Quartz and Rock Crushing at Ancient Gold Mines

[Rakan]

Hi,
Hope you are all doing well!
I have an area full of ancient gold mines located at the Arabian shield west of Saudi Arabia, the area is having lots of quartz vein cutting through mountains, and some of these are having an old mining activities. I have made a stone crusher and purchased a gold cube, can any one help and advise me on what type of rocks shall i crush to get gold? From where to collect these rocks? From the quartz vein itself or around it, i learned from some youtube videos that gold is always associated with iron, so I have to look for iron stained quartz. Is that right?
I can send you pictures and Google earth screenshots for all the locations, actually i have an old reports made by U.S geological survey department describe the gold deposit at the area and it helped, please check below link:

https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/search?q=saudi+arabia+gold

Please help me by any mean.
Regards

 

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[smokeythecat]

Welcome. You are on the right track. I would try smaller samples from different marked areas, work each to see which types produce the gold. It can be in or on the quartz or next to it in the country rock.

 

[Rakan]

Thank you smokeythecat, actually I am excited and I do not want to waste my time crushing rocks that have nothing, as I understand that not all of the quartz vein have gold, or maybe a very little amount, that's why I came to you experts to guide me to find the right rocks to crush.

 

[smokeythecat]

Also check BELOW the deposits, maybe with a metal detector to find left over gold. That way, you'd get a better idea what's above the talus (waste) piles.

 

[Underburden]

The ugly quarts will show you the beautiful gold.

 

[A2coins]

Great post love this stuff

 

[A2coins]

Welcome to tnet

 

[Rakan]

Thank you every one , the above 1975 map shows the area that I wont to work on ( marked with red circle) , as I said it has many quartz veins cutting through mountains , I know the exact location of 3 ancient mines where an old mining activates is noticed , the rest is natural quarts rocks. ( I do not know what they meant by " Gold Belts " and is it related to the quarts formation at this particular area)
I do not now how and where to start , shall I go for the small left overs quartz rocks at the mines, or pick up the big quartz rock existing at the natural formation, or shall I go for the sands.
What is your advise.
Thanks

 

[BillA]

I am not the best for this, but it seems you need an introduction. You have quite a learning experience ahead of you if you do not know where to start.
The most direct approach is to find someone with 30+ years of experience in gold prospecting in arid environments and get them to visit your site so you can pick their brain and figure out how to start to determine where to conduct a surface sampling program. If you do not have geochemical results (are there any?), typically you look around, and around, and around. Observation is everything.

Visible quartz veining - make a sketch, this will become your map identifying your sample locations. With a loupe (magnifying lens) you will look at the quartz itself and the contact zones on the sides, both within the quartz and the host rock to perhaps determine if there is visible gold (more often not). To determine if there is gold you need a fire assay, that's a whole 'nother discussion. You have a crusher which indicates you wish to recover free-milling gold that will separate from the host rock, note that some gold ores are chemically bound and crushing is merely the first step in the recovery process.

So where do you start sampling? I would look in detail at the previous workings; can you determine what was their pay zone, an obvious place to sample and also a clue as to what you might pick up as a grab sample if you think it was from the pay zone. How big a sample you need depends on your crusher/Gold Cube operation and cleanup. You must be able to distinguish between one sample and another.

Do you have a metal detector? Not really necessary unless you come to understand that there is coarse gold present. I have detected gold in a hard rock mine but 1 gm pieces in consolidated conglomerate (very old placer) is not what you, or the reports, are describing.
Many threads on this site with quite detailed bits of info, do read them.

Near Yanbu eh? I was there in the '80s, just starting.
Bill

 

[Rakan]

Thank you Bill.