Crystallized Native Gold, Pyrite, etc. - McLaughlin Mine, Napa Co., California For Sale

Gold + Stibnite in Calcite
McLaughlin Mine (Manhattan Mine), Knoxville Mining District, Napa County, California, USA
~ 4.5 x 4.5 x 3 cm, 40.01 gramsThis is a specimen of native gold crystals on/in a druzy quartz vein from a rare locality in California's coastal range. The flattened gold crystals grew on/in a thin vein of quartz crystals within the darker grey limestone host rock. The gold is well-crystallized. The metallic crystals visible within the grey limestone all appear to be pyrite.I coated this specimen with a dilute solution (approx. 5%) of the "conservation-grade acrylic resin" Paraloid B-72. The layer is so thin that it is ~not visible, and it should prevent the gold/electrum from tarnishing over time. Paraloid B-72 is inert, UV-resistant, non-yellowing, etc. It has a wide range of applications in museum conservation. It is also quickly and completely removable by rinsing with a solvent like acetone, if desired.
Ex. Gordon Nelson / Shannon Family Minerals.Adapted from Mindat:
The McLaughlin Mine is a former open-pit Au-Ag-Pb-Hg-Sb mine located in sec. 6, T11N, R4W, and in sec. 1, T11N, R5W, MDM, 2.4 km (7,900 feet) WNW of the Knoxville Mine. It was worked in 1863 - 1877, 1892 - 1905, 1916, 1927, 1932 - 1933, and 1936 - 1945. The mine extended from Napa into Yolo and Lake counties.
The McLaughlin deposit is a large hot spring-type gold deposit located in the northern Coast Ranges of California at the faulted lithologic contact between the Coast Range ophiolite and the sedimentary Great Valley sequence. The McLaughlin deposit is centered around the ophiolite’s sheeted vein complex, a large multistage vein swarm, localized in a dilation zone formed in the footwall melange. Metal zoning in the sheeted vein complex is highly telescoped. Gold and silver were concentrated in the uppermost 350 m of the workings, and the proportion of gold to silver decreases with depth. Gold is typically present as electrum and is associated with silver and base metal-bearing sulfosalts. Below 350 m, mineralization is dominated by small quartz veins with base metal sulfides.
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EMF10About me
My name is Jason Utas and I have been collecting and hunting for meteorites since 1998. I am currently a graduate student studying geochemistry at UCLA.Thanks for looking!
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