Spar Mine hole

[pwhole]

I've got a lump of that very stuff here - dark-green/brown mottling with pink calcite veins. Looks like a piece of very exotic birthday cake. And yes, I managed about five mins of the shouting, wished it would collapse there and then, and turned it off. 'Discovered' all those areas ten years ago and I'm sure we were just one of hundreds who had before that.

 

[droid]

A character called H. H. Arnold-Bemrose mentioned Toadstone as possibly being a corruption of the German 'Todtstein' 'dead rock' in 1894.


https://jgs.lyellcollection.org/content/50/1-4/603

 

[pwhole]

Some of the less dense varieties - from Pindale in the first two (with large calcite vein in the middle) and then Moss Rake. There's some pretty wacky stuff going on in that first one as the tuff seems to be within fractures in the vein - i.e. it was deposited long after the vein had formed. But where's the host rock in that case? The vein is also displaced vertically as the left wall is limestone, though there's only a scrap visible.

 

[mikem]

Or https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toadstone

 

[tomferry]

Moss rake is on my list of places to visit ! Have not seen the name since aditnow closed !

 

[Oscar D]

Dare I say it would be best if the place were sealed shut properly.

 

[braveduck]

There was a suggestion that where the Limestone and Toadstone met there were small amounts of Gold .
That would be a good place to check this out.

 

[pwhole]

I certainly have some tiny gold-coloured flecks in a very odd piece of mineral I found in there - I think it's baryte as it's very heavy, but it's white and it has a curved 'fibrous' structure with a green clay bedding split in it. There are inclusions of a dark brown-grey mineral that are definitely not fibrous, and the gold-coloured specks can be seen sparkling in those areas. I doubt even my macro lens can get close enough to show them up though. I guess it could just as easily be copper - not sure if pyrite would occur in those strata?

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Trying to learn about all this geological/mineral whatnot. In the pics above (thanks pwhole), a lot of it looks a very irony colour. Surely the "gold" has to be iron pyrites? Or does this pyrites versus real gold depends on if you pleased the knockers or not by leaving them a pair of boots?

 

[AR]

I certainly have some tiny gold-coloured flecks in a very odd piece of mineral I found in there - I think it's baryte as it's very heavy, but it's white and it has a curved 'fibrous' structure with a green clay bedding split in it. There are inclusions of a dark brown-grey mineral that are definitely not fibrous, and the gold-coloured specks can be seen sparkling in those areas. I doubt even my macro lens can get close enough to show them up though. I guess it could just as easily be copper - not sure if pyrite would occur in those strata?

Most likely iron pyrites if it's in association with volcanics, if it were chalcopyrite I'd expect to see at least some conversion to a secondary copper mineral.

 

[shotlighter]

Trying to learn about all this geological/mineral whatnot. In the pics above (thanks pwhole), a lot of it looks a very irony colour. Surely the "gold" has to be iron pyrites? Or does this pyrites versus real gold depends on if you pleased the knockers or not by leaving them a pair of boots?

As an aside, the presence of iron was seen by the "old timer" US prospectors as a good sign, especially when in quartz veins. It's said there that "gold rides an iron horse".

 

[Cantclimbtom]

As an aside, the presence of iron was seen by the "old timer" US prospectors as a good sign, especially when in quartz veins. It's said there that "gold rides an iron horse".

Thanks, not heard that before, I'm learning a lot here

 

[Brains]

There is pyrite within the rotted volcanics, there may also be some secondary alteration to micaceous material. Amphiboles can appear fibrous and again form as a replacement in basic igneous material

 

[Mark]

When we were working Salad Bowl, as it was affectionally known we would quite often come across fluorite crystals with marcasite and Pyrite inclusions.

This was mainly found in the replacement deposits around Bow Rake

 

[pwhole]

I'll take some photos of this lump tomorrow in daylight and see if I can get close enough to pick it out. Might get closer with a telephoto rather than a macro.

 

[AR]

Think I've got a specimen of fluorite with pyrite inclusions somewhere, though from a different location in the Peak.

 

[pwhole]

Here's a few photos of that lump I mentioned, with flash and natural light. The metallic deposits are in the brown-stained inclusions. The piece is very heavy - it fits in the palm of my hand but weighs 430g, so I assume the majority of it is baryte, but I haven't seen this structure before, and the break in the 'wave', at the tiny bedding is really nice.

 

[Fishes]

Think I've got a specimen of fluorite with pyrite inclusions somewhere, though from a different location in the Peak.

I got similar samples from Ladywash when it was still working.