Quartz rocks and gold

[Patfoundit]

OK, guys and girls. I need some info. I have Googled this and searched this site for an answer, I haven't found one yet. I own a piece of property in Virginia in a known gold producing area. While building my house and doing some rock hounding I discovered several huge quartz crystals. Some 5-6" across and perfectly shaped. Iv'e been reading that quartz and gold travel together. I just haven't found anything about gold and quartz crystals. The quartz seem to be in a loose rock formation. I hope that is the right terminology. because I find large quartz rocks on the surface. There are two small creeks that run through my property and Iv'e always told the wife that someday I wanted to run a gold pan through the creek. As with everything in life, we got busy and wound up moving before I got to it. There is a lot of red clay on the property and lots of quartz on the bank behind the house. I have not done any panning yet because I'm 600 miles away. I have the house up for sale or rent, I do plan on going there soon before another renter moves in. I was just looking for any advise or knowledge on the subject before I made the trip. I also plan on running my medal detector over the site with a little more patience. Thanks in advance for any input.

 

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[Goldwasher]

Def. associated,some of the finest crystals in the world have come from gold mines
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/68027-new-crystal-pics.html

And there you go if you can find gold in crystals then you can find it near crystals and as Terry has said being in an area that is mineralized and has thrown color before is key.

 

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[dirtwizard]

I've been experimenting with crushing quartz as well as other crystallized and interesting looking rocks with visible mineral "mash ups". Welded up a crude, sledge hammer powered rock crusher with help from a friend that makes pretty light work of the crushing. I am using a home made blue bowl to sort out the heavier materials from the crushed rock. I believe what I am ending up with is a mixture of mica and very fine flour gold. It is not magnetic. It sticks to a rubber mat in a miller table. Some flakes have a copper like shine to them while some others seem to shimmer as if it might be mica. I can only get a metal detector reading from it irregularly and it hits as foil. I only have maybe a 1/4 gram of this concentrate in my pan from about 4 pounds of rock processed so far. I want to gather a bit more and attempt to smelt it. I really want to avoid using any acids to test it due to my clumsy nature with liquids.

 

[TerryC]

I had to chukle, Wiz. You are leary of using liquids, yet you are swinging a dangerous sledge hammer. To me, that's like doing 90 to a stop sign then stopping because going through it is too dangerous. Just pulling your leg, partner. TTC

 

[kuger]

.....you guys doing any amount of rock crushing do need to be cautious,over extended time,ya dont want rocks in yer box...

 

[dirtwizard]

haha I guess I didn't consider the possible broken toe from a bad swing. Reminds me of that old three stooges bit. "when I nod my head, you hit it" The way the crusher is set up is a steel 2" pipe welded to a heavy steel plate. Then I use a jackhammer bit that just fits in the pipe to smash up the rock inside when hit with the hammer. The original plan was to use the jackhammer to drive it but it's not needed. you really don't need to swing the hammer very hard, just drive it down in there til it bottoms out. Quartz is easy to break up. All the material is left inside the tube so little or nothing is wasted. Dust mask is imperative!

 

[TerryC]

Here's a cop yell, "The man's nuts guys! Grab 'em!" TTC