Gold Ore

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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I crushed a 1/4 bucket of float from around the house today and panned to see if there was any gold. A little flour and a couple of tweezer sized pickers but the gold is a lot cleaner/ brighter. I have cows clearing ground for me not one rock is safe now. If I could just get my son to bring home an excavator for a few days. I could rip out some quartz veins that show all over our place just a little testing no gold I'll fill the holes.
 

Ohiogoldfever

Hero Member
Oct 15, 2020
589
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Dayton Ohio
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I crushed a 1/4 bucket of float from around the house today and panned to see if there was any gold. A little flour and a couple of tweezer sized pickers but the gold is a lot cleaner/ brighter. I have cows clearing ground for me not one rock is safe now. If I could just get my son to bring home an excavator for a few days. I could rip out some quartz veins that show all over our place just a little testing no gold I'll fill the holes.


Unfortunately no gold baring quarts Veins in Ohio, let alone in the back yard! Love it.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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Crushed random 1/4 bucket of Quartz float from a little walk on the place good exercise for my old self. Some color and micro balls of gold.
 

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Tesorodeoro

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Jan 21, 2018
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Crushed random 1/4 bucket of Quartz float from a little walk on the place good exercise for my old self. Some color and micro balls of gold.
Do you feel confident that your equipment was completely gold free before you started? Great problem to have, where all your equipment is “contaminated”.
 

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southfork

southfork

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Jun 15, 2014
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California
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Do you feel confident that your equipment was completely gold free before you started? Great problem to have, where all your equipment is “contaminated”.
Yes, I'm sure I clean the inside of the machine with a brush before each sample. And a 1/4 bucket is my limit when carrying up a hill.
 

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southfork

southfork

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My gold fix for the day it's getting warm. I cleaned a crucible with Borax / washing Soda / Silica sand in the furnace for 1-hour. Then water dropped a small amount of slag crushed and panned it. I'll save this slaggy gold for a re- smelt nice clean green transparent slag
 

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southfork

southfork

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Too hot for mining I was cleaning specimens until the heat chased me indoors. This piece had been soaking in Wink for two weeks my solution is exhausted time for a new bottle. 43 grams mostly gold now just a thin layer of quartz covering the gold.
 

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desertgolddigger

Bronze Member
May 31, 2015
1,018
1,870
Twentynine Palms, California
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Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
QUESTIONS?:

Can gold be completely surrounded by white quartz? If so, I'm guessing only a metal detector could find that hidden gold. So, I'm wondering if the Old Timers (OTs) quit looking when they saw just clean white quartz. We have about a dozen quarts pits, shafts, and even one cave on our claim. Is it possible the OTs actually missed some gold veins, although probably very small ones? Is it possible that some of the debris they piled outside their dig might contain something like southfork has seemed to keep finding?

If any of these questions elicits a yes, maybe I should reconsider investing in a metal detector. :-)
 

crashbandicoot

Gold Member
Sep 27, 2020
12,129
27,099
Dumas,AR
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QUESTIONS?:

Can gold be completely surrounded by white quartz? If so, I'm guessing only a metal detector could find that hidden gold. So, I'm wondering if the Old Timers (OTs) quit looking when they saw just clean white quartz. We have about a dozen quarts pits, shafts, and even one cave on our claim. Is it possible the OTs actually missed some gold veins, although probably very small ones? Is it possible that some of the debris they piled outside their dig might contain something like southfork has seemed to keep finding?

If any of these questions elicits a yes, maybe I should reconsider investing in a metal detector. :-)
Get one,it,ll be fun even if you don,t find gold!
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
QUESTIONS?:

Can gold be completely surrounded by white quartz? If so, I'm guessing only a metal detector could find that hidden gold. So, I'm wondering if the Old Timers (OTs) quit looking when they saw just clean white quartz. We have about a dozen quarts pits, shafts, and even one cave on our claim. Is it possible the OTs actually missed some gold veins, although probably very small ones? Is it possible that some of the debris they piled outside their dig might contain something like southfork has seemed to keep finding?

If any of these questions elicits a yes, maybe I should reconsider investing in a metal detector
All the specimens I've been showing were found with a metal detector. They were completely covered with host rock and dumped on a mine waste pile. Also, the float we have been picking up all over the place contains gold but don't set the detectors off no signal. But most of the oxidized pieces contain gold and that's what we have been crushing and processing to extract the gold. I just gather what's rusty and crusty and trying to keep a mental picture of where the better float comes from. The ore is a lot more work I need a jaw crusher to break everything down to smaller pieces before the chain mill. More dollars to be spent but it would make things a lot easier for me the sledgehammer is too much work for my old bones. I've been nursing a sore lower back for over a week now for a couple of grams lol.
 

desertgolddigger

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May 31, 2015
1,018
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Twentynine Palms, California
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Primary Interest:
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Can someone recommend something I can use to chip away at the face of an open pit mine that's got lots of quartz. I thought a hammer and chisel might work, but I read a regular hammer and chisel won't hack the job.

This is possibly something I would purchase along with the metal detector. I would just love to find a specimen like southfork seems to find occasionally. Something like that would make my year.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
My son has been using a battery powered roto hammer to drill a series of holes. Then the hammer and chisels breakout the ore all hard manual labor. But it's too hot now even for gold or a chance of gold.
 

desertgolddigger

Bronze Member
May 31, 2015
1,018
1,870
Twentynine Palms, California
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
My son has been using a battery powered roto hammer to drill a series of holes. Then the hammer and chisels breakout the ore all hard manual labor. But it's too hot now even for gold or a chance of gold.
Yeah, it's stifling right now. 112F today. I might try something when it cools. It seems no one, as far as I can tell, has moved any of the mine tailings, unless their detector got a signal. You can't find anything deeper in such a pile, unless you move some material first. I thought about sifting some, and then running the results through my dry washer.

Who knows, maybe some smaller gold escaped the OTs.

Good luck at your site. Hope you can show us more interesting specimens.
 

Tesorodeoro

Bronze Member
Jan 21, 2018
1,216
1,903
Primary Interest:
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Yeah, it's stifling right now. 112F today. I might try something when it cools. It seems no one, as far as I can tell, has moved any of the mine tailings, unless their detector got a signal. You can't find anything deeper in such a pile, unless you move some material first. I thought about sifting some, and then running the results through my dry washer.

Who knows, maybe some smaller gold escaped the OTs.

Good luck at your site. Hope you can show us more interesting specimens.
Really depends on the type of load deposits your property has. The majority of the gold ore in the world contains microscopic gold at concentrations that are not detectable with a metal detector.
 

Reed Lukens

Silver Member
Jan 1, 2013
2,653
5,417
Congres, AZ/ former California Outlawed Gold Miner
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Vaquero, Whites MXT, Vsat, GMT, 5900Di Pro, Minelab GPX 5000, GPXtreme, 2200SD, Excalibur 1000!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Can someone recommend something I can use to chip away at the face of an open pit mine that's got lots of quartz. I thought a hammer and chisel might work, but I read a regular hammer and chisel won't hack the job.

This is possibly something I would purchase along with the metal detector. I would just love to find a specimen like southfork seems to find occasionally. Something like that would make my year.
I use an SPS+ everytime I go out. Then I use the Sierra Blaster when I need to move giant boulders or break rock. Look in the Hardrock section for more info on all types of blasting and hardrock mining.



 

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