🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Alluvial Gold?

[Jackstraw20]

A friend sent me a photo of what he says is alluvial gold he has found in ancient riverbeds in Colorado over the years. Can anyone verify if he is correct and this is truly "alluvial gold."
Thanks very much!

 

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[flinthunter]

I'm iffy on this. If this yellow material came out of an ancient riverbed it should be rounded and worn smooth. Everything has sharp edges and corners. That doesn't mean there is not gold in it, it just means that in my opinion, what we are seeing is not pure gold.

 

[traveller777]

Thanks for posting.

Looks like siltstone with flakes of mica to me. I may be wrong on that but most certainly not gold. If you look closely you can see cracks in some of the stones. And as flinthunter pointed out, no weathering from a stream bed is apparent. Well maybe a slight amount but not what would be expected.
Specific gravity?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

All the bits in the pans appear to be fragments broken up from a larger whole that was of uniform thickness. I would rule out gold.

But then I'm not a prospector or geologist.

 

[Jackstraw20]

Thank you for the response everyone! Would it be a good idea for the samples to be sent to an assayer to be tested? If so what kind of assay should be done on these types of samples?
Thanks again,

John

 

[smokeythecat]

Before you do that, take a small piece and see if it crushes. If it is solid gold it will not crush. If it crushes, crush it again as fine as you can, and the pan it to see if any stays in the bottom of the pan. It will save you some time and money.

 

[traveller777]

Thank you for the response everyone! Would it be a good idea for the samples to be sent to an assayer to be tested? If so what kind of assay should be done on these types of samples?
Thanks again,

John

I will tell you what I would do. Take a hammer and hit some of the bigger chunks, especially the ones with cracks, and see if the shatter and break into buts and dust or if they are malleable.

 

[traveller777]

I will tell you what I would do. Take a hammer and hit some of the bigger chunks, especially the ones with cracks, and see if the shatter and break into buts and dust or if they are malleable.

I am fairly certain you are going to find it crumbles and is not malleable

 

[traveller777]

Let us know how your tests go. Good luck.

 

[xr7ator]

I've lived in CO all my life and spent a good amount of time looking for gold and I don't see any gold in the pics. Like others have said, take a piece and pummel it into dust and pan it. He clearly has three gold pans to put to use. It will all wash away except the heavy's which will include black sand. The gold will shine like no tomorrow in the black sand and against the green pan. Pyrite will kind of look like gold but when you shade it, it no longer shines. Plus, it will more than likely wash away with the light material, and, it flakes apart. Gold will shine in the sun or shaded with your hand. It's unmistakable once you know.

 

[Jackstraw20]

I will tell you what I would do. Take a hammer and hit some of the bigger chunks, especially the ones with cracks, and see if the shatter and break into buts and dust or if they are malleable.

I Soaked them all in Sulphuric Acid for 6 days and they didn't lose any color, I also boiled them and they conglomerated together in a soft malleable solid piece. I have also taken a few flakes, added some borax, and hit it with some map gas in a crucible. Gold was definitely seen under a microscope after I had created a "button" to the naked eye it looked more silver, but there was noticeable gold in the after product. Plus, I have used sulphuric acid many times and it eats away just about everything other than high grade gold ores. These all seem promising to me?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[Jackstraw20]

A friend sent me a photo of what he says is alluvial gold he has found in ancient riverbeds in Colorado over the years. Can anyone verify if he is correct and this is truly "alluvial gold."
Thanks very much!
View attachment 2027130

I Soaked them all in Sulphuric Acid for 6 days and they didn't lose any color, I also boiled them and they conglomerated together in a soft malleable solid piece. I have also taken a few flakes, added some borax, and hit it with some map gas in a crucible. Gold was definitely seen under a microscope after I had created a "button" to the naked eye it looked more silver, but there was noticeable gold in the after product. Plus, I have used sulphuric acid many times and it eats away just about everything other than high grade gold ores. These all seem promising to me?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

