Specimens

[sierra_ronin]

As I said in my forum post from Monday "My First Quartz Gold Specimen" I would be posting photos of my specimens over the next few weeks. Here I have some images of the second specimen I found in the heart of the mother lode near a historically productive area.

 

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[Reed Lukens]

Right now they look like regular hard rock mine quartz chunks. To make them into specimens you should either use hydrofluoric on the quartz and get rid of it or crush it up and get the gold out of it.
Specimen Gold -


Hard rock Gold to be crushed -


The reason that I say this is because even though there is specimen gold that comes out of the veins, a couple of yours are broken rock ready to be crushed for the gold content. Plus this would be a good way for you to see how close you are. With me, I got bored with all of my hardrock samples and this one pictured was actually one big piece. I know that even though I can see gold in it that it truly isn't a specimen. And at one time it looked like this -


Sorry it's so small but that's a 1.87oz nugget above about 2" long.
Then I broke it into -

 

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[sierra_ronin]

Right now they look like regular hard rock mine quartz chunks. To make them into specimens you should either use hydrofluoric on the quartz and get rid of it or crush it up and get the gold out of it.
Specimen Gold -
View attachment 1135773

Hard rock Gold to be crushed -
View attachment 1135775

The reason that I say this is because even though there is specimen gold that comes out of the veins, a couple of yours are broken rock ready to be crushed for the gold content. Plus this would be a good way for you to see how close you are. With me, I got bored with all of my hardrock samples and this one pictured was actually one big piece. I know that even though I can see gold in it that it truly isn't a specimen. And at one time it looked like this -
View attachment 1135776

Sorry it's so small but that's a 1.87oz nugget above about 2" long.
Then I broke it into -
View attachment 1135778

Reed,

Thanks for the reply. I haven't crushed them yet because I was under the impression that they could be worth more money intact. I am I mistaken? I'm new to this.
Did you you crush down your hard rock quartz down all the way and extract the gold?

Thanks

 

[huntsman53]

Reed,

Thanks for the reply. I haven't crushed them yet because I was under the impression that they could be worth more money intact. I am I mistaken? I'm new to this.
Did you you crush down your hard rock quartz down all the way and extract the gold?

Thanks

Some of your' specimens are surely worth more with the Gold intact while others may not be! This is where you have to determine which are which and leave some with the Gold intact, crush the others and pan out the Gold or just say the heck with it and keep them all as is. Most folks will have different opinions on this but the fact remains, that some Gold in Quartz specimens are true pieces of art by God and Mother Nature and are worth more with the Gold intact. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and hopefully you will find someone that sees beauty in the specimens, if you ever decide to sell them.


Frank

 

[goldog]

Something doesn't add up. Have you determined a SG of similar nearby barren rock? If Reed is right which seems likely the host rock should be over (iron) not under. Although air pockets within could throw things off.

 

[sierra_ronin]

Something doesn't add up. Have you determined a SG of similar nearby barren rock? If Reed is right which seems likely the host rock should be over (iron) not under. Although air pockets within could throw things off.

Testing nearby rocks is a good piece of advice I never thought of that thanks, that could be helpful. As for air pockets I know that the rock I noted as "Specimen 3" has air pockets. When testing the wet weight there were small streams of air bubbles being released from the quartz. After about 2min I got frustrated and just took down the figure and used that number for calculations, there were still air bubbles being released at that moment.

Also in researching quartz rocks I found there is some range in the density but some of the varieties of quartz with lower densities are somewhat rare.

 

[sierra_ronin]

Some of your' specimens are surely worth more with the Gold intact while others may not be! This is where you have to determine which are which and leave some with the Gold intact, crush the others and pan out the Gold or just say the heck with it and keep them all as is. Most folks will have different opinions on this but the fact remains, that some Gold in Quartz specimens are true pieces of art by God and Mother Nature and are worth more with the Gold intact. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and hopefully you will find someone that sees beauty in the specimens, if you ever decide to sell them.


Frank

Frank,

As time goes by it seems my opinion is lining up with yours. Crush some and sell the others as whole pieces. If I can find a buyer of course.

