Thread: Are there ever valuable inclusions found within Natural Stones?

The old copper mines in Southern Arizona like Bisbee and Morenci were started to process copper ore which was essentially low content ore found in the soil however before the open pits they were underground and much Turquoise was removed mostly by the miners with the blessing of the owners because looking for the Turquoise made the miners work harder and faster. Up in Alaska during the Klondike years initially they had problems refining the Gold because typical mercury processing didn't work because the ore was fouled by this heavy black sand. Once they modified the process they separated this nuisance sand and threw it away. It turned out that stuff was Platinum. it's very common a mining operation produces way more than one targeted product. often times many separate operations are going on in differing locations within the deposit and sometimes everything is all together in one small spot.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The old copper mines in Southern Arizona like Bisbee and Morenci were started to process copper ore which was essentially low content ore found in the soil however before the open pits they were underground and much Turquoise was removed mostly by the miners with the blessing of the owners because looking for the Turquoise made the miners work harder and faster. Up in Alaska during the Klondike years initially they had problems refining the Gold because typical mercury processing didn't work because the ore was fouled by this heavy black sand. Once they modified the process they separated this nuisance sand and threw it away. It turned out that stuff was Platinum. it's very common a mining operation produces way more than one targeted product. often times many separate operations are going on in differing locations within the deposit and sometimes everything is all together in one small spot.

Same thing with the open pit mines on the Iron Range in Minnesota. Hibbing, Virginia, Mountain Iron, Keewatin ....... they mined hematite and the taconite 'tailings' were refuse. The area was mined out of hematite and became depressed. Then years later a way was found to process the taconite pellets into iron ore cheaply enough that the area and the economy boomed. I worked up there out of the Duluth local for American Bridge in the '70s. Had quite a time.

All this mining talk reminds me of something I wanted to ask. The area where I live had coal mines (bitumous coal, I think). Is there any type of rock useful for razor honing associated with coal mines?

Very fine coal dust for stropping!
I don't know much about Missouri coal mines.

Of course coal is neither a rock or a mineral since it's organic though folks refer to it as a rock. Usually coal is associated with sedimentary rock. You can find shale associated with it. If your talking Anthracite coal that's beginning to get into metamorphic territory and in many of those areas in Pennsylvania especially you can find slate.

You need to look at the geology in the area you are interested. Often times the coal formed way after the surrounding rock so you could find almost anything. In Colombia Emeralds are found in between coal layers. Often times you will see various iron minerals.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Getting off topic but I learned about a famous mining town called Jachymov this summer in a documentary about uranium....The radium Marie Curie used was obtained from ore dug during silver mining in today's Czech Republic around Jachymov. The word dollar is derived from thaler which came from Joachimsthaller, the name of the silver coins minted in Jachymov.

If you talk about Jachymov and honing I can add something. A friend of mine who used to work there and is one of the honemeisters in that part of the world once told me that in depth of about 300 metres below was rock type simmilas if not the same to Thuris. Only bad par was that it was surrounded by radioactive uranium therefore unuseable.