Help for Hard Rock noob

[Assembler]

"Access" well its hard to say, i have access right now, these workings are in a patch of hills which is quickly disappearing as the housing developers encroach from all sides. Right now its me just poking around at old workings in my area all of which are pre 1930s. But you are correct finding visible free mill gold would make purchasing more tools a lot easier to justify

May have to check out the rocks while you still can. Yes one can spend a lot on prospecting tools.

 

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[arthos]

First of all, get a big piece of cast iron to go with the sledge. Use a forward sliding motion, do not hammer on it, it seems to work better for grinding.
That's how I grind small samples for quick testing. I can easily get to -50 mesh in a 2-3 passes for smaller stuff, screening in between.

One day, I totally need to build a rock crusher for testing larger sample volumes.

Edit: And if you're not on a budget, get an assay done. Then you'll know for sure.

The grinding motion was definitely to way to go once it was small enough.

 

[Eu_citzen]

So I remembered I do have a piece of plate steel to work with so I went to town with the plate and 3 lb sledge. Did a small batch, paned it out. No gold but lots of this purple colored metal lead maybe? Silver? I still have materal from other areas at the same site to check, will try to give it least 1 more shotView attachment 1468168 looks like those pan pictures came out upside down.View attachment 1468169View attachment 1468170

Glad it worked out for you!

More likely to be a mineral; sulphide would be my guess. Bornite (a copper mineral) could be a prime suspect, due to it quickly tarnishing to a purplish hue.
But I'm only going off your description; difficult to tell from the pic.

 

[Twobrothers]

See if it will melt together. Lead will melt pretty easy.

 

[Twobrothers]

If its a sulfide mineral you'll smell that pretty quick too. Take obvious safety precautions of course.

It hard to tell from photos but it looks like something potentially shiny disseminated on the right side of the rock in pictures 1 and 6.

If you're in on and around a big ole quartz vein with iron and other mineralization the question probably isn't if but, where and in what quantities. Seek and you shall find.

 

[Eu_citzen]

See if it will melt together. Lead will melt pretty easy.

I'd recommend not to try that. Usual mineral ID routines are far safer and quite easy to perform.
Besides, the fumes can be deadly. DON'T do it.