Potatoe rock question

[MassSaltH2O]

Greetings. I'm just getting into prospecting. In addition to gold nuggets, I look for what I call potatoe rocks.
Potatoe rocks are hot rocks, or any rock that catches my eye. I collect them and save them for further analysis at home.
I found a potatoe rock that is roundish, about the same size as a medium 'tater. Hence the name "potatoe" rock.
One can see what appears to be many gold flecks in a dark quartz on the surface of the rock.
I busted the rock into four pieces.
It has a very large light yellow quartz center.
One can see lots of what appears to be very many gold flecks thruout the entire rock.
So I did a Specific Gravity test on the smallest piece.
The results are that there is approximately 1.25 Oz. of gold in the entire rock.
My question is, what would you do at this point? How can we best recover this gold?
One idea would to hammer or otherwise crush this rock into smitherines. Then the gold would have to be panned out, I imagine.
Another idea might be to bust the rock up into small pieces and send them to a refiner, such as American Refineries.
I dont even know if they would accept this. They seem to be focused on melting down jewerly, and possibly some coins.
Any ideas? Thank you, Kev

 

[Flintstone]

Hi h2o, before you start spending your money, make sure it is not fools gold. I have fround lots of rocks that you would swear was gold. take a hammer and beat up a small piece and put it in a pan add water and start to pan. If the gold don't stay on the bottom of pan it is not gold. Take it out side in the sun, see how it shines, now put your hand over to shade it dose it go away? If you can't see it in the shade it is not gold. Anouther way take the biggest pice you can find and hit it with a hammer, did it flatten out or did it just crush up in little pieces? If it is in little pieces it is not gold. Lots of ways to tell if it is gold or not. I know when I first stared prospecting I dug a 5gal. bucket full of what I though was gold, worked my as? off. A old prospector said SON IF THERE WAS EVER A FOOL FOR FOOLS GOLD YOU ARE IT. That was about 25 years ago, and now I can laulf at myself. Hope it is gold for you but dout it.

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Thank you Flintstone. Very good advice!
I'll do what you suggest. Thanks again.
HH. Kev

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi Flintstone. I busted up a piece of that potatoe rock.
Looks like you were right.
It just broke into dust. I couldnt find a large enough piece to hammer.
And when I put my hand over it, I didnt see any color.
Thank you very much for your guidance. I learned a lot.
HH Kev

 

[Flintstone]

Hi H2o, glad you frond out before you spend money to send it off. Sometimes it is hard to tell what it is unless you know some tricks. I have been hunting that yellow metal for about 20 years. If you find gold you will see how it acts, very different from your rock. Keep after it, hope you find a mother lode. flintstone