may have found gold?

[texasdog]

hello! i am new to the forum and have just began learning to pan for gold. i found this in some red dirt with black sand, granite/quartz, and obvious pieces of mica. i'm not sure if these are gold colored mica or gold and i was hoping you guys could help me out. it does collect relatively easily, but if there's no jet dry it will float out of the pan. i'm having a hard time figuring it out because there's definitely some mica in there. here are some pics:

 

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[bobw53]

I ran into the same problem at one point.... Is it? or Isn't it?

Once you see it in your pan, you'll know it...
Gold is HEAVY!!!! That can't be stressed enough.... You can be incredibly violent and unskilled with your pan and your chances of
losing gold, especially easily visible gold is literally slim to none... If you have to pan carefully to keep the gold stuff in the pan, its not
gold.

If its coming out of your pan, its not gold, simple as that...

Get your hands on some real gold... Either pay dirt (which is fun, but a money loser), or buy some flakes and pickers on e-bay...
Once you see the good stuff, and how it behaves, and what it looks like, you'll be able to see right past the gold colored stuff
that isn't gold...

Some of the stuff on those rocks look pretty promising. Some of it is pyrite or mica or some other gold colored pretty stuff that only gets your hopes up, but
there is some good looking stuff in there.

 

[wingmaster]

Gold should be the last thing to move in the pan, mica will move with the light sands in the pan. If you pan slow and careful you should be able to keep the gold pretty much together in the pan, where the mica will move easily and not stay in one spot at all. The stuff that's in layers in the rock look like mica to me, I've got pieces of rock with layers of mica like that from NC. Try and smash those pieces as mica will crumble and if its gold it will stay together, hope you found some gold though.

 

[The Gilded Lens]

Third pic on the upper left corner looks interesting. The large glob on the lower right of it is definitely mica, look at the way it is in sheets. It will also change color in the light. It will look shiny/sparkly one way and dull black/brown another way. Gold just looks like gold no matter what and doesn't have a sparkly so much as a shine. Take those and pan them out and see what's left over. Also, if it's mica it will split or smear when you stick your fingernail into it.

 

[texasdog]

thanks guys! i'm just going to keep panning it and maybe get a testing kit. i'll let you know if i find any gold

 

[fowledup]

Couple things. No expensive tests needed. If the 'shine' remains the same no matter how you turn it, it's probably gold. If it flickers and shimmey's probably not. Smash it- if it flattens out and doesn't break it's gold. Gold can be pounded so thin you can see thru it. You can also scrape a piece on your shovel head, pick, or metal pan, anything that will allow the test piece to leave material behind. This is called a streak test. Gold will leave behind yellow. Pyrite will leave behind black, black green. You can also tell by shape, look through a magnifying glass or Loupe, if its got sharp angular flat sides like parallelagrams (sp?) or sides of a pyramid, probably pyrite. Lastly for some reason when it's real you just know you don't even question it. (insert twilight zone theme music here)- Good luck

 

[texasdog]

i purchased a gold testing kit, here's a picture of a sample in 22k acid:

 

[SierraMadre]

Just mash on it with the flat side of your pocket knife blade. If it breaks or crumbles, it ain't gold

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Agreed, but from that pic it looks like its the real deal.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Third pic on the upper left corner looks interesting. The large glob on the lower right of it is definitely mica, look at the way it is in sheets. It will also change color in the light. It will look shiny/sparkly one way and dull black/brown another way. Gold just looks like gold no matter what and doesn't have a sparkly so much as a shine. Take those and pan them out and see what's left over. Also, if it's mica it will split or smear when you stick your fingernail into it.

Yes, it does; mica usually does not have such shape/character.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mica, and most other minerals, do not react to gold testing solutions. A gold test kit is only useful for determining the relative purity of a known gold article. It will not determine if a mineral sample contains gold.

Learn the simple physical tests for minerals. The poke test, already pointed out by others, is one of the easiest tests and in most cases will separate the fools gold from the real thing. Gold is very malleable and has no "cleavage" but most other minerals will break apart (cleave) in predictable ways.

Another important and easy test is the streak test. Rub the "gold" on a piece of unglazed ceramic and see what color it produces. In nature gold is one of the few minerals that will leave a metallic gold colored streak. The bottom of your toilet lid is unglazed ceramic. If you are going to be doing this a lot you might consider spending a dollar or two for a piece of unglazed tile, you can break it into smaller pieces so you can carry a small piece when you are out in the field.

Once you have experienced free gold in a pan or even in a rock you will be able to eliminate 99% of the gold colored rocks you find. Gold is distinctive enough that it's presence will be obvious with even a little real world experience.

Prospecting is a skill like any other skill. It takes practice to become good at it. Keep at it and you will soon gain the experience needed to separate the gold from the rocks.

Heavy Pans

 

[texasdog]

thanks for the input everybody. I smashed a piece and it sure does smear and leave a gold streak. Looks like its the real thing!

 

[Fermion]

When I first started panning, I was fooled by mica. Once I found some gold specs (by mossing) I was never fooled by mica again. Gold just doesn't move much. You can watch mica roll and slosh like a piece of driftwood in the surf when you swish the water in the pan, but even the smallest little gold specs are stubborn and stay in one place, the dense little *******s!

 

[texasdog]

i just poked it with a pin and it did make a dent. also smashed it with the top of a thumbtack and took a picture of the reaction - let me know what y'all think. it does break apart easily, but it also tend to stick together.

 

[Fermion]

i just poked it with a pin and it did make a dent. also smashed it with the top of a thumbtack and took a picture of the reaction - let me know what y'all think. it does break apart easily, but it also tend to stick together.

View attachment 1146734

Sorry, I think that is mica. Once you pan gold, you won't really need to ask. It is that obvious!

But hey, I could be wrong.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Mica...sorry.

 

[texasdog]

well i found a few more rocks and i'm not entirely convinced that it's all mica, though there is some definite mica in there. it's very shiny, when it's in the sun it's almost like a mirror. the only thing is it's very fragile and i've only found very small pieces so it's hard to test it out. here's a few more pictures..just want to make sure because there were a few different answers on here. i messed with the lighting in photoshop so you could see the texture better as i don't have the best lense for close up photos.

 

[arizau]

well i found a few more rocks and i'm not entirely convinced that it's all mica, though there is some definite mica in there. it's very shiny, when it's in the sun it's almost like a mirror. the only thing is it's very fragile and i've only found very small pieces so it's hard to test it out. here's a few more pictures..just want to make sure because there were a few different answers on here. i messed with the lighting in photoshop so you could see the texture better as i don't have the best lense for close up photos.

View attachment 1170695View attachment 1170696View attachment 1170697View attachment 1170698View attachment 1170699

If it shines in sunlight only and is fragile then it is probably not gold. Gold does not lose it's color when shaded. Crush a/the rock(s) down and pan it to make sure.

 

[bobw53]

If it shines in sunlight only and is fragile then it is probably not gold. Gold does not lose it's color when shaded. Crush a/the rock(s) down and pan it to make sure.

Gold also doesn't change color based on the direction you are looking at it... When I *think* I've found gold in a rock, I will move my microscope to a different angle, if
it still looks the same, I'll go to a third angle, and if it still looks the same, then its usually gold...

Mica and pyrite tend to change color or sheen when viewed from a different angle..

Just crush some up and pan her... That'll tell you really quick whats in there.

Also getting your hands on some real gold to compare to is not a bad idea... You can get a 0.1 gram bag of gold on e-bay for like $7... Get the
finest stuff they have, and preferably a mix of sizes with emphasis on the tiny stuff.

Its one of those things... Once you see it, you'll always know it.