best way to bust up quartz rock to find gold inside

[pulltabfelix]

I lugged this 30 lb rock back from some north Georgia gold mine tailings. It rang up 1 and 2 on my Equinox 800 in the gold 1 mode.

brought it home and it still rang up 1 and 2. seems to have a lot of iron stains through it based on one chip I knocked off.

I need to break it up and wondered what is the best way and what to be careful of.

If there is gold do I want to get it all out or leave so me in pieces. (you see I am optimistic and assuming it is gold). I wonder what else it could be. People more experienced than me with the equinox say 1-2 is gold and it it is a hot rock rings up -9. The gold looking stuff in the white area of the rock is not gold, but looks like some iron staining. have yet to see gold in the piece I chipped off.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Got a sledge hammer?

Break it up, crush the smaller pieces into powder, then
carefully pan it out

 

[Nitric]

You probably know this and I feel like an idiot posting this.....Wear safety glasses.....That stuff is like shooting glass when trying to crush it. My wife still doesn't wear gloves and is cut by it weekly digging around.

I don't have any suggestions for crushing, we never got that far. We just broke a few pieces up with hammers. Shooting little glass like shards everywhere. I think years ago it was chemically removed with cyanide.

Someone, somewhat local or that is into the same stuff is Takoda, but you will never get a PM through to him. He posts some awesome pics of gold in quartz. I've seen him mention GA and AL.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

There are a few ways to make what the Aussies call dolly pots for manually crushing ore. Mortar and pestle is always an option.

Get her all down to a roughly uniform powder then send it off to a good assayer. Theyll be able to tell you if its freemill or refractory. Freemill doesn't mean your going to crush, pan, and get all the gold. Ot refers to the fact that the gold can be leached without any pre leach oxidation being necessary.

Freemill and "visible macroscopic gold" are mistakenly taken to mean the same thing and they don't remotely overlap much at all.

 

[pulltabfelix]

You probably know this and I feel like an idiot posting this.....Wear safety glasses.....That stuff is like shooting glass when trying to crush it. My wife still doesn't wear gloves and is cut by it weekly digging around.

I don't have any suggestions for crushing, we never got that far. We just broke a few pieces up with hammers. Shooting little glass like shards everywhere. I think years ago it was chemically removed with cyanide.

Someone, somewhat local or that is into the same stuff is Takoda, but you will never get a PM through to him. He posts some awesome pics of gold in quartz. I've seen him mention GA and AL.

no you need to tell people. I use safety glass all the time. cutting grass, anything using power tools. My so was using a rotary wire brush on a drill when he was a teen and one of the wires broke off and hit him in the side of the eyeball. Fortunately he immediately went to the emergency room and all turned out ok, but painful. I take safety glasses to the tailings pile if i have to bust up in the field a larger rock. I cringe when I see people using gas lawn mower on the lawn and they have their pets and small kids playing right beside them. Have you ever hit a rock, tin can or thick wire? They are frigging airborne projectiles.

thanks

 

[pulltabfelix]

There are a few ways to make what the Aussies call dolly pots for manually crushing ore. Mortar and pestle is always an option.

Get her all down to a roughly uniform powder then send it off to a good assayer. Theyll be able to tell you if its freemill or refractory. Freemill doesn't mean your going to crush, pan, and get all the gold. Ot refers to the fact that the gold can be leached without any pre leach oxidation being necessary.

Freemill and "visible macroscopic gold" are mistakenly taken to mean the same thing and they don't remotely overlap much at all.

so even though my Equinox 800 is giving me a strong signal of 1 and 2 there might not be visible gold inside this rock?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

so even though my Equinox 800 is giving me a strong signal of 1 and 2 there might not be visible gold inside this rock?

I’ve yet to detect microscopic gold. Likely there will be a nice visible specimen in your chunk of quartz.
Personally, I would try and determine where the signal is coming from by turning the rock over and identifying the strongest signal. Break it in half with a sledge and detect both halves...repeated with half that still has a signal. Eventually you will likely see gold. Stop there and consult with someone about proceeding further. Your trying to preserve the largest visually pleasing specimen as possible.

I’d be looking with a magnifying glass and crushing all pieces in a mortar/pedestal and panning to detect free gold.

 

[dave wiseman]

If your serious about gold mining buy yourself a cast iron mortar and pestle...or make one..lots of vids on youtube.Otherwise,place your rock inside a sack and break offf small chunks and pulverize into powder..then pan out.Check the smaller pieces for gold species.If the fines are not all in one area of the rock the detector won't pick it up.A Falcon MD might,but not a coil.....https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...i13i5i30j0i8i13i30j0i22i30j0i7i30.EM98Lsl2FQM

 

[Goldwasher]

most likely concentrated iron minerals. The spongey rusty stuff in the fractures and voids in the quartz can make a vlf sound off

Break it up into rough pieces chase the signal

no real reason for an assay unless you know the source and actually plan to work it.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

so even though my Equinox 800 is giving me a strong signal of 1 and 2 there might not be visible gold inside this rock?

