Need I.D. help with rocks (Gold?)

[tomofnnh]

Hello (1st post here), this looks like the place to ask this question

I found these rocks near a river in southern New Hampshire (a rock clift was blasted to make room for a hydroplant). The rocks have a bunch of metal in them, some of it looks like gold, some looks like silver, and its even magnetic, and has crystals. Has anyone seen something like these before?

I have about 80-100 lbs of this stuff and dont know what i should do with it.

 

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[nebraskadad]

Could be AU with the quartz, but it could be pyrite.

send a sample to an assayer, if you are GPAA member you get two free assays per membership year.

If you want to do it yourself there are test kits for metals I'll do some checking to see who has them.

You can crush it up and pan it out to see if there is any freemilling gold in it.

 

[nebraskadad]

looking again it does appear to have pyrite,

if you crush it and the Yella stuff turns to powder you have pyrite, AU is malleable.

 

[stoney56]

Am I mistaken but doesn't pyrite also have a square look to it like salt crystals? A scratch test on unglazed porcelin also shows a difference if I remember my chemistry correctly. There was one other thing someone told me at one time, put it in direct sun then shade it with your hand. If it's gold it will still show with a glimmer. JMO, as getting ready for my 1st real panning trip in a few weeks.

 

[JakePhelps]

I think if you scratch it on a porcelain plate it will leave a black streak if its pyrite, forget what color gold leaves, jsut test your wedding ring or something

 

[GabbyGEP]

Stoney56
You are correct. Pyrite crystals normally have a square occurrence, but keep in mind that they can pseudomorph to any other crstalline form also. They will streak black on a streak plate as jake said. These seemt o have a square-looking face on some of them. Try scratching the face of a single crystal, if it is gold it will cut, if it is Pyrite it will scratch. Good luck on the identification.

GabbyGEP(Gaylord)

 

[stoney56]

Jake, gold leaves a gold streak on a scratch test.

 

[nebraskadad]

Crush it, and see if it powders when crushed. Pyrite will powder, it is brittle. Stoney, Pyrite is not always cubic, it depends on the way it was formed.

Pyrite will fiss or dissolve in certain types of acids..