i have thousands of tons of quartz

runebar

Tenderfoot
May 9, 2022
8
16
i have a river sand extraction and i get a lot of quartz

i probably have around 5000m³ of quartz and other rocks stacked up

my region isn't a great gold producer but the 3 gold mines in the states are located 40-70km from my sand extraction and we share the same river (i'm down river)

can someone send me some photos of quartz rocks that might contain gold?

biggest rocks i have are the size of a football ball and i found some with what i believe to be pyrite
 

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runebar , Welcome to the site & your first post ! For quartz that is stained or streaked with other minerals , look for black , red , purple ,orange or combinations of these colorations . This site has LOTS of pic's of these samples.
thank you for your reply

so white/golden quartz is useless? if that's the case is there anything i can do with these rocks? im selling at 5$/ton delivered and i'm having a hard time selling it

i'm definitly going to separate some rocks by color this weekend
 

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thank you for your reply

so white/golden quartz is useless? if that's the case is there anything i can do with these rocks? im selling at 5$/ton delivered and i'm having a hard time selling it

i'm definitly going to separate some rocks by color this weekend
I used to buy a lot of washed rock for roofing purposes.There were tons of rock like yours in among the loads,never saw any gold.This rock was from S.W.Arkansas around the Ouachita River area. 5 bucks a ton seems like a good price but maybe folks in your area just don,t need much rock. Good luck!
 

i have a river sand extraction and i get a lot of quartz

i probably have around 5000m³ of quartz and other rocks stacked up

my region isn't a great gold producer but the 3 gold mines in the states are located 40-70km from my sand extraction and we share the same river (i'm down river)

can someone send me some photos of quartz rocks that might contain gold?

biggest rocks i have are the size of a football ball and i found some with what i believe to be pyrite
Your post implies that you have what we call a sand and gravel plant. Some operations in gold areas here in the U.S. pan or process the sand screw sands (they are, in effect, a rough concentrate) when they clean them out. Those remains usually have a high percentage of heavy black sands and sometimes gold which they recover........Have you ever done any test panning?

Good luck.
 

thank you for your reply

so white/golden quartz is useless? if that's the case is there anything i can do with these rocks? im selling at 5$/ton delivered and i'm having a hard time selling it

i'm definitly going to separate some rocks by color this weekend
$5 a ton delivered??! Are you being serious? I’m trying to think if that even qualifies as “selling”. How do you justify processing it, loading it, trucking it…for the price of 1 gallon of fuel? Quartz can carry gold, but it’s only profitable when it is extracted as ore. However you never know, you might just recover some pure 24k gold if you crush and pan some of your quartz rocks. Silver is also known to run with gold.
 

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Your post implies that you have what we call a sand and gravel plant. Some operations in gold areas here in the U.S. pan or process the sand screw sands (they are, in effect, a rough concentrate) when they clean them out. Those remains usually have a high percentage of heavy black sands and sometimes gold which they recover........Have you ever done any test panning?

Good luck.
I'm definitly doing that.

I already washed some sand and found what i believe to be pyrite but i think there's some gold particles too (just one or two, they are heavier than the pyrite flakes)

I'll send that washed sand to a lab to get tested

$5 a ton delivered??! Are you being serious? I’m trying to think if that even qualifies as “selling”. How do you justify processing it, loading it, trucking it…for the price of 1 gallon of fuel?
Exactly but tbf i normally sell 60 tons per trip so is not that bad

I'm doing that to get ride of them because they are occupying quite a space

Quartz can carry gold, but it’s only profitable when it is extracted as ore. However you never know, you might just recover some pure 24k gold if you crush and pan some of your quartz rocks. Silver is also known to run with gold.

I'm going there this weekend and i'll look for some quartz that is stained with other colors

Thanks for your replies guys :)
 

I'm definitly doing that.

I already washed some sand and found what i believe to be pyrite but i think there's some gold particles too (just one or two, they are heavier than the pyrite flakes)

I'll send that washed sand to a lab to get tested


Exactly but tbf i normally sell 60 tons per trip so is not that bad

I'm doing that to get ride of them because they are occupying quite a space



I'm going there this weekend and i'll look for some quartz that is stained with other colors

Thanks for your replies guys :)
You must have a really nice truck to haul 60 tons per load.
I would love to know the model as well.
$5 per ton where are you located?
 

How far do you have to deliver these loads, in kilometers?
 

Runebar welcome to a fine forum. Your quartz pictures are stunning
Thanks for sharing
 

around 40km
Being that you haul 60 ton loads.
I now wonder how it's done when the legal load limits are less.

"The present legal limits in Brazil [1] establish a maximum GCW of 45 m-tons and axle loads of 6, 10, 17 and 25.5 m-tons respectively for steering axles, single axles with dual wheels, tandem axles and tridem axles."
So there seems to be some clarification on 60 ton loads
Would that be net weight or GVW?
 

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Being that you heal 60 ton loads.
I now wonder how it's done when the legal load limits are less.

"The present legal limits in Brazil [1] establish a maximum GCW of 45 m-tons and axle loads of 6, 10, 17 and 25.5 m-tons respectively for steering axles, single axles with dual wheels, tandem axles and tridem axles."
So there seems to be some clarification on 60 ton loads
Would that be net weight or GVW?
let's say is gross weight...
 

First, make sure that you have gold. If you do, adding a simple gold recovery rag plant on to the sand section of your separator could be profitable.
 

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runebar , Welcome to the site & your first post ! For quartz that is stained or streaked with other minerals , look for black , red , purple ,orange or combinations of these colorations . This site has LOTS of pic's of these samples.
WhatsApp Image 2022-05-16 at 08.06.51.jpeg
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like this?

i only found 3 rocks stained with red/orange...

the rest of them were mostly like this


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If there's no gold in your sand. I'd doubt there's gold in your bigger rock. The answer to your original question is that you should focus on checking your sand for gold as it is more likely you will find some and will be much easier to recover. Quartz is extremely common and doesn't usually indicate the presence of gold.
 

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