I need answers!!!

[magrudersGold]

Please help. What looks like gold and acts like gold but isn't gold I know what pyrite looks like but I can crush my fine "gold" with a rock and gold shouldn't break. All I wanna know is the name of this substance

 

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[Hunt4gold]

Need more information... To start with, take close-up photos with tripod or the best that you can of the material. Have you looked at it under a loupe? Crystalline shape? With photos and better defined description, I am guessing that someone will come up with possible name for your mystery material.

 

[winners58]

I'm with hunt4gold look at it under a 40x jewelers loupe,
could be other minerals or sulfides, gold sometimes runs with pyrite.

 

[magrudersGold]

 

[magrudersGold]

What do you mean description There's no description it looks and acts EXACTLY like gold in the pan but idk why it crushes

 

[magrudersGold]

Sorry my cam sucks close

 

[Bodfish Mike]

Magnification is you friend

 

[arizau]

Calaverite, AuTe2, is a heavy, sometimes yellow, gold and tellurium mineral and it's specific gravity is higher than black sand so it could separate out/act much like gold in a pan. I did not find any documented presence at your location but it has been associated with ore deposits along the Rio Grande rift and you are on it there in Albuquerque. Here are a couple of links for you about Calaverite and it's distribution in New Mexico. https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/periodicals/nmg/38/n1/nmg_v38_n1_p17.pdf. Calaverite: Calaverite mineral information and data.. Some have suggested that you get a loupe/jewelers and geologists magnifying glass. Do that and check and compare what you have to the pictures in the second link. It is brittle so it can be crushed even though it is largely gold. I think I read somewhere that if it is heated the gold will separate out but I really don't remember for sure so.... Maybe others can help you on that. If it is Calaverite, then that may account for the color differences you have noted before in another thread.

Good luck.

 

[magrudersGold]

Thanks [emoji28][emoji1] so it does have gold?

 

[arizau]

Calaverite contains gold but.....you may or may not have Calaverite.

 

[magrudersGold]

Hmm this stuff looks like pyrite

 

[magrudersGold]

If it's not calaverite what could it be

 

[arizau]

Those are crystals on matrix and what you have has been weathered by erosion, etc.

 

[magrudersGold]

Oh ok I really appreciate it(: as long as it's gold I'm good

 

[arizau]

You are just up the road from U.N.M so there may be someone there in it's geology dept. that can help you identify what you have or tell if any Calaverite has ever been noted maybe on one of their geology field trips or in a graduate students dissertation about local geology.

 

[magrudersGold]

Yeah need a car first I'm really really close to New Mexico community college

 

[kcm]

Looks like you could use one of these:




They're only $26 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DDJAGUS/?tag=treasurenet01-20

It actually does a pretty decent job of magnifying and then snapping a pic. The base is 100% plastic, but still much better than a previous model I had purchased that had a heavy metal stand, but wouldn't stay in position.

 

[magrudersGold]

Thanks I do need it haha

 

[hogtucker]

put a little hydrochloric or nitric acid or gind dowm to 100 mesh and try the acid been placer mining for 40 years ,,am 65 know how to get all the black sand out of 100 mesh gold,but can't figure how to get the monazite crystal out other smelting hog tucker

 

[Bonaro]

Pyrite can look very much like gold but if you can crush it under a knife blade and it shatters....it's not gold