How To Find Gold Nuggets
Searching for gold can be a very difficult task unless you know the signs of where gold might be present. Theoretically, gold can be found in many different places because the metals are not generated on Earth, but rather are the remains of ancient meteors and other sources from outer space that dropped gold onto the planet billions of years ago.
However, there are certain rocks and minerals that are associated with the location of gold which can help you zero in on a potential source. While the number of rock and mineral types number in the billions, there are only a relative few that are associated with the location of gold. This means by finding these rocks and minerals you can increase your chances of finding the gold as well.
What Does A Gold Vein In Quartz Look Like
Gold in quartz veins occurs as particles and scales scattered through the quartz, often filling cracks and openings in the vein material. The gold can be such small particles as to be invisible to the naked eye, or as larger aggregates of easy to see blobs, leaves and crystals in cavities in the quartz.
Conducting Home Gold Tests
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Is Gold Ore Real Gold
The Mineral gold. Much of the gold mined is actually from gold ore rather then actual Gold specimens. The ore is often brown, iron-stained rock or massive white Quartz, and usually contains only minute traces of gold. To extract the gold, the ore is crushed, then the gold is separated from the ore by various methods.
Why Is It Called Fools Gold
Fools gold is commonly called pyrite. Unlike original gold, the value of pyrite is close to nothing, but its appearance is similar to that of gold, successfully fulling people to believing it has a higher value. Pyrite is also readily available, making it way more affordable than real gold.
For ages, the name fools gold has been used by prospectors and gold buyers who found amusement in people easily fooled by pyrites appearance, hence thought that they found real gold. The ignorance of these individuals made them look foolish because they failed to differentiate gold from pyrite.
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How Can You Tell The Difference Between Gold And Pyrite
How can I tell the difference between gold and pyrite ? Color: Gold and pyrite both have a brilliant metallic luster, but are different tones of yellow. Gold is golden to silvery yellow, whereas pyrite is a pale to medium brassy yellow that sometimes tarnishes. Pyrite can also occur as shapeless grains.
Test Ductility And Sectility
If the potential gold in your rock is in large enough pieces one of the easiest and most telling methods to test for gold is checking how ductile it is. Real gold is much softer and more malleable than pyrite or other possible minerals like chalcopyrite or biotite.
This test is pretty simple. Find a decent sized chunk of the gold and see if you can dent or bend it with your fingernail. If it yields to your fingernail then it is almost certainly gold. The other potential minerals are much harder and more rigid and wont deform by you just pressing into it with your fingernail.
Similarly, real gold also displays a high amount of sectility. If youre like me and had never heard that word before, that means it is easily cut! If you can find a sufficiently large piece of the gold in your rock , take a steel razor blade or very sharp knife and attempt to cut into it. If the blade slices through then you have found gold! If not, its more likely that youre looking at pyrite or some other mineral.
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Put The Rocks Inside The Mining Pan
Pour some of the ground rocks into the mining pan. Resembling a colander, this pan comes with sifting holes at the bottom.
Due to the heaviness of gold, if you put it in water, it will sink while other additives or minerals will rise and drift away.
Therefore, put the pan into a large bowl of water. Push down on the pan in a manner that does not allow its contents to tip into the water. If you see the rock powder drifting away, let it. There is nothing wrong with that.
How Does It Reflect Light
You can also test gold by trying to reflect light on its surface. Most of the fake gold in the market will fail this test. Instead of glowing when shone with light, it reflects it like a mirror. Real gold doesn’t reflect light instead, it will glow nicely and be easy on your eye.
As mentioned earlier, you can try to put a shade over it. If it is fake, the brightness will disappear, and it will look dull and drab. Real gold, on the contrary, will retain its glow under a shade though it will look a bit diluted. This test is easy and will be highly effective for an investor.
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Melting And Sampling Spectrum Detection
Although this method requires more time, money, and effort, it is worthwhile. You may need a sample of real gold, another of the suspected gold, and a differential scanning calorimeter. With this test, you focus more on the behaviors of the two samples when you apply heat on them.
