discussions, memes, field photos, rockhound questions, and more. See also: Mining, Geophysics, Geology Careers, and [email protected]
General rules: must be geoscience related; must adhere to lemmy.ca moderation rules; no pseudoscience.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Found it in gravel that likely came from copper tailings if that helps.
Copper tailings, you say? It could be a sulfate precipitate of some kind. Probably a mixture of anything and everything, with lots of iron in it. If so, the crystals would be more or less water soluble. If so, you really need to skip the lick test.
Iron sulfate is usually nice and green, but contaminants tend to alter the color. Also, there are other green sulfate compounds, so narrowing it down without XRF can be tricky.