Gold and Crystals

[NuggetN8]

Yesterday I was out prospecting/exploring a new place and found a spot with some good color. I was digging in a huge mass of roots and moss. I'll attach a pic of what i found in 4 pans out of it. Didn't pan for too long because I was mostly there to detect. I walked downstream a ways swinging my detector as I went when something caught my eye. There was a big fat quartz vein coming down the side of the hill with visible pockets in it. I normally don't dig for crystals but it just looked too good to pass up. The first pocket I dug out had some smaller crystals in it like all the other ones I've found before. After cleaning the first pocket I moved up the vein to a bigger pocket. I could see quite a few crystals in this one so I dug as many as I could but when I was done I saw some much larger flat shapes near the sides of the pocket. After a lot of smashing and bashing with my pick I got it out! Biggest crystal I've ever found. I haven't found very many though.. Lol. Anyone know what works best for cleaning up crystals? The clay that's stuck to them is like glue! I've tried a wire brush and several other stiff brushes and they don't work all that great. Here's some pics.. The gold is 0.2 gram

 

[golden sluice]

Wow I love the crystal attached to that rock, a real bute! Very clear crystal. I found some very small quartz crystals when I lived at the base of the McDowell mountains in scottsdale az. Crystal hunting!

 

[golden sluice]

Ive been to the quartz mt. West of reno... us military hauled huge amounts of radio grade crystals out of there for the war efforts durring wwii. The have creamy white creamy green and rose quartz in huge crumbly boulders. The jeep trail is graveled white from the old duce and halfs runnnig up the mountain. I remember diggers searching for crystals. I was more interested in hiking up the hill at the time. I was really mising an opportunity, I regret it now. Live and learn, I guess.

 

[Rawhide]

Just a little correction " Vug " - Open cavity in rocks, often lined with druses of crystals. johnnysau

 

[huntsman53]

Yeah most of those on that one are transparent inside. They have round white fluffy looking things in some of them though. Not sure what those are. That cluster is soaking in acid right now. Hopefully it will be clean soon. Here's one I found yesterday that I really like. It's soaking too. View attachment 935185

The round fluffy things might be from air bubbles being trapped inside the crystals when they were formed but then again, they could be something else. I love the ones with Dendrites inside as they are beautiful to put on display. I also visited John Coleman's Quartz Crystal Mines and Shop back in 1996 and saw a huge Gem quality Quartz crystal with a Spider trapped inside. If my memory serves me correctly, they had it priced at over $60,000 but it could have been more. They even had Quartz and Amethyst Crystal Cathedrals that were taller than me and I am 6' 1" tall. It was mind blowing to see all of the specimens.


Frank

 

[Lanny in AB]

Great pictures of your crystals! Thanks for posting them.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[chriseneim]

One of my recent finds