Could this be the good stuff?

[Ragnor]

I hit a thick lense of this material in a rock slide area. My GM4B overloads every time it gets near it. Absolutely screaming. Hand samples that fit in my palm weigh in at 1.5 lbs on the densest pieces. Is roasting the best way to sort it out?

 

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[kcm]

What area are you in? Is the area known for having gold?

I'd first try crushing and panning a sample first to see if there is any free metals, then roast and pan again.

 

[Ragnor]

I'm in western washington. This material is from one of the old mining districts. I think it's from very near the entrance of a rich mine that was buried in a land slide a long time ago and never uncovered. Heavy iron staining in the creek bed suggests there is an unseen mine somewhere on the hillside.

 

[Ragnor]

There was some catastrophic event there this winter. In places up to 10 feet of bedrock has been stripped and a massive slide removed an entire road bed with explosive force. Everything is gone, but the culvret is sitting at the bottom of a 75 foot deep gully completely undamaged. A creek that usually runs 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep has water marks 30 feet up on the hillsides. Brand new faces have been exposed. I'm the first one on site, so nobody has ever seen this material before.

 

[kcm]

Wow, that sounds awesome!! I had saved quite a bit of info on hard rock mining and ore veins in Washington state, but lost it a while back when the laptop decided to do an unauthorized full system restore. Needless to say I hadn't backed anything up at the time.

Your find sounds simply amazing! Try crushing a little bit of the best-looking ore and see if there is any free gold, then dry it all out and roast to see if there is any sulfide - at least in the sample. If all the rock is from that near the surface, I'd bet it's already oxidized.

 

[dave wiseman]

It would be in your interest your to hook up with someone who has in field experience.

 

[Ragnor]

Well the old guy that told me to go up there and that he had put his kids through college selling his buckets of 'pyrite' that he called gold went and died on me before he showed me exactly where I was supposed to be digging. I have not found anyone else to further my education since.

 

[kcm]

School of Hard Knocks!

 

[Hard Prospector]

Gold detectors and sulfide ores do not play well, I have yet to find anyone who has had any luck hitting good specimen gold ore in sulfides with any detector. The iron oxides marbled through the quartz just drives em nuts....Lord knows I've tried. Anyone with a more positive experience with this I would sure like to hear about.

If the ore is in or near a past producing gold mine/dump and I have a good hunch, I'll haul it out for crushing. The more reds, oranges and greens the better.....The best producing gold sulfide ore has consistently looked like "rotting teeth" to me

 

[kcm]

Well, 10' isn't very far at all. Can't remember what the average depth is for oxides before they turn to sulfides, but am sure it's more than 10'!

 

[Hard Prospector]

Well, 10' isn't very far at all. Can't remember what the average depth is for oxides before they turn to sulfides, but am sure it's more than 10'!

Usually at or below the water table