Black sand and Micro gold?

[m15trap]

Found a bunch of layers of black sand at the beach. Grabbed some and brought it home. It is super heavy and all the grains are about the same size. I'm not sure if it is pyrite or gold inside the pan because of the size. It is hard to remove from black stand. Any help or comments would be helpful.

 

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[B H Prospector]

Welcome m15trap,
Try mashing the gold/pyrite. If it just bends and does'nt break it is gold. If it shatters it is pyrite or maybe mica.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[dustytrails123]

Not hard if you have a blue bowl

 

[TerryC]

Put the suspected "gold" in a baggie. Hit it with a hammer. If it pulverizes, not gold. If it flattens out, gold. Look at it using a jeweler's loupe. TTC

 

[m15trap]

Put the suspected "gold" in a baggie. Hit it with a hammer. If it pulverizes, not gold. If it flattens out, gold. Look at it using a jeweler's loupe. TTC

Hey great idea. Will do. Thanks for the advice!

 

[nickmarch]

Purple of Cassius Test

Gold, Mining and Prospecting: Using the Purple of Cassius to Check For Gold in the Field

 

[Goodyguy]

First remove all the magnetic black sand to separate it from the free gold.
Here's the best way I know to keep from losing any gold due to it getting sucked up to the magnet by getting stuck between magnetic particles.





After that you may want to "crack" the non magnetic black sand to release any gold that is in it.

First Heat the dry non-magnetic sand in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 min. then pour the hot sand into a pan of cool white vinegar with table salt added. That will crack the sand and the vinegar salt solution will remove the oxide films from any gold that was in the black sand.

Note* Acetic acid (white Vinegar) +sodium chloride (table salt)=sodium acetate (liquid) and chlorine (gas). The chlorine gas that is released is minute and should not be harmful but use caution anyway.