流紋岩裏的自然金 Gold in Rhyolite－桃園親子教育博物館二

看似石英的流紋岩，實際上成分與花崗岩相同，只是結晶顆粒很小而已，自然金成長在流紋岩的產地並不很多，在我們博物館收藏數百件自然金標本中這是第二件。

Locality:

Vallenar, Huasco Province, Atacama Region, Chile

Class:

Crystals on Matrix

Size Range:

Thumbnail (1-3cm)

Size:

1.6 × 2.8 × 1.6 cm

Weight:

5.70gr

Description

Lustrous gold sheets on rhyolitic matrix. The specimen was originally from old Dr. Krantz stock, unfortunately there was no old label.

As the location is somehow obscure, I made some deeper investigations: Capote is an old mining area situated appr. 30 km NNE of Freirina village (between Huasco and Vallenar, Chile). It is not listed in mindat; in Google Earth, one can find some pictures of the abandoned mine unter the title "Capote, Mina abandonada". Some information (in spanish language) concerning Capote is available in the spanish wikipedia.