Mystery Solution

[Curious2]

Being somewhat curious I discovered a local deposit of minerals not commonly seen in my area. I threw a couple of the more interesting ones in a PVC container and covered them with 100 ml. of common bleach (sodium hypochlorite solution). After a few days the liquid had a faint reddish tint. After a week of soaking the rocks the liquid has turned a beautiful pinkish-purple color. The rocks themselves look to be still solid with no slaking or crumbling.

I am pretty sure one of the minerals in these rocks is barite (white barium sulfate). There is a little Iron stain on some of it. There also appears to be small inclusions that look like obsidian. There is also some type of black mineral. I have seen galena (lead sulfide) in this area as well. I have also heard a rumor that there may be gold here too. The basic rock is some kind of basalt.

My question is what element would have a chloride that is colored pink to purple? I don't know what lead chloride looks like. I also don't know how sensitive this test is, i.e. if this solution is being colored by gold or some other trace element, does it only take a few micrograms in 100ml of bleach to make a highly visible color?

I will attach a picture of the solution after soaking the rocks for another week.

[John Cuthber]

Acording to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundances_of_the_elements_(data_page)

manganese is roughly 100,000 times commoner than gold.

Permanganate is pinkish purple.