is there gold flour in this concentrate or has the fever taken over me?

[dirtwizard]

Hi guys my name is Mark and I am relatively new to the idea of crushing mineral rock for gold recovery. Been haunting this forum for weeks now and finally signed up the other day. Hoping some more seasoned eyes can confirm or rule out if there is gold flour in these pics among the other small particles. This material was all milled from one large stone and there is a lot left of it, maybe 80 pounds. This was the heaviest fine material from about 4 pounds of rock. I have a jewelers test kit on the way for various valuable metals to get a better idea what this is, if anything. I am not sure a test kit will be effective on such small pieces of whatever this is. The material in the bowl pictured is what was left in a blue bowl running low water pressure and has been swept over with a strong rare earth magnet to remove any magnetic particles. I can get an occasional metal detector signal from the plastic bowl that shows up as junk or foil using the fisher F2. I did not resize the pics as they are not the greatest quality to begin with.







The large stone this came from was at the edge of a fire pit for many years. I suspect the majority of the material I am seeing may be arsenopyrite (probably not spelled correctly) but I have read that you may find gold along with that or can somehow leach gold from it. What do you guys see? I am anxious for and appreciate any feedback or questions.

 

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[Fullpan]

welcome Mark - Just can't tell from the pics, sorry. Maybe another ten lbs of crush will answer the question. I don't think the test kit will help on that small
sample either. How about the next round of crushing, you leave the black magnetics just for better contrast in pics.

 

[dirtwizard]

thanks fullpan I plan on processing some more of it tomorrow during the daylight and will post pics pre-magnet. I'll add some pics of the host rock too. I guess then the next step is crush some more, gather some more dust and try to smelt it into a pellet to test with the jewelers kit.

 

[DesertNuggets]

Maybe invest in a jewelers loupe? I use one with a flashlight to check my cons for small gold.

When you see gold you'll know it!

 

[dirtwizard]

Thanks desertnuggets I ordered an LED illuminated jewelers loupe a few days ago from amazon. Just a cheap one for like 5 bucks. Hoping it comes in the mail today or tomorrow but I chose the free shipping option so who knows. My hand held magnifying glass doesn't reveal much on this small material.

I picked up a box of borax from town this morning. I've got a melt furnace set up I made a while back to melt down some aluminum I was molding with the lost wax process. If the snow stops falling I will try to melt some of this stuff later and see what happens. In the meantime it's time to pound rocks.

 

[Gold Maven]

A cheap 30x microscope works great too, Radio Shack has a pocket sized one, used to be 10 bucks. good luck.

 

[gold tramp]

hey mark
I have ore samples that have good visible gold in them, very good way to learn what your doing, having material that you know has gold in it from the start.
Email bbgminingco@hotmail.com

Good luck.

 

[TerryC]

If you are talking about lots of glittery specks in the pan, no. It is only "fool's gold". If you are talking about just a few specks, the loupe is the way to look. Your detector will not sound off on flour gold. Sorry. Welcome to the Net. TTC

 

[Oakview2]

It doesn't appear your blue bowl is doing its jobs separating. Too many light colored materials left after the process. The bowl should be clean and having nothing left but heavies. This video has some great pointers. Good health and good hunting

http://prospectingchannel.com/process-gold-concentrate.html