Gold in slate, or stick to the quartz?

[formosa]

I have been looking lots in the rovers and landslide areas locally and there is some gold found in the quartz and also some loose gold found in the rivers (snorkeling for it to look). I have found pyrite pieces in what seems to be nothing but slate, random globs of t. would it be worth cracking open such rocks to look for gold as well, or is the quartz vein a better use of energy and time?

 

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[triple d]

If its the rusty crumbly stuff. I would crush some. If there pyrite good chance theres gold in it.

 

[arizau]

I'm not an expert but will I offer my understanding. Slate is a sedimentary rock so unless there was some volcanic intrusion that deposited gold and other minerals in the form of veins then I would stick to quartz. Quartz veins are an indicator of volcanic intrusion and often there are some metal minerals associated with it including gold.

 

[AlienAmerican]

I've found good gold in slate. It kinda acts like natural riffles. Quartz may be hard to work if you are a typically placer miner. I wouldn't know how to mine hard rock even if I found gold there. A big hammer?

 

[formosa]

thanks for the input~ I suppose im lucky in that i am always within throwing distance of a decent water flow, so sluicing is the go here. these valleys re too deep and rough terrain for machines. basically anything gets processed more or less in the field.

quartz is nice because it is easy to bash into pieces, the slate will as well but takes a lot more work. to be truthful, i am not very knowledgeable about geology yet, im learning lots now but i could be off on the rock. its harder than shale so i call it slate. layered grey rock.... here are a couple of pics of the type of rock i am talking about with metals inside. i know its not gold, it oxidizes (?) fast with a red and black coating. i used some 1500 sand paper to show its true color for the picture. normally the rock i find isnt so much of the metal, but it is common to find rocks with about 5-20% of hat is pictured (rough visual estimate). pyrite is also semi common along with the dirty red kind of quartz. i have taken a hammer and crow bar to some of the slate to tke home some pretty pyrite to give to students, but it wasnt what i would call easy work if it was just winging it for gold. there are areas stained with red in the slate too. im not sure if its iron or copper, both are found here.

 

[arizau]

If you are interested in recovering gold with minimal effort then your best bet is to continue snorkeling/sniping/crevicing (above and below waterline), etc. in known gold producing areas. There are some tips about those methods in some of the threads on this forum. I might include the collection of a few loose quartz pieces with signs of obvious metal mineralization and crush and pan to see what is inside. Even that is usually not productive unless there is visible gold on the piece or a metal detector indicates a metal presence. You are probably aware that pieces with visible gold can be collector items with values higher than the contained gold if it were liberated.

What ever you do, good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[meMiner]

There is greater odds of hard rock gold (source) associated with quartz and placer gold (eroded) with slate. As stated, upturned slate makes for a great gold trap. Slate is not a great place for source gold, unless you find it intruded, which happens in some areas. ie. the slate was there first and then there was a later geologic event that forced intrusions into the older rock.

 

[atomicscott]

thanks for the input~ I suppose im lucky in that i am always within throwing distance of a decent water flow, so sluicing is the go here. these valleys re too deep and rough terrain for machines. basically anything gets processed more or less in the field.

quartz is nice because it is easy to bash into pieces, the slate will as well but takes a lot more work. to be truthful, i am not very knowledgeable about geology yet, im learning lots now but i could be off on the rock. its harder than shale so i call it slate. layered grey rock.... here are a couple of pics of the type of rock i am talking about with metals inside. i know its not gold, it oxidizes (?) fast with a red and black coating. i used some 1500 sand paper to show its true color for the picture. normally the rock i find isnt so much of the metal, but it is common to find rocks with about 5-20% of hat is pictured (rough visual estimate). pyrite is also semi common along with the dirty red kind of quartz. i have taken a hammer and crow bar to some of the slate to tke home some pretty pyrite to give to students, but it wasnt what i would call easy work if it was just winging it for gold. there are areas stained with red in the slate too. im not sure if its iron or copper, both are found here.

Looks like a magnetite rock? Another good sign for AU.