Is this the Rock?

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Hi folks! I'm traveling up river looking for new spots to prospect. I have read in numerous times that you need to find mineral stained rocks if you want to find gold. I took this picture so that you good people could teach me.
It breaks easily with a rock pick. Recently I traveled to this same spot and looks like someone was chipping on some spots. Could this be a spot to prospect?

 

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[kcm]

Is that a fresh break there?

The green is nothing. The rust and black colors COULD be, but can't tell if those colors are IN or ON the rock.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

There in and out

 

[kcm]

Well, chip a chunk off, take it home, crush it and pan. See whatcha get. If the dark colors are throughout the rock, that's what I'd be doin'!!

Also, heat a piece of the darker material with a torch and see if it smells like rotten eggs. If so, that'll be sulfide ore, which needs more than simple crushing. ...Just don't breath a lot of the fumes. Gold ores often contain arsenic, mercury, lead and other hazardous minerals as well.

 

[Terry Soloman]

You have been misinformed. SAMPLE, SAMPLE, SAMPLE! Stop looking for stained rocks and start doing sample pans.

 

[Will3214]

That's true

 

[kcm]

Terry, if he's looking for a place to set up a sluice or highbanker, you're right. Sampling all the way. I assumed (gets me in trouble every time!) that he was looking for the source of the gold - trying to find the most likely point of the richest ground.

If THIS is the case, then do both - sample the gravels and also keep an eye out for heavily mineralized rocks, not unlike that one. Then sample the rocks. Obviously that is just a rock and no longer attached to the lode. But it would be a good indicator that he's getting warmer.

 

[TheCaribbeanDigger]

Basically thats a corner. Theres a huge rock coming out of the mountain where the river flows thats all like that. Same material, same color and hardness. I was thinking that it could be a vein?

 

[kcm]

Could be. ...Is "everything" covered in the green coating there?