Crstyals from a diggers waste pile.

[Gilaoro 318]

Found these where they had been discarded off of Vulture mine road. They are the best of 3  ,5 gallon buckets of waste material apparently from a pocket. Not nearby. Quite a mixture  I can not ID all of them.  ?Morlock? Anybody?

 

[Mike C... 706]

Wow those are some nice crystals  Mike C...

[4meter 200]

Very

 

Nice collection of crystals Mike!

Best guess based solely on the photos:  Mostly Beryl, some Apatite, Topaz (?), iron stained Quartz and a piece of Hornblende with some other mineral on it  (see attached, annotated photo).

Edited May 26, 2020 by 4meter
better image

[Gilaoro 318]

Thanks 4meter, There is a mining operation about 1 mile away that is actively mining and crushing some and some type of material. They have surrounded the operation with a high waste rock berm and have a gate guard and will give out no info. One day at the nearby intersection with the road to I-10 one of the trucks hauling the product was broken down and I stopped to see if he needed any help and asked him what it was that he was hauling.He told me it was his first day but that his understanding was that it was used as a flux for a smelter operation in Phoenix. He knew nothing ,not even the name of the operation. There are some club gold claims to the east of the mine and roads everywhere , I have checked for miles around but can find no outcrops of a pemegite (And very little gold). My suspicion is that someone was doing a little night time highgrading and where parked where I found the pile. I have worked harder for less results!

[4meter 200]

Great find for a pile of dirt!  There sure is a lot of nice minerals up there in the Vulture Mine area.  One day I hope to get up there and do some digging myself.

[Sonoran Dave 2,139]

Max,

Nobody I have asked, knows much of anything about that place. An armed guard for flux minerals smells odd though. 

[Gilaoro 318]

1 hour ago, Sonoran Dave said:

Max,

Nobody I have asked, knows much of anything about that place. An armed guard for flux minerals smells odd though. 

  Thanks for checking on it Dave ! I won't say that I've never high graded some mining company's dump  before but I sure would not tackle this one!  Who ever did had to walk a long way and I have noticed that it is lighted at night when I have passed coming back from the  Eagle Tails . I agree that its odd and that a truck driver on his first day hauling didn't know what and who and where . Everyone has their right to privacy though.  But I would bet that Clay could find out  They don't have to worry about me, it's hard to push a walker through the desert.

[clay 1,029]

I'm pretty sure that mining operation is one of the Custom Landscape Materials quarries. They sell boulders and decorative rock through their retail division West Valley Rock. I've bought several tons of gravel from them through the years.

They buy the rock material from the BLM and pay them for the tonnage and type of rock they remove. They've been mining there since 2005 or so. You can see how much they mine and what they pay for it on the BLM Serial Register page for the material sale. As you can see there they put in a well. The guards/gates are to protect their considerable investment in on site mining equipment.

You don't need "Clay" to answer these questions. The fine folks at Land Matters provide all the information and links to mineral ownership, claims, leases, sales, mining plans/notices and a lot more for Arizona on the Arizona Land Status Map. Just zoom into the area in question and click the button for more information.

[Dakota Slim 1,067]

I recall hearing about some people in CA who operated a "gravel quarry" because they could get a permit for that but not for gold mining.  

[Sonoran Dave 2,139]

13 hours ago, clay said:

I'm pretty sure that mining operation is one of the Custom Landscape Materials quarries. They sell boulders and decorative rock through their retail division West Valley Rock. I've bought several tons of gravel from them through the years.

They buy the rock material from the BLM and pay them for the tonnage and type of rock they remove. They've been mining there since 2005 or so. You can see how much they mine and what they pay for it on the BLM Serial Register page for the material sale. As you can see there they put in a well. The guards/gates are to protect their considerable investment in on site mining equipment.

You don't need "Clay" to answer these questions. The fine folks at Land Matters provide all the information and links to mineral ownership, claims, leases, sales, mining plans/notices and a lot more for Arizona on the Arizona Land Status Map. Just zoom into the area in question and click the button for more information.

I went to Land Matters this morning Clay,  to see if I couldn't find something out for Max and noticed something odd. I think the one Max is talking about is different than that bigger landscape rock outfit. If you head S on Vulture mine rd past the Vulture mine you come to a crossroads at Aguila rd. If you were to go straight through instead of staying on the main rd...it heads towards the old Belmont mine. Before you get to the Belmonts there is a substantial sized pit off the west side of the rd. The map at Land Matters says BLM managed land, but no claims on that pit area at all. In fact...no records at all! Just the BLM designation. Could that be something being mined for the Gov/Military? Something being keep quiet? Or more than likely I'm doing it wrong...

[adam 3,127]

Out by Casa Grande Mountain I dumped two 5 gallon buckets of old self collected mineral specimens that I did not have room for any longer. Someday someone will find them, and will be confused as to where they came from.

[Morlock 1,678]

I found this online for all the amateur geologists we have on this forum.

16804.pdf

[clay 1,029]

1 hour ago, Sonoran Dave said:

I went to Land Matters this morning Clay,  to see if I couldn't find something out for Max and noticed something odd. I think the one Max is talking about is different than that bigger landscape rock outfit. If you head S on Vulture mine rd past the Vulture mine you come to a crossroads at Aguila rd. If you were to go straight through instead of staying on the main rd...it heads towards the old Belmont mine. Before you get to the Belmonts there is a substantial sized pit off the west side of the rd. The map at Land Matters says BLM managed land, but no claims on that pit area at all. In fact...no records at all! Just the BLM designation. Could that be something being mined for the Gov/Military? Something being keep quiet? Or more than likely I'm doing it wrong...

Right spot wrong map. You are showing the mining claims map. Try using the Arizona Land Status Map I linked to in my previous post.

That's the same sales site I posted Dave. Material sales are not mining claims. You can't locate a mining claim for sand, gravel or boulders - you have to purchase the material from the U.S. and pay for what you extract.

Just go to the same spot on the Arizona Land Status Map map, turn on the  information tool and click on the map. You will get a listing of all the land status information including links to the Serial Register page for that material sale. You will find that mineral material sale under the BLM Active Land Cases table item in the information result window that pops up when you use the information tool.

Land Matters has maps that just show one aspect of land uses like Mining Claim Maps, Topo Map downloads, or the Meteorite Map. The new format Land Status maps are our attempt to provide all the land status issues at your point of click on the map - like material sales.

Edited May 30, 2020 by clay

[Gilaoro 318]

To answer both Clay  & Dave , Yes I found the page and Clay is 100%  right as usual! That is the tight spot and may I point out that the picture is dtd 2013 &  I was out there the last time late 2012.  At that time there were no fancy trucks hauling , just the average contract hauler. No info from the gate tender. Only sign was to the effect of saying for admitince call ####### .Too many HUGE machines running around for me in a Geo Tracker even on the road back to  the main road , after you pass the rock pit road the only limit is the vechile you are using and the wilderness areas. Other than ranchers I seldom saw any one, the ATVers make new trails every where so it all may be closed to all by now. I no longer have a 4 x 4 . I stay home and take care of my wife and think a out the days of complete freedom to hit the road and find new prospects , at lest untill it Was time toget a real paying a salary type job so i could go back to "Full Time Pfospecting" as it,s called when you  have enough income to support the habit regardless of what you call it. I enjoy the forum and the way some one always has an answer to a question.

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Gilaoro
misspelling

[Sonoran Dave 2,139]

Thanks Clay! I learned something new this morning