Wild Earth Treasures

Blasting Exposed the Other Side of This Cliff
This pit sits directly beside the pit where we found tourmaline, garnets, pegmatite and areas containing sulphides. It’s the same cliff wall, but this is the opposite side after blasting exposed it. These dark bands cutting through the lighter rock give us a completely different view of the geology continuing through the wall.

people would walk right past this iron-stained section of the cliff. Prospectors see something different. Iron staining, quartz veins, fractures, and pyrite can all be important geological clues, but no single feature tells the whole story. It’s the combination of clues that tells us whether an outcrop is worth investigating further.

Would you sample this? Tell me why or why not in the comment.

This blasted pegmatite boulder contains quartz, feldspar, and black tourmaline—minerals that reveal how the rock formed deep underground millions of years ago. Every rock has a story if you know what to look for.

Most people would walk right past these rusty rocks. Prospectors don’t.

Steve picked up this piece of gossan and broke it open to reveal chalcopyrite—a copper sulphide mineral that can be an important clue in mineral exploration. Gossan forms when sulphide minerals weather, leaving behind the rusty iron-stained rock that often catches a prospector’s eye.

Would you have stopped to look at this rock?

👍 Follow for more geology, prospecting, and mineral exploration videos from Newfoundland, Canada.

We were on our way to film our upcoming Dover Fault video when this rock formation made us stop the boat. All I could see was a giant dog’s head carved by nature!

What do you see? Let me know in the comments.

Follow Wild Earth Treasures for more geology, prospecting, and amazing natural discoveries from Newfoundland.

We followed a single rusty, mineralized boulder until it led us to the source—a quartz vein packed with chalcopyrite and other sulphides at Rodney Pond, Newfoundland.

In this video, you’ll join us in the field as we examine the vein, discuss what we’re seeing, and finally reveal the laboratory assay results. Did the geology tell the right story?

If you enjoy prospecting, geology, mineral exploration, and learning how prospectors read the rocks, you’re in the right place.
Full video on YouTube
https://youtu.be/6DLzPORGUQM?si=XPFqbDk69wfYY9Z6

👍 Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments:
Before watching to the end, what do you think the assays will show?

Why is this rock rusting? We found this large rusty outcrop along the Dover Fault and took a closer look to see what the rocks were telling us. Iron staining like this can form when sulphide minerals weather near the surface, creating a gossan. While a gossan doesn’t guarantee gold, it can be an important geological clue that prospectors investigate.

Follow Wild Earth Treasures for more geology, prospecting, and mineral exploration videos from Newfoundland and beyond

#

A look at a large gossan zone along the Dover Fault. The rusty orange and yellow staining can be a sign of sulphides breaking down and mineralized fluids moving through fractured rock. For prospectors, gossans are important clues — but they’re only part of the bigger geological story.

A narrow mineral-filled vein cutting through the host rock. These little veins can tell a big geological story — the rock fractured, fluids moved through, and minerals were left behind as the crack opened and healed. This is the kind of clue prospectors and rockhounds pay close attention to in the field.