New find

[mick B]

I live in a region of Australia that has many rhodonite deposits, today me and Margie found another new deposit on my property, its only pink but has some jasper mixed in, fine grain and some yellow, this is on a fault zone, not far from our local nephrite jade, does not come close to the blood red rhodonite my area has but great to find a new one on my own land.

[itsandbits1]

that's a nice mix with the manganese intrusions running through it. When I polish my local pink rhodo the manganese turns into little shiney lines and is quite striking against the pink in the sun

[slabbercabber]

That's some really nice material.  Hope you find it without the cracks.

[lithicbeads]

Our local rhodonite also turns to jasper in fault zones. The transformation has been studied by local geologists. The rhodonite slowly transforms into spreessartite garnet , the massive form, in a classic outside in weathering pattern. The garnet is usually yellow-gold but does occasionally have pink areas. The color saturation in the yellow-gold areas is a bit less than in your orange areas.

[mick B]

Thanks for your feedback, there are no cracks, they have been fused back together and rhodonite has formed in them, hope to find better deep color when we dig down, heaps of manganese on ground over a 20 meter area.

[finegemdesigns]

I really wouldn't call the better materials blood red though. More like intense deep pink IMO.

[mick B]

The Tamworth region where I live has produced some very good reds, ok may not be blood red but definitely red, very rare now, some I have done in the past, all these are fine grain, the cab belongs to my wife Margie.

[tkcaz]

Those carvings are beautiful, mick. Very jealous. 

[wyrock]

WOW Mick, I had seen the heart before (I think) but not the others. Off the chart with my favorite color.
Jim

[finegemdesigns]

Nice stuff.

[john likes rocks!]

 Mick nice to have somewhere to dig close to home have fun digging.

[mick B]

We wend back today to our new find, about 15 minute walk from our home steep country, we are only in the loose rocks on the surface still, HEAPS of manganese, big chunks, looks like coal, its exposed for about 20 meters in a large jasper outcrop, a nice pink piece Margie found today.

[mick B]

We think it may contain pyroxmangite, see those long strand crystals going through the jasper in the middle, this deposit sits on the peel fault, could easily be the case 

[Mark]

Kool stuff and on your own land.  I am jealous.  All we found on our small lot were some farm animal bones like from cows and horses, that the kids found while playing in the yard.

I have seen blood red gemmy specimens of Rhodonite and kick myself all the time for not buying one about 10 years back.  Beautiful stuff.

[mick B]

Thanks Mark, a pic of the piece Margie found cut.