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Field Collecting2000lb+ quartz boulders that i cant break

6th Apr 2015 08:40 UTCRyan Allen

Hello, In the past few seasons of rock hounding ive come across several places that have huge quartz boulders. They are quite spread out over a 5km area and are almost all rounded and weathered on the outside. Some contain pyrite veins that are 6 inches across or more. They are laying in soft sand and are so far completely immune to anything ive thrown at them. Ive tried sledge hammers n chisels but the only place i can get the chisel to bite is in the pyrite veins and im trying to save them. Just trying to crack it with mighty swings is useless as the hammer literally bounces back at you with almost the same force. The soft sand does not help as it just eats up kinetic energy. They are just to spread out to bring in a big drill and expanding mortar so ive been contemplating another way. They prob wont produce top notch material but its peaked my curiosity so i will find a way. Anyone here found a better way to get into big rounded boulders? Im thinking of trying tannerite but the hard part is using enough to get a crack started but not too much as to blow it all to smithereens. Anyone here ever try anything like this? I know tannerite is not really a great thing to use for mining but its something i can buy locally for about 12 bucks a pound and according to what ive seen on youtube it might just work. Before anyone starts into the safety end of it im thinking maybe a 2lb charge put in a hole underneath with just enough exposed to get a good shot at 150 yards. Im thinking i just need enough to get a crack started then i can beat and pry bar my way in. So what do you folks think? Would even a small boom damage the massive pyrite to the point of being not worth the effort?

Thanks

6th Apr 2015 10:40 UTCPeter Nancarrow 🌟 Expert

Quartz is harder and less brittle than pyrite, so whatever method you use which would crack or break up a large quartz boulder in situ (except maybe by slow and careful chiselling) is likely to shatter the pyrite veins as well.

I would say that your chances of extracting the pyrite veins intact with sledgehammer or explosives, (or by hiring a helicopter to drop one of your boulders from a great height onto solid rock!) are very small.

Pete N.

ed. for spelling

6th Apr 2015 11:28 UTCRyan Allen

Thanks Peter, some of the veins are as big around as a tea saucer and 4ft long so i doubt i could carry them back anyway. Im just looking to get some fist sized chunks instead of chips.

6th Apr 2015 12:59 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

I would imagine fist sized pieces of the pyrite are possible with some careful chisel work as Peter suggested. However, extracting anything out of quartz can be a slow, painful effort, so you'll have to decide if it's really worth your time and effort to mess with these or try to locate something a little more manageable to work with.......

8th Apr 2015 13:28 UTCcascaillou

what about using a rotary hammer (with drill-bit) to drill a serie of holes, and then place a set of wedges & shims into the holes, and hit those with the sledge hammer so to split the rock?

8th Apr 2015 15:17 UTCSam Linton

I agree with the pyrite smashing apart with blows of a sledge or explosives. If you don't really care about that, perhaps you can try a heavier sledge. I use a 20lb sledge to break up boulders in quarries. These things are between 4-6' square. They take time to break up and a decent amount of the force is "bounced back", but most yield in time. The force probably is not being absorbed by the sand though it is a big boulder... I doubt you are hitting it that hard. :) Maybe consider a generator to operate a drill. Then use ezebreak micro-blaster. That would provide a more precise blast that slapping on the explosive to the outside. Plus, the force would be distributed through the rock instead to across the surface and into the air. You sure must want the pyrite... that's a lot of work for it :)

8th Apr 2015 18:02 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

The easiest way is with a micro-blaster http://www.blasterstool.com/microblaster.aspx , the next easiest is with a concrete saw and wedges.

8th Apr 2015 19:40 UTCWayne Corwin

Ryan

It sounds like the over hardness of your quartz boulder makes me think it might be quartzite.

If so, a 20 lb sledge would be what i would use.

If it's massive pyrite, your not going to hurt it much and I would try hitting the quartz next to the pyrite.

Once you get a piece to chip out of the boulder, it will be easyer to crack it.

The micro-blaster is also an excelent choice also ;-)

9th Apr 2015 14:56 UTCcascaillou

https://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,6,406630,406661#msg-406661

9th Apr 2015 18:28 UTCMatt Courville

For a very simple practical approach you could buy a $20 drill-chiesel bit piece from Home Depot/Rona/etc. and use the stronger chieseling ability of this carbon steel to chip enough edges to get a nice grove. Then use a large sledge in that grove to split the rock.

