Inside A quartz rock, worthless??

[Jefthund]

Hi all, I was up at the river smashing up quartz rocks looking for anything of value when I came across these pieces not sure what it is inside. I am not a geologist or have I been doing this long, but I was hoping it was silver? Maybe a worthless mineral??


First two pictures are of the rock it was inside. The last three are pieces from inside the rock. Sorry if these pictures are not great, had a hard time focusing on these smaller pieces.

 

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[Rawhide]

get a jeweler loop and keep it with you. research is important. did you do a geological history search? Is there any mines close to the area? Why do you think there is silver here? Why are you breaking rocks? I love rocks, I metal detect, I pan, and even look for points when out. If I am seeing your picture right you have rose or red quartz. The quartz gets its color from the heavy minerals mixed inside it.

 

[Jefthund]

Thanks for responding Casca! This was found near the lower part of the North American River around Colfax, CA. This area was rich in lode and placer mining for gold although I am unsure how rich in silver this area is. As I travel down this particular road there are still five open mines on the side of the mountain showing how rich this area is (or used to be). I go down there panning and sluicing and while digging find many quartz rocks with dark grey and red/eroding looking areas on them. I use to ignore them until I read that a good amount of gold can be found inside if you are lucky enough. The color inside this particular rock is very grey with the smaller pieces having a silvery/grey shine to them especially in the sunlight. There was this rose looking quartz, as you call it, running through the rock. I will def have to pick up a loop if I am considering to keep up this hobby, thanks for the recommendation. Though I'm not sure what I am looking for when using the loop lol. I can try to take a few better close-ups to see if that can help.

I broke open a few rocks that day and this was the only rock I found with this light grey metallic looking material inside of it.