Im a newbie and ignorant, please help.

[chuck_turner]

I'm a newbie and ignorant, please help.

First of all, I want to let everyone know I am very ignorant about gold and minerals. I live in the foothills of Northeast Georgia and I found this on my property today. I know it is quartz. There are some beautifully terminated crystals on it and I think I see some gold. Any information anyone can give me about this specimen would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[Lotus Geologist]

I see yellowish clay, some iron staining, perhaps some mica. I don't see any gold.

L.G.

 

[G Freeman]

First of all, I want to let everyone know I am very ignorant about gold and minerals. I live in the foothills of Northeast Georgia and I found this on my property today. I know it is quartz. There are some beautifully terminated crystals on it and I think I see some gold. Any information anyone can give me about this specimen would be greatly appreciated.

Looks to me like a conglomerate rock mighty pretty. Wonder what's inside of it. I have heard these rocks can have treasures in them. I have one of them too but too pretty to bust. Nice find.

This is the one I found Chuck. I have not busted it yet. Weighs 20 lbs.

 

[chuck_turner]

Found another today. Haven't cleaned it up yet but I'll post pics as soon as I do. I've really gotta find the source of these rocks. No telling what is there if they came from a pocket.

 

[huntsman53]

Looks to me like a conglomerate rock mighty pretty. Wonder what's inside of it. I have heard these rocks can have treasures in them. I have one of them too but too pretty to bust. Nice find.

Definitely a conglomerate of Quartz Crystals and many other rocks and minerals! A lot of these broke or eroded out then became trapped together and were subject to extreme pressure from weight. Due to the Volcanic activity in your area some 100 to 500 million years ago, it may have also been subject to heat from these as well. I have found conglomerates of White Sapphires and other rocks and minerals near Chunky Gal Mountain in North Carolina the size of a baseball but weigh up to 3 or 4 pounds each. I had a friend (who has since passed, God rest his' soul) cut a couple of them up to see what lay within and he burnt up 3 Diamond Saw blades doing so.


Frank

 

[chuck_turner]

This one is very heavy for it's size also. I'm very torn as to what to do with it.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

This one is very heavy for it's size also. I'm very torn as to what to do with it.

Mr. Turner

I've a hunk of quartz from my creek in SW Virginia. Posted pics here and everyone said crush it. It's too pretty to crush!

But they said where you find quartz, AND black sand, there could be gold.... Georgia has gold! Two miles down the road from me they found gold in the 1830's. I'm on the same North Slope of the mountain. Have pans, will now see what I can find. If I find any hint of color, I'm getting a sluice and see what happens from there. I'm at retirement age, but don't trust the economy to pull the trigger yet. It would be hoping against hope to think that might accelerate my plans. One can dream though....

Mr. R Turner

 

[chuck_turner]

Hello Mr Turner,

I couldn't help but notice the 4th ID patch on your post. Were you a member? I agree, mine is too pretty to crush but having gold in it would be nice. I've panned som sand from a hole in a creek behind my house and found a couple tiny specs and lots of black sand.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Hello Mr Turner,

I couldn't help but notice the 4th ID patch on your post. Were you a member? I agree, mine is too pretty to crush but having gold in it would be nice. I've panned som sand from a hole in a creek behind my house and found a couple tiny specs and lots of black sand.

Hi Chuck,

Yes, 4th Div, 69-71 RVN.....

I'm thinking - my rock is super heavy too. But I've the pans now, and this coming weekend I'm going to do some of that. Tried a few weeks ago and it was too darned cold, and I hit the wrong spot in the creek. Been watching a bunch of panning videos on Youtube - instructional ones. Maybe if I hit good color, I might bust up that rock.

Take a good look and comprehensive look at Youtube videos - I know it changed the way I was thinking...

