First real outing with the GMT...success!

[sepoinak]

After training myself 40 to 50 hours on a very trashy beach with the GMT, I went out for some real prospecting. Within 10 minutes I got a good signal... 50% or less Iron probability... dug it up and behold...a fist sized rock with visible gold! I have pictures but cannot figure out how to shrink them to the 420 kb max photo size for uploading. Needless to say.... over the next few hours I found ALOT of this ?gold ore? I always assumed I would find the gold in quartz, but this was not the case. Most of the gold in the rock is very small with larger globs here and there. When I get a chance I will weigh a sample of the rock, crush it down and pan it to figure how much is there.

 

[sepoinak]

Alright... got some photos resized...any input/feedback on these rocks (ore?) would be great. Pictures do not do it justice.

 

[TheJawa]

Hi Sepoinak,
I would recommend soaking your gold ore specimen in some Wink Rust Stain Remover and see if improves your gold show. I, myself am having some difficulty spotting the gold in your picture but I wouldn't doubt that you may have found some. The Wink will remove the iron staining and reveal hidden gold. If you have an ultra sonic cleaner, that would help too.

Good Luck!

-Pat

 

[sepoinak]

In the top center photo the rock is a little larger than my fist. You can see the golden yellow flecks near the bottom center and bottom left. I am 99.9% sure that it is gold. It is not Pyrite. The majority of the gold in that rock you cannot see in the photo, and is a bit difficult to see with the naked eye. The photo of the rock on the upper right is of near identical composition, with only very small gold, nothing my camera would pick up well. I could not pack that one out as it is a bit larger than a basketball and very heavy. Thanks for the tip Pat...I will try to remove some of the oxidation, but it will be awhile as I am leaving on a vacation today. On a side note.. less than a quarter of the specimens I found that day were with the detector, most were visual. Some specimens rang out high iron probability, but some, as in the case of the top center photo specimen, was never more that 50% probability. This tells me that the detector was seeing something other than the obviously present iron. My hunting area was freshly gouged out avalanche chutes and their associated washes. The temperature was around 15 F which made digging tough and because of this I passed up many, many, many targets.

 

[TheJawa]

Hi Sepoinak,
You have to be wary of Iron ID on most prospecting metal detectors. I have seen them call highly decomposed iron as good targets and large gold nuggets as iron trash. A friend dug several small stones up that ID as good targets that looked like had small gold streaks in them.After clean up, the "gold" bits disappeared and clean iron revealed it's self. He was very disappointed.I would be very suspicious of the iron stone that you have in your pics until you try cleaning them up. By the way, I really love the terrain pics you took! What incredible views and beautiful scenery! ! Enjoy your Vacation!

-Pat The Jawa

 

[sepoinak]

Thanks for the feedback Jawa. I forgot I have some muriatic acid so I scraped a little of the suspected gold off a sample rock and gave it a little bath. Some of the metallic mineral seems to have dissolved but most of it remains. It has been over 4 hours and I can still see some golden flecks. Would this be a plausible test? I have no problem identifying placer gold but this hard rock stuff is fairly new to me. I am also new to detecting so I really appreciate the feedback.

 

[Dwayne2010]

Hi Sepoinak, you could try crushing the rock and panning it to see if you get color in the bottom of the pan?

 

[sepoinak]

Thanks for the feedback Dwayne. My original plan was to weigh a rock, crush it down and weigh the gold to get an idea of how much is in it, I just have not had the time. I have already chosen a sample that visually appears average out of the many hundreds of similar specimens I have found. I don't have a rock crusher or even a mortar and pestle, but when I have free time I will find a way to crush it. If it turns out to be a decent amount of gold, I will figure out if it is worth it to buy a crusher.... then I can finally put the dredge away and stay out of that cold water!

 

[Hoser John]

Wrap a piece in a old towel and beat with a hammer. Use 2 pieces of pipe,1 small enough to fit inside the other with a endcap on it,Drop in pieces and smash and bash,pan. Muriatic don't prove nuttn' man just eats some iron up slowly. Nitric-DANGER-is the acid you use to check. John

 

[sepoinak]

Finally crushed a bit of some of that good looking rock, and boy do I feel like a dip----. It is mostly pyrite, but there is some (very little) flecks of gold mixed in. My detector was reacting to the iron and I couldn't GB it out. Most of the "hot rocks" I find I can GB them out so the detector will ignore them. I am very familiar with pyrite and have many, many different specimens in my collection, from huge clusters and cubes to finely disseminated in rock...so this rock will be a new addition to my pyrite collection. In the area I prospect it is very common to find gold right up against pyrite and even "locked" inside it. I would not be surprised if there are better gold values in the sample, but short of cyanide leaching, I'll never know.