We have multiple samples assayed at over 5 ounces per ton without a speck of visible gold until crushing and concentration. I believe our 9.875 opt sample doesn't show visible either. You can crush it and usually see it then, but as far as cracking it open and having a voila! moment, quite possibly not.

 

[Nitric]

no you need to tell people. I use safety glass all the time. cutting grass, anything using power tools. My so was using a rotary wire brush on a drill when he was a teen and one of the wires broke off and hit him in the side of the eyeball. Fortunately he immediately went to the emergency room and all turned out ok, but painful. I take safety glasses to the tailings pile if i have to bust up in the field a larger rock. I cringe when I see people using gas lawn mower on the lawn and they have their pets and small kids playing right beside them. Have you ever hit a rock, tin can or thick wire? They are frigging airborne projectiles.

thanks

Ya...I didn't want to be "that guy", but the first time we hit a piece of quartz it just missed my eye, I never even gave it a thought before that....I understand the wire wheels, I've been there!!! I've even pulled the wires out of my side when grind pipe welds, they use big wire wheels for that. They will go straight through your clothes! Anyhow, I'm wayyyyyy off topic! Hope you get gold out of it! That would motivate me to go look a little harder!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

We have multiple samples assayed at over 5 ounces per ton without a speck of visible gold until crushing and concentration. I believe our 9.875 opt sample doesn't show visible either. You can crush it and usually see it then, but as far as cracking it open and having a voila! moment, quite possibly not.

Did your detector react to the specimens that assayed good? If so what model detector?
Kind of depends on the typical deposits in your area. Around here pocket gold is common and I have yet to be disappointed when I get a good strong signal in a piece of quartz.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Well no answer and no update on what was inside the rock. I guess nothing interesting.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Did your detector react to the specimens that assayed good? If so what model detector?
Kind of depends on the typical deposits in your area. Around here pocket gold is common and I have yet to be disappointed when I get a good strong signal in a piece of quartz.

Never saw this. We don't typically use detectors much at all. Mine stays in the closet at home when I'm in the field for the most part.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Was curious if finely disseminated free gold would be detectable if present in a significant quantity. Not having access to that type of ore I cannot know.

Always wondered if the falcon detector is useful in that aspect or if it will hit on other minerals typically associated with gold ore.

 

[gold tramp]

I always take my bleeper with me no matter what the ore is like.
Gold is where you find it. alot of times its under the coil of the metal detector.

My gold bug would work good to locate the fine stuff, it would have to be where it would thicken up in the ore, a pocket.

And yes if I were to break open it would have visible gold,
most times I use the bleeper for ore, it's at the beginning of the dig to locate my hot spots if it bleeps,
And the end of the day make sure there's no honkers that are freshly exposed left behind.

Gt....
Here's a piece of ore runs about 1oz ton, it has visible gold specks.
In the vein I can get a bit of noise oughta it.

 

[Goldwasher]

Was curious if finely disseminated free gold would be detectable if present in a significant quantity. Not having access to that type of ore I cannot know.

Always wondered if the falcon detector is useful in that aspect or if it will hit on other minerals typically associated with gold ore.

the falcon has to be really close to small flakes or gold in ore to sound off and it will be gold that's visible once cleaned or broken open.

It will sound off on certain hot rocks and serpentine chips depending on its GB tuning..

The problem with even GB 2 is that small bits do have to be really close to the coil. even the small coil.

I have had my SDC scream on a two pound cobble that had three grams of gold in one part of it... sniff it out with falcon and break the piece down accordingly.

someone claimed in a thread that they found a gold pocket several feet down with a Falcon.

I call major BS as the falcon won't even find my F150 at less than two feet away.

The sdc is amazing I have been pulling small bits of quartz with gold at depths that my GB2 and now sold GBpro never hit on.

at five inches plus.

With a vlf the best way to go about it is raking and detecting a shallow layer at a time.

Even with the SDC raking a few inches seems to add double that to what is picked up under the coil.

If your gonna hunt fore lode gold the best bet is to hunt in areas where there is/was rich lodes of free milling gold.

A vlf will sound off on different types of mineralization that may have no gold at all.

A knowledge of the geology and history of the area are just as important as the detector used.

Considering that in a rich mine dump you can find great stuff without ever turning on a detector.

In fact detecting(trying to) certain mine dumps and waste piles will drive you crazy due to the trash..where a visual hunt will get you more specimens.

Same thing goes for veins in place. A loupe and a hammer could lead you to a better pocket than the detector that you just walk over it...