Roger

 

[chuck_turner]

Thanks for your service. I spent 13 years in the Army myself. I've looked at so many YouTube videos, I'm sick of them. The new rock I found isn't as pretty as I though it was. If it doesn't give me a great surprise when I clean it, I will probably bust it up to check it out for some color.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Have you run your detector over it yet? Mine didn't get a response. But then I didn't know whether to expect that or not - maybe it has to be a large concentrate.

Don't bust it up yet....

The videos I started watching were the ones where you checked out the layout of the creek. It's the drop offs where the gravel accumulates - or at least that is where I'm hitting next. I work away from home and only go there on weekends. Yesterday I was taking a look Got a spot or two, or three where I'll shovel out to bedrock into a bucket and pan to see my next step.

Thank you for your compliment of my service. I did it to get out of the cotton mills and get the free education. Good thing too - textiles went to China.....

 

[chuck_turner]

I don't have a detector yet. Been in a little tight spot financially but we are seeing daylight now. I should have gotten an education while I was in but it always seemed that I was too busy. Looking back, I should have made the time for it. I've seen videos, read articles and searched forums. I'm pretty sure, at least in my little stretch of creek, I can look to see where it "should" be. Not that that is always where it is but it's always a good place to start.

 

[MrLee]

Don't ever bust up a specimen like that. If anything, cut it open. At least when you cut it you can retain some of it's beauty. A simple grinder will do the job. If there is gold in there it's not going anywhere and can wait till you get a detector or borrow one.

I'd say clean it up. This will take considerable time and patience. Harbor Freight is your best friend if you have one near you. You can pick up all sorts of picks, blades, etc. for cleaning. I use my dremel, dental picks and xacto blades. I'm currently processing some material you can see here:
Erik Lee - YouTube

The Corundum is a pain in the ass. Stuff is very hard.

 

[chuck_turner]

Mr Lee, I won't bust open the one I put on here but I have another specimen that looks like it is from the same material but has no terminated crystals visible on it that I may bust open. I need to get some picks. I've heard you can get used ones from dental offices for free if you catch them when they are getting new ones. I need some sort of glasses that magnify also. Think I may get a pair of those 2.5x from the dollar store. I think that would be enough magnification for me to see what I was doing when cleaning it.

 

[MrLee]

You can get a pick from the dollar store too. That magnification will work for what you are doing.

 

[chuck_turner]

Well, I busted up the other specimen today. Nothing in it that looked remotely interesting to me. I did send an email today to the Department of Geology at UGA to see if anyone there is interested in seeing the specimen I posted pictures of on here. If they do, I'll take the remnants of the one I broke apart today. Thanks for all the replies on here.

 

[chris rizin]

I find similar material here in nor cal while prospecting.. From the pics, as said before, it looks fairly mineralized, iron staining, I saw some mica remnants and possibly some kind of metallic material I would bet is a pyrite.. Don't see any gold.. Usually I find that if I'm questioning whether it's gold, 99% of the time it's not... Gold is yellow, stays yellow no matter how the light hits it. If it flakes or seperates in sheets, breaks etc from a knife tip then obviously not gold.. Great looking find.. If you want to clean it up and get the iron stains off get some of the powder iron out at walmart and let it soak.. Use other material first to find out what happens. Always a good idea to test on not so great looking stuff. I'd like to see some pics of the piece you busted up!

 

[chuck_turner]

I'll post some this evening. There is a lot of mica in our area. There is actually a mica mine within about 8 miles of my house. In some places here it looks like someone spilled glitter on the ground.

 

[chris rizin]

Do you have a loop and some gold? You could also do a side by side comparison..

 

[chuck_turner]

I can tell the difference. The mica here has always got at least one straight edge. In matrix I don't know that I could tell the difference. I have done some panning in the creek behind my house and the mica comes off really early. I've found two tiny pieces of gold. I know what was being said about the gold not changing colors no matter what angle you look at it at. The mica will almost disappear if you turn it to the correct angle. Those two small pieces of gold didn't do that. The rock I busted open had a ton of iron staining in it. That's to be expected with all the red clay we have here though. Am I correct on this assumption?