Can you crush to much

[Daryl Friesen]

Hello,

If there was gold in the rock you were crushing is it possible to crush it into such dust that you can barley see the gold in the pan when you pan it out? Or would a large piece of gold just crush flat and not break apart when under going the crushing process?

Daryl

www.spindlequest.com/mine4.html

[Goodyguy]

Don't worry, it will just flatten out, even a speck will flatten out.

Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in visors of heat-resistant suits, and in sun-visors for spacesuits.

GG~

[Daryl Friesen]

So a really tiny piece of gold could crush so flat you could hardley see it??

Daryl

[Goodyguy]

So a really tiny piece of gold could crush so flat you could hardley see it??

Daryl

A stamp mill just doesn't crush that small, mostly just frees the gold from the ore by crushing the rock around it.
The rock crumbles freeing the gold. The gold doesn't crumble.

Gold can be flattened so flat that it becomes translucent but not invisible. and that won't happen anyway in an ore crusher.

GG~

[TerryC]

DF,
No, gold does not "crush" easily. Actually, crushing the host rock will flatten the gold, making the gold easier to see. Flatter gold, more surface area, easier to see. Probably the worse that would happen is trapping some of the host rock in the folded gold leaf. TTC

[jimmygoat]

Hi Guys, I'm not sure if you can over crush with a stamp mill, but you can over crush with a ball mill. When using a trommel you want to classify with screens or you will overgrind and make fines out of gold that was not so fine. Jimmygoat

[dave wiseman]

If you know you have gold in the quartz and can see it you might want to use a mortar and pestle.The better quartz pieces you save and keep/sell as species and the smaller stuff will either come out as rough little pieces ,flat stuff and fines.When panning out after crushing if you've very good rock and are into a pocket or ore shoot it's best to pan into another pan.There will be super fine gold that will float and the tiny rough stuff will walk out of your pan(having legs).Even with riffled pans this will occur.Another thing is if your rock is rich you must check every tiny piece of quartz as you'll keep finding the yellow on the tiniest speck of rock.Been there,done that for over 30 years.Save your cons as when you look with a loupe at the black sand you'll see the minute gold.

[kuger]

If you know you have gold in the quartz and can see it you might want to use a mortar and pestle.The better quartz pieces you save and keep/sell as species and the smaller stuff will either come out as rough little pieces ,flat stuff and fines.When panning out after crushing if you've very good rock and are into a pocket or ore shoot it's best to pan into another pan.There will be super fine gold that will float and the tiny rough stuff will walk out of your pan(having legs).Even with riffled pans this will occur.Another thing is if your rock is rich you must check every tiny piece of quartz as you'll keep finding the yellow on the tiniest speck of rock.Been there,done that for over 30 years.Save your cons as when you look with a loupe at the black sand you'll see the minute gold.

So true Davo!!!

[FiresEye]

Short answer is yes you can crush to much . Just depends on what your rock is giving , and what you want to try and get out of it . Cavaties in some good rock can have nice size pieces (nuggets ) of gold in them . Not to mention little stringers in every shape and odd look you can think of .
Also , the gold can and will 'mash' apart or seperate . Take a little 3 to 5 grain nugget you found , put it on a hard smooth steel surface (anvil etc.) and start tapping it out with a little ball peen hammer and you will see what I mean . Purity is relevant to stress tolerance . My areas have some the purest native gold on the planet .

I agree with Dave , in that if your on some good rock it is worthwhile to take it down slow and keep a sharp eye along the way . As for myself , I look at stuff I take down to about an inch if I have reason to do so . Yes ....... takes a lot of time ...... gets boring ...... not likely to get rich , and you may find that your eyes can actually feel pain . But it can be well worth the trouble as long as you have a day job and ain't in to big a hurry .

Takoda, Goody, and Terry, thank you all for the continued info about rock crushing prospecting etc.
In particular I am very interested in your idea about breaking big rocks down slow to check for stringers and nugget speciman samples. I have a nice collection of quzrtz minca garnet gold bearing bedrock chunks that, for the most part I know contain fine gold( micro flakes), however, the other day I found a little quartz chip with amalgamized mercury covering a yellowish metal on the corner.. Boy was I shocked, my first chip. It's unfortunate the rock sat in the river long enough for the natural or unnatural mercury to grab at the gold.. now I have to find a scientist to clean it off.
About the bedrock, I have amazing samples and I really need to get some pictures up! M best one is a 50 pound chunk of awesome bedrock showing beutiful garnets, awesome quartz sammiches, some some of hydrothermal vein of other minerals flowing in the middle, and plenty of mica and pyrites.. It pretty much sums up the gold bearing rock. I found it near a gas station on a little stream in and around Dahlonega.... so that's the gold belt, so it's like guaranteed to contain gold right?

I hope we get snowed in this winter I have a ton of work to do