Is it worth crushing all quartz found in a rich gold district?

[NovaScotiaGold]

I just got a hint of the gold fever and thought I'd give a quick hunt a try. I probably should have studied up a lot more before beginning this, but as I do ... im into it and don't know what I'm doing lol

I made my way around Waverley, Nova Scotia (a known gold town around here -70,000oz pulled out of the area over the years) for a hunt for gold bearing quartz.

I found a few large stones and a few smaller ones I believe may have gold / silver inside of them and trace amounts on. (Small round flakes found on surface / jammed in surface cracks)

A few quartz stones are light and a few are much heavier than I would have expected.

Wondering if its worth exploring into the stones or if the gold would be on the exterior of the rocks only if it were to have existed. Should I gather the soils from the areas I found the stones instead of smacking the rock with a mallet until it pops?

Anyone want to post the typical link for newbies on how to begin processing samples for viability?

 

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[winners58]

might test with a Falcon MD-20 metal detector they are about $200
if it sounds off going to a target its gold, if it sounds off going away its iron.
https://youtu.be/E6zROwbxxJQ
https://youtu.be/sYhgVt-CPzY
& ask Jeff; https://youtu.be/SsZd4vkwDVA

 

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[Assembler]

might test with a Falcon MD-20 metal detector they are about $200
if it sounds off going to a target its gold, if it sounds off going away its iron.
https://youtu.be/E6zROwbxxJQ
https://youtu.be/sYhgVt-CPzY
& ask Jeff; https://youtu.be/SsZd4vkwDVA

Great for spot testing. Thanks for the tips.

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

Midway up the outcrop (approx 35 feet up hill from thin white quartz anchored) I mentioned a huge granite boulder:

(Assuming this is not actually white quartz as well)

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

might test with a Falcon MD-20 metal detector they are about $200
if it sounds off going to a target its gold, if it sounds off going away its iron.
https://youtu.be/E6zROwbxxJQ
https://youtu.be/sYhgVt-CPzY
& ask Jeff; https://youtu.be/SsZd4vkwDVA

Very cool, was not thinking they were so cost effective

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

Top of outcrop:

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

Last one in series is the mentioned "bore or exploration hole" where I found a de-limbed tree jammed in this hole with stone placed as fill around it:

 

[Assembler]

If you have the time spot test some of the 'Bore hole rock' to see if there is any values.

 

[augoldminer]

I use to do mine dumps with free milling ore.

I would screen the fines out and pan them then run my gold bug 2 over any quartz chunks from the dump. if i got even the smallest signal it went into a bucket
all the rest i would dump.
the gold bug will pick up a pin head piece of gold up to about 3 inches in the quartz.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I'm all good and still here lol, regardless of your sense of humor I still find value to your existance and opinions ... make me think or research, life isn't easy, I know this lol

It's been awhile since I had gold fever, I just realized that I had not given consideration to the fact that you may be sick.
--------------
What you are calling quartz does not look anything like the quartz that is common in my area.

 

[Assembler]

I use to do mine dumps with free milling ore.

I would screen the fines out and pan them then run my gold bug 2 over any quartz chunks from the dump. if i got even the smallest signal it went into a bucket
all the rest i would dump.
the gold bug will pick up a pin head piece of gold up to about 3 inches in the quartz.

It is getting harder to values in mine dumps. However this is still a good place to look.

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

In my immediate area I was led to believe that the remaining tailings after the Stamp mills were done with the quartz it was sand. They dumped it all over the local area beaches. There is still a large pile down the road by some rail tracks. Have been looking at the history of the neighboring Montague mine site for more viable tailings. This was a suggestion of a local hobby prospector as well.

Said I'd share a photo of my collected samples for crushing and panning

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

If you have the time spot test some of the 'Bore hole rock' to see if there is any values.

I plan to remove and crush every stone associated with that bore hole and pull the rotted tree out as I go. I don't feel stressed for time. I will grab a few surface level stones this season for testing. I need to educate myself more before getting any further over my head, I see myself digging down and a pile of stone crushing me to death and burying me. Going to learn about shaft construction

 

[Assembler]

I plan to remove and crush every stone associated with that bore hole and pull the rotted tree out as I go. I don't feel stressed for time. I will grab a few surface level stones this season for testing. I need to educate myself more before getting any further over my head, I see myself digging down and a pile of stone crushing me to death and burying me. Going to learn about shaft construction

You will learn a few things by crushing all this rock. You are lucky that you can just go out your door and get fresh rocks. You will have something to do this winter as well.

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

For anyone interested here is one of my sources I found for info after suggestions from posts above in thread.