The heating properties of real and fake heat vary. So, you can note any differences when comparing the two side by side. It is a simple yet efficient way of testing gold since it only requires observation.
Use Of Electronic Machines
This method is one of the most precise ones for testing fake or real gold. Gold proprietors and even professional evaluators can utilize this method to tell the particular composition of your gold specimen.
If you opt to use electronic or XRF Thermo testing machines, make sure that they are in good condition to work so as not to end up with false results. Follow all the guidelines, as indicated by the manufacturers.
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Perform A Streak Test
Streak tests are another common method used in mineral identification. When rubbed against a streak plate minerals will leave a distinct color streak behind which can aid in the identification process. Gold leaves a distinct yellow streak, whereas pyrite leaves a rather ugly greenish-black streak.
To perform the streak tests youll need a piece of unglazed ceramic tile, such as the back of a piece of bathroom tile. Its important that the ceramic is not glazed because it needs to be rough and abrasive enough to wear away the mineral being tested.
Just like you did for the hardness test, youll need to find an edge or point of your rock where the gold youre testing sticks out enough to be able to rub it on the streak plate. Unlike the hardness test its okay if you rub some of the matrix rock along the streak plate as well. Quartz and pyrite are a little harder than the ceramic and might scratch and gouge it, so you can effectively push the rock into the plate to get the gold in contact with it.
Rub the rock along the streak plate for an inch or two and look at the color of the streak. If it leaves a really nice yellow-gold streak then youre in business youve likely found real gold! If the streak is any other color particularly the dark green-black that pyrite leaves then youve found pyrite or some other mineral.
Recognizing Gold Ore: What To Look For
Gold mixes with different minerals, which will affect the look of the ore. If you are looking for larger chunks of gold, stick to lode deposits, where plate tectonic activity has brought gold to the surface. Lode deposits usually form gold in larger veins, so it should be easier to see. Smaller flecks of gold are more common in placer deposit gold ore, which tends to look like that areas sedimentary rocks.
In mineral terms, cleavage is how a mineral breaks when subject to stress on a particular plane. Gold does not exhibit cleavage. In some cases, there will be clear evidence of quartz and sulfide minerals surrounding gold veins. Gold ore can resemble quartz with spotty areas of gold.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, gold is commonly mixed with silver and other metals. The ore may, therefore, contain sulfides like arsenic, copper, iron, and silver.
The ore does not commonly have visible shiny gold on the surface. Spotting it with the naked eye may not be possible. Using a jewelers loupe, it is possible to see flecks of gold sometimes.
Some forms of the ore are indistinguishable from their surrounding metals. Pyrite and arsenopyrite sometimes carry invisible quantities of tiny pieces of gold. Gold can also mix with other metals within the ore, and may only be revealed after mining is completed and testing can begin.
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Bring The Rock To An Assayer
If all else fails, or you dont have the ability to do any of these tests yourself, you can always take your rock to an Assayer. These are professionals that have been trained specifically for this task and they will be able to perform all of these tests and more to tell you all sorts of things about your rock and its gold content.
Still, I would generally advise against taking your rock to an Assayer. The fact is, finding a rock with significant gold content is a pretty rare occurrence, even if youre specifically looking for it. And even if you do find a rock with gold in it, the amount contained within the rock is not likely to be worth the cost of hiring an Assayer and extracting the gold.
If you have run some of the tests Ive discussed and you think your rock contains a decent amount of real gold then it might be worth taking it to an Assayer. They can give you a better idea of the quality of the gold and what your rock may be worth. That will tell you if its worth returning to the place you found your rock and possibly even staking a mining claim.
Other Minerals Can Fool You
Chalcopyrite and small pieces of biotite or phlogopite mica can fool you. Chalcopyrite has very similar properties to pyrite. It has a lower hardness than pyrite and a lower specific gravity than pyrite , but the same tests can separate chalcopyrite from gold. Chalcopyrite also has a greenish black streak.
