am i in the 1 ounce club?

[beekbuster]

specific gravity test equates to 1.04 oz of gold... found 3 little ones and this one all in a perfect line!!!!!! and in line with the rest i found the other day....a big thankyou to ray mills for being so generous with sharing your wealth of knowledge.

 

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[beekbuster]

sdc 2300. the only reason i knew to search the area i did is from advice from ray mills. in a recent article he discussed how pocket gold runs in a line. so with that knowledge i drew a line between the 2 one gram nuggets i found in the area, and i just started clearing away all the deadfall. in 15 minutes i had my first .3 gram. another 20 mins i had another. an hour went by and i turned around and searched back towards my finds of the day and whamo! felt like i was dreaming. any detector could have found this chunk, but the sdc found the clues i needed to look where i did

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Sweet! Nice CHUNK.

I'd leave it alone for awhile...

Hydro-shocking really does not work very well in my experience.

If you want to expose some more gold, you can soak it in Wink rust remover.
It will dissolve the quartz, but also will leave it a white chalky color.
Sometimes it's worth it.

Beware - there is a skull and crossbones on the Wink container for a reason. It is diluted Hydroflouric acid.
Weak acid, yet the same molecule. The Hydroflouric molecule passes easily through your skin and remains persistent in your body.
Wear good rubber gloves, eye protection, and put it away where kids and pets can't get into it while it is soaking.
Helps to refresh the solution once a day.

If you only soak it for a short time (say 30-40 minutes) it will really brighten and clean the quartz without making it chalky. That's what I would probably do...just a serious cleaning to highlight the gold. It will take away a lot of the rusty/red appearance.

 

[Gravelwasher]

Before you do anything you might regret , reach out to a gold dealer. like Dave from goldbay.com

Always good to check with someone in the business of selling specimen gold. Plus there are some amazing pcs on goldbay

 

[Reed Lukens]

The specific gravity test won't be accurate because of all of the other minerals showing in the quartz. I've had them be way off in mineralized quartz because there was more iron then gold. But either way, I would etch the gold out because you do have a great looking specimen and with it being conductive all the way thru, it will look magnificent

 

[beekbuster]

with it being so close on the 1 oz margain i know the actual gold content is probably a little under an oz, but would not know for certain until all other elements are removed. i think the ultimate result would be to have the quartz dissolved professionally to expose only gold and have it cased? i need to give it some serious research, thought, and hear opinions before doing anything to it.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

with it being so close on the 1 oz margain i know the actual gold content is probably a little under an oz, but would not know for certain until all other elements are removed. i think the ultimate result would be to have the quartz dissolved professionally to expose only gold and have it cased? i need to give it some serious research, thought, and hear opinions before doing anything to it.

If you really want to know a close weight in gold content, gather quartz rocks with similar appearance near where you found the gold. Calculate the specific gravity of those rocks to use as the as the basis of your calculations. Soak all of the rocks including your specimen in water overnight before you do the test.

With a light acid wash you might just be happy with it as is (I would be).


Right now it’s something you can handle and hand to friends to check out.
Once you dissolve the quartz away, it’s a hands off affair.
If you were selling, most collectors would want to prepare the sample however they see fit.

 

[beekbuster]

If you really want to know a close weight in gold content, gather quartz rocks with similar appearance near where you found the gold. Calculate the specific gravity of those rocks to use as the as the basis of your calculations. Soak all of the rocks including your specimen in water overnight before you do the test.

With a light acid wash you might just be happy with it as is (I would be).


Right now it’s something you can handle and hand to friends to check out.
Once you dissolve the quartz away, it’s a hands off affair.
If you were selling, most collectors would want to prepare the sample however they see fit.

thats some solid advice. thanks.

 

[arizau]

Nice find! Who knows what your specimen piece might look like if the quartz is ever acid etched away.

Check this article and video (about the 58 second mark) by a local TV station of a 200 ounce specimen that is currently on display at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/37464300/gem-shows-big-one-underway. It was originally displayed, apparently in it's natural state, in a museum for many years then acquired by current owners who acid etched it. It is now for sale again and valued at about $1,000,000.

* I hope the video and article do not disappear before any and all can see it. If that happens then maybe googling "Gem show's big one underway - Tucson news now" will bring up the article(?).

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Nice find! Who knows what your specimen piece might look like if the quartz is ever acid etched away.

Check this article and video (about the 58 second mark) by a local TV station of a 200 ounce specimen that is currently on display at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/37464300/gem-shows-big-one-underway.* It was originally displayed, apparently in it's natural state, in a museum for many years then acquired by current owners who acid etched it. It is now for sale again and valued at about $1,000,000.

* I hope the video and article do not disappear before any and all can see it. If that happens then maybe googling "Gem show's big one underway - Tucson news now" will bring up the article(?).

Can you re-post the link? That one does not work.

My suggestion is to go out and find a smaller piece this weekend and play around with a combination of Wink, hydro-shock, and removing quartz with an engraving tool just to see how each method works or does not work.