Geological resource atlas and Gold fields of nova scotia at bottom of link was useful for me.
https://novascotia.ca/NATR/meb/prospector-videos/Mineral-Deposits-resources.asp

Novascotiaminerals.pdf wont link but will show in google. Shows mineral samples found locally

Same with nspebbles.pdf which is a pebble identifier brochure I found useful

My best find long term: a really high resolution old map showing all the old forgotten gold towns in bold red, showing a lot of details. Took a while to find this
View attachment goldmapNS.jpg
http://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/...b?path=geoscan/downloade.web&search1=R=108131

 

[winners58]

In my immediate area I was led to believe that the remaining tailings after the Stamp mills were done with the quartz it was sand. They dumped it all over the local area beaches. There is still a large pile down the road by some rail tracks. Have been looking at the history of the neighboring Montague mine site for more viable tailings. This was a suggestion of a local hobby prospector as well.
Said I'd share a photo of my collected samples for crushing and panning
View attachment 1494098

I'd say Leaverite I don't see anything worth bringing home, one of the links you posted has the maps you should be looking at,
they show all the locations of tailing piles and detailed lines of the quartz veins, one for each of the 64 locations on the map you like
https://novascotia.ca/natr/meb/download/mg/ofm/htm/ofm_2009-001.asp
an example showing Montague; (zoom to 100% latitude on side, longitude on top at the edge of the map)
http://novascotia.ca/natr/meb/data/mg/ofm/pdf/ofm_2009-001_s28_dp.pdf

 

[NovaScotiaGold]

I'd say Leaverite I don't see anything worth bringing home, one of the links you posted has the maps you should be looking at,
they show all the locations of tailing piles and detailed lines of the quartz veins, one for each of the 64 locations on the map you like
https://novascotia.ca/natr/meb/download/mg/ofm/htm/ofm_2009-001.asp
an example showing Montague; (zoom to 100% latitude on side, longitude on top at the edge of the map)
http://novascotia.ca/natr/meb/data/mg/ofm/pdf/ofm_2009-001_s28_dp.pdf

Still trying to narrow down which of the 64 location maps apply directly to my property, it cuts off in the waverley map 1km away from where I am. The Montegue map cuts off about 7km away. Shouldn't be too hard to track down, but not expecting to find site specific data on it anyways, just will give me more info on my immediate area. (Guessing the same map as central halifax / dartmouth) I am using a similar map showing bedrock geology in my specific zone which has been useful ... I think the link you provided will be great to use for provincial exploring. Not sure how it works in everyone else's areas but here you pay $30 for a lifetime prospectors licence and then you can work a site at ground level using hand tools one day per year per site.

The stone that isn't obviously white or red quartz (which is not the majority stone in that pic above) I had a hard time justifying dragging home. I still can't determine if it is quartz, really messy gypsum, fossil matter ... im under the impression it is too "soft" to be granite. As posted above many times I will have to crush it and see if there are any values to it to see if I completely wasted my time. At the very least, I have obtained a new interest, will learn technique to crush stone, and will have all the needed basic tools to learn more very soon.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Gold is easy to crush and pan but there are other values worth considering also. There is probably silver or copper if there is gold and all those by-products can really add up.
Good luck out there. You're on the right track.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

In my immediate area I was led to believe that the remaining tailings after the Stamp mills were done with the quartz it was sand. They dumped it all over the local area beaches. There is still a large pile down the road by some rail tracks. Have been looking at the history of the neighboring Montague mine site for more viable tailings. This was a suggestion of a local hobby prospector as well.

Said I'd share a photo of my collected samples for crushing and panning
View attachment 1494098

If your interesting in learning...what you have there is a collection of mostly granite rocks, with the exception of the rocks circled below, which might possibly be quartz.
I agree - I don't see anything I'd take home to crush.



Gold can be embedded into granite, but it is very uncommon.
More likely, you would find gold in a contact zone where the country rock changes from granite to another type of rock.
Sometimes there are very thin stringers of quartz that run through granite that carry gold and this usually occurs in the vicinity of a contact zone.

Apparently earlier, you crushed a sample and got a piece of gold. You said you packed home 1000 pounds of highly mineralized quartz (and buried it for safe keeping)...What does this material look like? It would seem obvious that you would zero in on that same type of rock.


Where in that photo do you think you have red quartz?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

The majority of gold in your area is supposed to be quartz vein deposits.

I would learn what quartz looks like, then look for a vein of quartz.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Rarely does granite have any mineable values. Sometimes (rarely) gold can be found in hydrothermal deposits in the faults and intersections adjacent to granite country rock.

Pictures are not the best way to judge mineral types but I don't see any signs of mineralization, hydrothermal or otherwise, in any of your "samples".

For your mystery material see:

Saprolite

Saprolite Granite

Educate yourself and prosper!

Heavy Pans