What to do with these rocks?

vasquez109

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Jun 9, 2019
18
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South Wales
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Just come back from a weekend away with the missus, and we went to Dolaucothi Gold Mines i South Wales, UK on the Saturday. Whilst there, we did the Roman tour where they took us up the hill and explained about all the Roman workings there and we got to go into the mine itself.

The tour guide said that basically, the gold that comes from Dolaucothi is very very fine almost like dust. But some alluvial gold can be found in the Cothi river. She went on to say that the Romans looked for the quartz veins within the rock, and that the best of these are 'a dirty quartz' which has all iron and heavy impurities in it. She showed us a sample of it and the quartz did in fact look 'rusty' with all sorts going on in it. This apparently is the rich ore that contains the gold.

Later on, we did a bit of gold panning which was fun. They put little bits of iron pyrite in so kids can have a go at finding little bits of gold! We were told though, that as the troughs are filled with water from a mountain stream, microscopic gold does get washed down into the troughs. After doing some panning, the missus was better at it than I was! :laughing7:

After getting rid of the pyrite, we were able to find really small gold. So small it was virtually like a dust. Too small to get out of the pan or separate from the black heavies mixed with it.

Is it possible to remove this small gold from the black stuff? Also, after leaving I was bursting for a pee and had to stop in a lay-by after we'd sat in the car after closing time to eat our picnic. In the lay-by were quite a few of these dirty quartz rocks, just like the ones the guide showed us.

They are now in the back of my car, do I grind these down then pan them? Or do I do something else to them?

So many questions, so sorry!

David.
 

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OwenT

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Yes, crush and pan just like you said. Hopefully, you have some gold! There are better ways to extract the gold from the powder you can make that involve chemicals or melting but they wouldn't be practical for your purposes probably.
 

Jason in Enid

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Yep, crush and pan. The romans were most likely using a furnace to melt the dust into beads big enough to work with.
 

N-Lionberger

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You can get the fines out by screening down your black sands so everything is roughly the same size then it will pan out alot easier as the gold will be the heaviest thing in there.
 

Back-of-the-boat

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Use a magnet in a plastic bag to remove the black sands the black stuff is probably iron which is magnetic.
 

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vasquez109

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Jun 9, 2019
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South Wales
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What is the easiest way of crushing the rocks and how fine do I go? Am I looking for powder fine or still with small bits in it?

Thanks.
 

RTR

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Only takes a few minutes to turn 5 to 10 pound rocks into sand using a 6 pound sledgehammer head. Just cover the rock (to stop pieces from flying all over the place) and use eye protection. 004.JPG 012.JPG
If your gonna pan it,classify the material first.That will help in recovery,a lot.The pile closest to you in the 2nd. pix. is around 100 mesh size.........
Good luck :)
Also for that 'fine' gold .Put a couple drops of Dawn liquid dish soap in your gold pan.Otherwise that gold WILL float away .
 

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Jason in Enid

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Use a magnet in a plastic bag to remove the black sands the black stuff is probably iron which is magnetic.

If you have magnetic sands (not all black sands are magnetic) this is great for reducing your final concentrates, but take time to COMPLETELY dry everything out first, and then spread it out into a single layer (not a pile). You can pull gold onto the magnet if you dont, because it will get stuck to the black sand by water adhesion.
 

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vasquez109

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Jun 9, 2019
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14
South Wales
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Thanks everyone. Will let you know how I get on with it on the weekend. Will take some photos!
 

smokeythecat

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I bought a hand rock crusher off Ebay for about $30 that keeps all the stuff in the container and does very well.
 

No gold in NY

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