You could always just use the crush method..JK

 

[arizau]

Can you re-post the link? That one does not work.

My suggestion is to go out and find a smaller piece this weekend and play around with a combination of Wink, hydro-shock, and removing quartz with an engraving tool just to see how each method works or does not work.

You could always just use the crush method..JK
View attachment 1548352

Try this one. Gem show's big one underway - Tucson News Now. It worked for me after I made this post.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Try this one.

Thanks. Impressive.

 

[beekbuster]

Exposing more gold won't devalue it. It most likely will increase its value to a collector.

Who wants a rock they "know" has more gold in it.

I would etch it with weak acid it will brighten up the quartz.

If you have continuity you can soak for a long time and end up with a cool fully exposed gold form

Taking some of the quartz off will get you a more accurate spec gravity weight as well.


Oh by the way since I got mine for a specimen with less gold in it I vote

BANNER

i was hoping that would take off, after i get it cleaned up ill post some new pics. thanks for the gesture though goldwasher. this is going to be a tough one to beat.

 

[IMPDLN]

I guess it's a matter of personal preference. I myself like to keep it as natural as possible when I find specimens. Just a toothbrush and water. At the very most an overnight soak in white vinegar if the gold itself is particularly dull. I tend to think of all the stuff on the rock with the gold as evidence. Nice to go back from time to time and scrutinize those specimens to see if they continue to give you clues or a better understanding of how it formed and why. My personal opinion is why destroy the evidence by dissolving it all away with acid. Might just as well destroy it in a dolly pot.

Of course I understand you might expose a particularly attractive matrix of gold in crystal form. You might also end up with a specimen so delicate you can't do anything but lock it under glass. It might also fall apart during the process and then you just have a pile of gold, as if from the dolly pot. Dennis

 

[RTR]

2X on keeping it as a "specimen". I've been tempted to crack this open.But gold is gold.And specimens are one of a kind. To the eye this looked like just another quarts.But my trusty MD-20 was going crazy >> http://falconmetaldetectors.com/. So with hammer & chisel I separated a vain 1/2" below the surface to expose this

 

[beekbuster]

i havnt decided what to do with it yet. i need to do some tests on some rusty quartz first. i just wish i could see more of the gold. 120g dry weight 84 wet weight. the sg tests equate to between .91-1.04 oz. and i can only see a couple grams of it. maybe there is a way to take away some quartz on one side while leaving the other side unaffected?

 

[arizau]

i havnt decided what to do with it yet. i need to do some tests on some rusty quartz first. i just wish i could see more of the gold. 120g dry weight 84 wet weight. the sg tests equate to between .91-1.04 oz. and i can only see a couple grams of it. maybe there is a way to take away some quartz on one side while leaving the other side unaffected?

Retirement communities/centers often have lapidary equipment/thin kerf diamond saws and would be happy to cut a sliver off your find then polish the cut sides. You could display the pieces whichever way you want and there is little chance of degradation other than they will not be entirely natural. The smaller piece could even be reshaped and used as a setting for a ring* or pendant. Note: have them save the cuttings so you can pan out the gold.

*Check out Terry Soloman's post here for one example. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/hard-rock-mining/569930-16-1-a.html

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

i havnt decided what to do with it yet. i need to do some tests on some rusty quartz first. i just wish i could see more of the gold. 120g dry weight 84 wet weight. the sg tests equate to between .91-1.04 oz. and i can only see a couple grams of it. maybe there is a way to take away some quartz on one side while leaving the other side unaffected?

Just get out there and find a bigger one with more gold showing.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

i havnt decided what to do with it yet. i need to do some tests on some rusty quartz first. i just wish i could see more of the gold. 120g dry weight 84 wet weight. the sg tests equate to between .91-1.04 oz. and i can only see a couple grams of it. maybe there is a way to take away some quartz on one side while leaving the other side unaffected?

Hey Beekbuster... I don't blame you a bit for feeling this way. In your shoes I would probably take the same view. Why not look into it, maybe contact someone locally who has experience with treating specimens, perhaps remove a portion of the quartz on one side of the rock to hopefully expose more gold. But don't risk ruining the specimen, the guys above have given you good advice in that respect.

Treating / removing quartz is out of my experience because up here our native silver is nearly always embedded in easy-to-remove carbonate rock by using dilute hydrochloric acid. There is plenty of advice available on this subject over on Steve's "Detector-Prospector" forum. For example, using pre-dilute hydrofluoric acid (2%) in commercially available products at the local hardware store. I can't remember the name of the stuff at the moment but you will see it.

Be darn careful with any such products not to overdo it, and of course unfailingly pay strict attention to your personal safety.

Jim.

PS: Almost forgot.... oxalic acid to remove rust stains from quartz is the standard procedure for rockhounds up here.

 

[beekbuster]

i brought back some quartz to do some testing with. im not touching hydrofloric, at any dilution. ill see what the oxalic does to my test pieces. i pulled them from the same hole as a 5.5 grainer on the same line.

 

[63bkpkr]

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