Pyrrhotite is an iron sulfide mineral with a chemical composition of FeS. It has a high specific gravity, often has a brassy color, and a distinctly metallic luster. It is easy to separate pyrite and pyrrhotite because pyrrhotite is magnetic, is much softer, and if you can see crystals they will be a very different shape.
Many people are surprised that flakes of biotite or phlogopite mica can fool people into thinking that they are gold. This most often occurs when an inexperienced person is panning for gold and sees a bright flash in their gold pan. After chasing the tiny, highly lustrous flake, they think that it might be gold. However, slight pressure with a pin can break the flake of mica, but a tiny flake of gold will bend around the pin.
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How Deep Do You Need To Dig To Find Gold
The depth of the deposit is crucial
And for the mineralisation to be as long as possible, the deposit must be deep 3 km from the surface to guarantee a certain degree of insulation and a long magma life. Chiaradia observed that less than 1% of the gold is captured in the ores in the deep copper-rich deposits.
How Does Gold Look Like In Rocks
One of the most valuable items on earth today is gold. Wars have been fought for it lives have also been lost for the cause. The change in time and its seeming scarceness in nature have seen its stock rise in the market. Gold is an item that often feels heavy when you hold it on your palms. But one thing about gold is that its weight is not the only factor used to determine its authenticity. There have been times when people scampered for what eventually turned out to be fools gold all in a big to get gold. But how does gold look like in rocks? As an amateur, how can one identify genuine gold? Nearly everyone that has a thing for gold knows how it looks like. But raw gold is very different from processed gold which has been refined and melted.
How does gold look like in rocks?
Gold in rock can be difficult to differentiate from chalcopyrite, pyrite and sulfide minerals. There are several key indices. The first is that gold in rock usually has a corner, flat face or a straight edge. It is also malleable if you drag your fingers across whatever it is that you feel is gold, and it appears to give you a gentle tug on your fingers, then it must be gold. You should also get it wet and if it has a reflectance above ten times the sulfide minerals then it is probably gold.
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How Can You Tell If Gold Is In Quartz
In most gold ore, the gold is present in tiny specs, either within minerals like pyrite, or spread out free among the quartz. Normally even good, rich gold ore has no gold metal which is visible to the naked eye. The photo at left shows small particles of metallic gold in quartz taken from the mountains of Canada.
What Is Known As Fools Gold
Fools gold is the name given to pyrite. It got the name because it is equal to nothing in value even though it has a look that makes it look like gold to foolish people. There are a few ways you can use to decipher if it is pyrite or gold. There are a few tests that can help you ascertain if you are dealing with fools gold or not. The first test of difference is the presence of tarnish on pyrite. This is because most of the specimens of pyrite from nature will always have some measure of tarnish on its surface, small flakes or Nuggets of gold are often untarnished and bright.
In the aspect of color, pyrite comes in a brassy color while gold has a yellow to golden color. A number of the native gold around usually comes in an alloy of silver. If the silver content is quite high, the specimen is bound to have a whitish-yellow coloration. In terms of shape, Pyrite is generally gotten in angular pieces and they tend to have faces of the cube. Golden particles found in streams for instance always come in rounded edges. There is however some crystalline gold that shows traits of pyrite as well.
The third destructive test has to do with its ductility. Gold is known to be very ductile and this means that a small piece of gold will dent with a small pressure from a pin. Pyrites, on the other hand, will resist or even break the pressure. The final test is sectility. Gold can be cut using a sharp pocket knife while particles cant be cut.
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Is There Such A Thing As High Grade Gold Ore
Much of the material is low grade, but there is some material is high in grade. Barrick and Newmont control the most important properties in the area. These are crystals of Calaverite a gold, silver and tellurium mineral. This is very high grade gold ore from the Cripple Creek district in Colorado.
