Noob Needs some Help

H&F909ORO

Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
410
Reaction score
243
Golden Thread
0
Location
California East Bay
Primary Interest:
Other
Hi All,

When I went out on the North Fork American river a week ago, a friend gave me a quartz specimen. It was a look and grab meaning he found it picked it up and gave it to me. He was quite brief on the info on how to crush it, but I decided to try. I went home and took it out lightly chipped to decomposing area off with a rock hammer and put it into my pan. To my surprise I found 3 tiny specks in about two teaspoons of dirt. My question is how does one go about crushing it into flour? I will say this now that I am only trying to expand my knowledge on the hard rock mining, this would be a secondary to getting gold. My first would be placer. I just would like to know how can you crush it using minimal tools.

Thanks,
H&F
 

Cast iron mortar and pestle is most common. But any way that you can crush it and still contain all the particles is acceptable.
You can easily make one out of pipe. If you make one out of pipe do NOT use galvanized, as it will flake off. Use black iron pipe only.





GG~
 

Last edited:
If you don't want to spend money just put it in a ziplock bag and hammer it to death.
 

some kind of cloth bag or heavy duty sock even better. If you can crush and contain simultaneously you will be better off.
 

DesertNuggets I tried your idea and it sorta worked out. I knew already that the bag was going to rip but I still got something out of it. I think I might go to the sick idea and find something that won't rip. Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom