GOLD FLAKES OR NOT

[tomkip]

I found this gold like flakes and put it inside a plastic bottle(attachments) on the outer bend of the river that has been eaten into by the water. The rock containing the flakes is black and it is below a hard rock. It can be easily be scooped or chiseled out when wet and crumbles to become sand like but cannot easily break when dry. could it be gold?
note: I have never done gold prospecting before, neither do I have tools to test it.

 

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[crusty]

I found this gold like flakes and put it inside a plastic bottle(attachments) on the outer bend of the river that has been eaten into by the water. The rock containing the flakes is black and it is below a hard rock. It can be easily be scooped or chiseled out when wet and crumbles to become sand like but cannot easily break when dry. could it be gold?
note: I have never done gold prospecting before, neither do I have tools to test it.

Pyrite. You don't "find" gold on the surface, especially in that quantity

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[smokeythecat]

Welcome. Gold and iron pyrite FeS02, do occur together. In Colorado, it is quite possible the pyrite contains some gold. Here's a quick test for the OVERALL type of mineral. If you can smash it with a hammer, its the iron pyrite. However, that being said, you would have to figure a way to smelt out the gold from the iron. That takes a bit of work.

 

[winners58]

might not be pyrite, more likely Mica
you can put it in a flat pan and swish it around, if it seems floaty its mica.
pyrite will hang close to the same as the iron or black sand.
ether one or the other, both are called fools gold...

 

[russau]

My best friend came back from Colorado Springs and went up the pikes peek road and on the side of the road he thought he had found a enormous amount of fine gold and scooped up a coffee cup full of it. when he got home he told me of his find and I (The jerk that I am) laughed out loud about it over the phone. He probly didn't like that but I told him I'd come down the next day with my pan and show him all the mica/pyrite that he got and how to tell the difference! Now he know's the difference!

 

[nh.nugget]

We have rocks like that here in NH. It's mostly yellow Mica they are neat to look at. We get a kick out of the flat-lander newbies when they find them. running around going look at all the gold I found! LOL! We don't tell them we just say you did good! LOL!

 

[Jimmydolittle]

Pyrite. You don't "find" gold on the surface, especially in that quantity

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Put a piece of it on a hard, flat surface, and hit it with a hammer. If it shatters, it isn't gold, if it flattens, then you have gold.