What is in this quartz? Gold/Silver colors.

[mcbride_c]

Hi,
I live in a small valley and I found this falling from some dirt and rock in my back yard today. I assume the majority of it is quartz but I am curious to what the silver and gold colors might be. I realize there are many other types of items found in quartz than precious metals I but was simply curious to what it may be. I used to collect this kind of thing in my youth and this peaked my interest. There are several more large stones like this in the same area when I started looking!
Thanks
Chris

 

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[kuger]

likely,galena,mica,or any number of types of pyrite

 

[mcbride_c]

I had a friend who pans for gold as a hobby look at it. He brought over a pan and broke down one of the small rocks (small it was a couple of ounces) and he found 2 specs of gold in it(very tiny specs). He said there was a lot of mica and iron as well. We looked where it came from the hill and he found a channel of quartz. Debating what to do....

 

[kuger]

I normally recommend exactly that......pound it to powder and pan it(a sample)thats the best way to tell for sure.Your example appears to be very mineralized and very worthy of doing just what you did.Now,since you said there is a vien of it,take a good sample from not only the vein it self,but get a good portion of any dirt or clay that may be on either side(of coarse unless its in solid country rock(hard native rock)pan that out as well...as Dave Wiseman my mentor always says"where there is smoke their is fire"

 

[mcbride_c]

I must admit my curiosity has gotten the better of me. The two rocks I posted are a small portion of what we were able to find(at least another 15-20 large quartz pieces were very easily accessible plus the vein seems fairly large considering the small area). I do not have panning equipment myself so I will be looking for some basic items tomorrow. I will post more pics as I attempt to access the vein.

 

[kuger]

Check out and post in our Prospecting section here,lots of very knowledgable folks too!!

 

[mcbride_c]

Reading it now. Thanks!

 

[ATDigger]

likely,galena,mica,or any number of types of pyrite

I second that. The flakes look like mica and the small granules look like pyrite.