-Shane

 

[Reed Lukens]

You may find a buyer because a fool and his money are soon parted but most of what you have is simple hardrock. You could cut it into cabs and that would have resale as long as there is gold in it but mostly you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Because you need a nice specimen to cut into cabs and then you can make upwards of $1000.00 a gram in some cases but many cabs are worthless to anyone else other than the owner because for the most part it's quartz. My dad wanted me to sell this cab for him but just the tip of it had visible gold so I told him the truth. Just because it's cut doesn't mean it's worth anything... We went round and round and he told me that he would sell it because being that I'm honest, I refused to sell junk. He ended up giving it to one of his grand kids or the cousins I think after it didn't sell. I mean just because it was a piece of quartz with a fractional amount of gold in it from the Morning Glory, which is the parent mine to the Original 16 to 1 doesn't make it worth anything... Like the gold piece above that also came out of the mine, it's a chunk of gold, it's just that, not a specimen, in fact because it hasn't been cleaned and melted down into a bar it's actually worth less because there is still iron and other metals attached to it. It's just a piece of hard rock gold that came out of the vein. Crush it, melt it, pour it, and sell it to a refiner...

 

[Oakview2]

We have had good luck going to yard sales, buying up old crock pots, must be the ceramic type, fill with muratic acid and excite with heat. It is a slow process but can produce some nice pieces.....

 

[Oakview2]

Ps... do this outside, fumes are very caustic, will do damage to painted or bare metal, not good for lungs, animals ect. Muratic acid can be bought by the gallon at any pool supply house. Works well with iron sulphates, and will eventually degrade and remove quartz

 

[russau]

I used a gallon of MA to etch my garage floor prior to painting it. the unused portion I caped and put it into a 5 gallon bucket so it wouldn't get busted open. It was in my rear garage over the winter and I saw some of my metal and other things forming a rust on their surface . Im thinking , "what in the heck is causeing this??" only to find out the MA was the culprit! every exposed metal surface on that corner of the garage was rusting!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yikes good to know! Better rethink my acid storage!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

I used a gallon of MA to etch my garage floor prior to painting it. the unused portion I caped and put it into a 5 gallon bucket so it wouldn't get busted open. It was in my rear garage over the winter and I saw some of my metal and other things forming a rust on their surface . Im thinking , "what in the heck is causeing this??" only to find out the MA was the culprit! every exposed metal surface on that corner of the garage was rusting!

Muriatic acid is a fairly concentrated form of hydrochloric acid, which is an aqueous solution of HCl. However, HCl is a gas that dissolves extremely well in water, but it is a gas. And it the fumes can get just about everywhere, probably from when you did the floor. And it causes corrosion, as you discovered.

Concentrated HCl from chemical supply houses is about 12.1 Molar, but I would buy swimming pool muriatic acid for my college labs since it was much cheaper. It was about 10.2 Molar and most of what we used in college chem courses was 6 M or less. We were on a tight budget and the chemical purity was acceptable and I did not have to pay shipping if I bought it locally from Lowe's or Walmart. Storing it and other acids was always a problem due to the corrosion; it seemed even in tightly sealed bottles, fumes escaped. You need good ventilation for storage.

 

[sierra_ronin]

You may find a buyer because a fool and his money are soon parted but most of what you have is simple hardrock. You could cut it into cabs and that would have resale as long as there is gold in it but mostly you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Because you need a nice specimen to cut into cabs and then you can make upwards of $1000.00 a gram in some cases but many cabs are worthless to anyone else other than the owner because for the most part it's quartz. My dad wanted me to sell this cab for him but just the tip of it had visible gold so I told him the truth. Just because it's cut doesn't mean it's worth anything... We went round and round and he told me that he would sell it because being that I'm honest, I refused to sell junk. He ended up giving it to one of his grand kids or the cousins I think after it didn't sell. I mean just because it was a piece of quartz with a fractional amount of gold in it from the Morning Glory, which is the parent mine to the Original 16 to 1 doesn't make it worth anything... Like the gold piece above that also came out of the mine, it's a chunk of gold, it's just that, not a specimen, in fact because it hasn't been cleaned and melted down into a bar it's actually worth less because there is still iron and other metals attached to it. It's just a piece of hard rock gold that came out of the vein. Crush it, melt it, pour it, and sell it to a refiner...

View attachment 1136002

Thanks for the input and the story I appreciate it. I definitely need to research extraction techniques and locate a reliable refiner.

 

[sierra_ronin]

We have had good luck going to yard sales, buying up old crock pots, must be the ceramic type, fill with muratic acid and excite with heat. It is a slow process but can produce some nice pieces.....

Sounds pretty gnarly I'm not sure if my roommates would appreciate that Regardless I'm learning gold extraction and refinement takes some extensive measures in some cases.

 

[Oakview2]

Always do OUTSIDE, and look for a crockpot with a low and high setting, put it on high and let them boil, and you must continue to add acid as it cooks down, and what is left loses its punch.

 

[sierra_ronin]

Always do OUTSIDE, and look for a crockpot with a low and high setting, put it on high and let them boil, and you must continue to add acid as it cooks down, and what is left loses its punch.

How long of a process is it to degrade the quartz?