Crush Worthy?

[Frank D.]

I was walking along a creek in PA not far from Delaware, and noticed an orange slime oozing out of the creek bank. I am guessing some kind of natural iron leaching process? Anyhow, these are some of the rocks I found with heavy mineralization going on. I broke them open with a hammer. Lots of blackish purple, red, and brown looking stains. Is it crush worthy? Has anyone found gold in rock like these?

 

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[Fullpan]

Hi Jayrock - go ahead and crush it all down, and pan it. Otherwise you'll never know unless you can afford an expensive assay. Most of us have done just what I'm advising you to do. Good luck, and let us know if you "strike it rich".

 

[Frank D.]

Thanks Fullpan for your reply. Can't afford an expensive essay, so I am in the process of building a small (12") rock crusher powered by a 3/4 horse electric motor for indoor use, and should have it finished by early this week. It has taken me a while to build because it took time to find free, and good deals on the materials needed. I am thinking to crushing it all to a fine powder, and then using Aqua Regia as my method to recover the gold. I believe that free gold in small portions is visable to the eye, so I also made a small (8" x 32") slate table that I can also put matting in if desired, that runs on a circulating pump. Thanks again for your reply, and any advice you could give to a newbie is much appreciated.

 

[eric91m]

Stay away from the AR. Without know exactly what is in the rock it will complicate the chemistry needed.

Just get out a pan after crushing it to ~100 mesh and see what your results are, just remember once its powdered it will not all absorb in water right away and a lot will float - you can fix this by letting it soak in water with occasional stirring or add some water to your impact mil, it needs to be a wet slurry. It will truly be the easiest way to see. Then if the results are decent go out and find even more of it.

 

[Frank D.]

Thanks very much eric91m for the great info. I appreciate it, and will do that first!

 

[Dustedyou]

Crush IT! GL and may you find the GOLD!

 

[Frank D.]

LOL. Thanks Dustedyou. Rock crusher is finished, and to my surprise actually works pretty killer. Just need to build a dust hood contraption which wont take long, so I can hook a shop vac up to it, and keep the air clean, and the dust away so the old lady won't kill me. haha

 

[Dustedyou]

LOL. Thanks Dustedyou. Rock crusher is finished, and to my surprise actually works pretty killer. Just need to build a dust hood contraption which wont take long, so I can hook a shop vac up to it, and keep the air clean, and the dust away so the old lady won't kill me. haha

Lol.. I got you there.. I got a huge one from harbor freight.. but to make your own isn't hard either.