whats this?

D

desert-rat

Full Member
Nov 15, 2015
123
103
western arizona
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I hate to open a new thread to ID rocks but this came out of the rocks I crushed and its got me stumped. hope I don't look like a total dumb ass with this but here go's! I crushed some samples down to flour sized powder then panned and this stuff in the photos is yellow and its the heaviest thing in the pan so anyone got any ideas. I got this out of a 20 lb sample DSCN1351.JPGDSCN1356.JPGDSCN1364.JPGDSCN1350.JPG
Did the best I could on the pictures
 

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Gold maybe?:) I couldn't tell you the pics are blurry so it's going to be hard for people to help. Try using something to stabilize the phone while taking the pics like using some books to rest it on and repost some better pics.
 

Looks like gold, Terry Soloman, where are you? You've seen lots more gold than I ever will...
 

just to help when you look at it under magnification it looks like a sulpher yellow. it looks like pieces of quartz that are yellow and I could not see any yellow in the sample I crushed prior to panning. its really got me stumped. im thinking it may be a quartz with some gold trapped inside in such a small amount it makes it look this way. I took more pictures but cant get anything to come out any better. If you click the picture and the little box pops up then click that it should go full screen.
 

Well Quartz does contain gold sometimes based on the amount of black sand in the pan I think you panned out all the pyrite and lighter stuff so with no other pics I guess you may have fine gold that was bound in the Quartz you crushed. Why does my phone capitalize Quartz every time lol.
 

took it to the miner supply and let those guys have a look and they said possibly tungsten with some sort of chloride. they advised me to leave that quartz vein alone as this stuff is almost as heavy as gold and would make for a terrible task trying to separate the two.
 

Does it look metallic?
 

No it looks like a crystal like a quartz would. that's what has me stumped. I wish I knew what it really is. its not magnetic and it doesn't really glow under UV light so im completely stumped. means that it is so much heavier than black sand I cant help but think there may be gold present in that rock as well. if similar minerals travel together it makes sense in my mind anyway.
 

chalcopyrite - copper. it may have gold in it.

you have to roast it to find out.

get a pyrex test tube, a propane torch, and some charcoal (kingston preferably).

crush and mix the pyrite and charcoal about 50/50. put in test tube. than blast the bottom of the tube. you should get a bead of copper with some gold in it.

if it doesn't melt than it would be tungsten.
 

I agree with desert, yet i would say sulfides, same way smelt it and see, i would use a crucible tho myself.
 

Looks like monazite, I have it here at my place Treasure Valley in Western North Carolina. Monazite can be yellowish in color and appear as gold dust but it is a crystal. Monazite is a REE (Rare Earth Element) that is radioactive and with a SG of 4.6 to 5.4 so it will hang around in the pan. So this could be a possibility.
 

how did you crush your samples?
 

Couldn't hurt to let the MD20 give its opinion and if it "chirps yes", just one more reason to save the sample for further consideration.
 

If your out in the Wikieup/Wickenburg area, you need to have it tested. There is some strange stuff going on out there, much like the eastern side here, that doesn't fit the "norm" for gold.
 

Can you post a photo of the assay report?
 

If I can figure out what the wife did with it ill post a picture. it was just a raw random grab sample. I sent in 3 bags at about 1.5-2 lbs each. If I remember right the foot wall of the vein was the highest content. What boggled my mind is the silver content was almost the same as the gold.
 

Sorry ive been so long in replying to the questions ive been having hell with the metal detector I bought on top of working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week. glad to say today is about the last of the 12's. Im crushing the ore with the flail mill I built, look at the finished rock crusher thread I have to see more on that. I have a question I hope yall can help me with. I found a vein in the wall of a dry wash that contains some gold that's very fine. The part of the vein ive sampled on this is about level with the bottom of the wash. the vein runs at 45-60 degrees down into the ground. Im wondering if the gold content will get better as I go deeper? this stuff has been washed by water lord knows how many times over the year so will that leach out the gold? I haven't dug but about 2' into the wall and maybe a foot down. this vein is about 100 yards from an old working that was on the wall of the wash just like this, the old timers move a lot of dirt by hand in this area so it makes me wonder if its worth going in deeper. Any input would be great!
 

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