Auriferous Sand ? Please help with Microscopic ID

[blacksand]

Dear Fellow Treasureneters,

Please assist me in identifying the following.Its a sample of blacksand under microscope from a auriferous area.

Thanks.

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Yup definitely gold.

Seriously though..no way of telling from photos.
Yellow colored...doesn't mean much.
If it WAS gold, would it be recoverable at a profit? Perhaps some assay testing would tell you that.

 

[blacksand]

Okay. Thanks.

 

[blacksand]

Yup definitely gold.

Seriously though..no way of telling from photos.
Yellow colored...doesn't mean much.
If it WAS gold, would it be recoverable at a profit? Perhaps some assay testing would tell you that.

It was in blacksand.Nothing is visible to the eye.So it could be micron gold.Now sure anyone has profitably mined it

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I've heard of people selling black sand concentrates to companies that extract the precious metals.
So on a large industrial scale...

There are old mining ponds that are full of large quantities of black sand concentrates.
Someday they might be worth looking into.

Gold is not really that rare of a metal. Gold in accessible concentrations to mine profitably is what's uncommon.

 

[et1955]

It was in blacksand.Nothing is visible to the eye.So it could be micron gold.Now sure anyone has profitably mined it

Not knowing where you are mining it is hard to give you a proper analysis, if you are in a gold rich area your mining skills are poor but if you are in a gold poor area you are doing great. At least, good job on finding a piece of gold. Suggest you find a place to mine where you can see the gold in your pan , not threw a microscope. Good Luck

 

[OwenT]

I am inclined to say it's not gold. My reason is that I recently got a look at a pan of concentrates under a microscope which was separated down so that it was almost all zircon crystals and some gold, all very fine and when you looked at the pieces of gold, they were so clean and golden, there was no mistaking them. I think it is a general rule that the finer gold is, the purer it tends to be. So I imagine whenever you are looking at microscopic placer gold, you will typically see it very pure and not attached to anything else.

 

[Clay Diggins]

I don't see any gold in your pictures. I've scoped a lot of fine placer gold deposits and as Owen says - if it's gold you will have no doubt.

Heavy Pans

 

[blacksand]

Not knowing where you are mining it is hard to give you a proper analysis, if you are in a gold rich area your mining skills are poor but if you are in a gold poor area you are doing great. At least, good job on finding a piece of gold. Suggest you find a place to mine where you can see the gold in your pan , not threw a microscope. Good Luck

Great.Thanks for the insight.

 

[blacksand]

I am inclined to say it's not gold. My reason is that I recently got a look at a pan of concentrates under a microscope which was separated down so that it was almost all zircon crystals and some gold, all very fine and when you looked at the pieces of gold, they were so clean and golden, there was no mistaking them. I think it is a general rule that the finer gold is, the purer it tends to be. So I imagine whenever you are looking at microscopic placer gold, you will typically see it very pure and not attached to anything else.

Thank you for the comment.