Thanks, John

 

[Jackstraw20]

I've lived in CO all my life and spent a good amount of time looking for gold and I don't see any gold in the pics. Like others have said, take a piece and pummel it into dust and pan it. He clearly has three gold pans to put to use. It will all wash away except the heavy's which will include black sand. The gold will shine like no tomorrow in the black sand and against the green pan. Pyrite will kind of look like gold but when you shade it, it no longer shines. Plus, it will more than likely wash away with the light material, and, it flakes apart. Gold will shine in the sun or shaded with your hand. It's unmistakable once you know.

I have also lived in CO a long time. I have found many telluride, quartz rocks with high gold content, ancient ingots that test at the 19 karat mark (what many say is the strength ofwhat they use to make ancient gold products) Anyway I have so many samples, legally procured either on private land I was given access to or acceptable places in the wilderness.

I now have about 2 tons of high grade ore and the alluvial gold weight I own is around 800 grams. (I know it's not 100% gold but after my tests with sulphuric acid I am pretty sure they are well above 75%-80%. I don't have a suitable area for a lab to try certain extraction methods. If anyone has any advice or could point me in the right direction, or would even be interested in partnering up to refine this gold, I am open to the idea if you have knowledge, procedures, and equipment, to back up your expertise.

I really have a lot of gold, platinum, palladium, silver, & copper, etc. I just don't know what to do next. Send me a private message and I am happy to send you emails with hi res microscopic photos of my ore, telluride, and other samples.

Cheers everyone,

John

 

[Doubter in MD]

Whoomp! There it is!

 

[Jackstraw20]

I will tell you what I would do. Take a hammer and hit some of the bigger chunks, especially the ones with cracks, and see if the shatter and break into buts and dust or if they are malleable.

Quite malleable actually. I simmered about 30 grams of it and it became one extremely malleable clump.

Any info on what that means?
My gold detector also makes the definitive "gold" sound when I place it above it. It is a Bounty Hunter Quick Draw 2 I believe.

 

[traveller777]

Quite malleable actually. I simmered about 30 grams of it and it became one extremely malleable clump.

Any info on what that means?
My gold detector also makes the definitive "gold" sound when I place it above it. It is a Bounty Hunter Quick Draw 2 I believe.

What do you mean by "simmer"? What is that.

There are some real super experienced gold miners and gold experts on here. I have detected and found nuggets and I know gold. But I would have thought by now the experienced gold people would have told you something.

 

[Jackstraw20]

What do you mean by "simmer"? What is that.

There are some real super experienced gold miners and gold experts on here. I have detected and found nuggets and I know gold. But I would have thought by now the experienced gold people would have told you something.

By simmering I mean I brought them to an almost boil in water. I have an electric kiln and am waiting for a new piece that goes inside and heats the gold and I am going to mortar & pestle a few grams, add a little borax, then heat the gold up to melting point and pour into a square ingot crucible. Seems like an okay idea right?

 

[traveller777]

By simmering I mean I brought them to an almost boil in water. I have an electric kiln and am waiting for a new piece that goes inside and heats the gold and I am going to mortar & pestle a few grams, add a little borax, then heat the gold up to melting point and pour into a square ingot crucible. Seems like an okay idea right?

Not sure what a boil in water does for you. Melting point of gold in over 1900F

 

[Jackstraw20]

Not sure what a boil in water does for you. Melting point of gold in over 1900F

Yeah, my electric kiln goes up to that temp, the boiling was just an experiment to see if the samples stayed hard or became malleable under "slight heat."

 

[pepperj]

Why not just phone around and find a pawn shop or a non-ferrous recycling company that has a XRF tester.
Then you can post the results up.
There seems to be one common element of all these type posts.
Nobody has had the testing done.
Really why is that?
If I thought for a minute I had something as you state, well the test would be first on the to do list.