It'll be a lot of work, but likely much cheaper than the other great suggestions;)

Matt

9th Apr 2015 18:42 UTCcascaillou

yep, cheaper is better. The problem with all methods I suggested is that, unless there's already a fracture in the rock, you will need to drill holes first. Which means you need to buy and carry the drilling equipment and its power source. This being said, in the past, miners were drilling holes by hand. The method for that is to use a large and very sturdy chisel (or much better, a real mining prybar), after each hit you rotate it 90° and hit again...and repeat the process for a very long time.

9th Apr 2015 18:44 UTCSam Linton

Yep, that's why I suggested the 20lb sledge first. I use mine all the time in quarries. I actually wanted a 30-40lb one but I could not find one. However, the 20lb one does some serious damage considering. Good luck!

10th Apr 2015 05:33 UTCWayne Corwin

Sam

I took two 5 lb steel plates, and welded them to each side of my 20 lb sledge :-D

I Guess you could do that with two 10 lb steel plates also :)-D

But you should work up to a 40 pounder ;-)

10th Apr 2015 11:11 UTCSam Linton

Thanks for the suggestion Wayne. Seems kind of dangerous. I don't know if I trust anyone's welding skills enough to risk it flying off. I am sure I can handle the 40 pounder though... I can accurately break rock with the 20lb sledge using it one handed... I don't play around when it comes to lifting weights. :)

12th Apr 2015 19:13 UTCBarry Miller

It really does not sound to me like it's worth it. I wouldn't bother collecting there.

12th Apr 2015 20:21 UTCOlivier Langelier

Where in Canada are you? If not too far perhaps I could come give a hand this spring/summer,

I have a Pionjar drill/jackhammer and super size wedges

22nd Apr 2015 17:29 UTCRyan Allen

Thanks for all the great suggestions folks! Think ill try and punch as many holes as i can with my smaller cordless drill and let winter/ice take care of the rest. Access with anything more than you can comfortably hike with is an issue. With time running out and water levels rising i have to devote all my attentions to my other (feldspar?) honey hole. Olivier im in vale mount BC and there is far better adventures to be had this time of the year if your up for it :-)

23rd Apr 2015 15:57 UTCWayne Corwin

Ryan

If your going to "punch as many holes as i can with my smaller cordless drill and let winter/ice take care of the rest",,, you should take some tapperd, oven dryed, oak dowls, slightly bigger in diameter than the holes you drill. Drill your holes in a strait line where you want it to crack, pound your oak dowles in real tight, when they get wet,, they will swell and crack your boulder over time ;-)

13th Feb 2018 04:52 UTCDana Allen

Hi Ryan,

I have busted up many quartz boulders, some 8'x8' (Omega Mine Washington CA). They are generally harder to drill, hard on SDS drills but boulders break very easy. Same in mines on quartz veins. How I bust them is with SierraBlaster. A system costs $725 and requires no explosives license.

Here is a 2 min video of about 10 boulders being broken http://www.sierrablaster.com/ It can be as fast as 5 mins, drilling and blasting, and again without a license. It can be sent to you UPS. I do small scale gold mining and for full disclosure invented it because needed it for removing boulders too big to winch while dredging. There are as many using it for hardrock as placer now. Hope this info is of use.

14th Feb 2018 12:57 UTCjeff yadunno

i met someone at the miller property, sebastopol

they had a 40lbs rock maul

it was blue, one side flat the other with a slight wedge shape to it

i was showing him my wood splitting technique with it.

since i did not have steel toes on i could not take an actual swing with it

man did i ever want to though!

searched around for a while but was not able to track down the rock hammer

14th Feb 2018 13:37 UTCChester S. Lemanski, Jr.

Cascaillou is right on! Portable drill with carbide drill & then feather & wedges. You will be surprised how big a rock you can dismantle using this non-explosive method.

Chet Lemanski

1st Mar 2018 20:17 UTCTim Jokela Jr

As you're in BC, I'd strongly suggest not bothering with massive pyrite.

Put your time, energy, and gas money into finding jade, smoky quartz crystals 2' long, aquamarine, or something worth the effort.

Having said that, there are many ways to break rock. It's hard to beat a gas-powered Cobra with feather and wedges, but that's fifty pounds to haul in, and that's just the drill, not much fun. The Micro-Blaster, Sierra Blaster, expanding concrete, will all work and are much more portable, but I can't see anybody spending five hundred or a thousand to bring home some massive pyrite; you could get a few hundred pounds of it from Peru for that price.

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