Do you see good colour in this quartz

[jaredj7]

Hi All

I am new to the forum and wanting to get some guidance. I have been panning out at Kilkivan and have been starting to get some great little nuggets and feathery gold. My first pan two days ago from a dug out ants nest gave me 1.2grams accross 6 little nuggies.

My question is I have attached 3 pictures below of a quartz that I smashed into and got great colour, or so think. Anyone able to confirm I've hit a nice little rock here or am I getting excited over nothing.

 

[Troutman]

Hi Jared, it certainly looks like gold. Best way to tell is to hammer the rocks into tiny sand and powder and pan it all. If it is flecks of gold you won't hurt it, if it is something else you may grind it go powder and it'll disappear when you pan it away. Good luck.

 

[mudgee hunter]

Get back to that reef with a sledge hammer and a few block splitters and cold chisels! :lol:
Looks good, if you have a good eye glass or magnifying glass, see if you can put a good little mark in it with a Stanley knife tip. Should mark as easy as lead doing the same :Y:

 

[Redfin]

Dolly it and pan it out, Pyrite will wash out, if it is gold it will remain.

 

[Gimp]

Looks like pyrite.

 

[mudgee hunter]

Pyrite looses it reflectivity shine easily if shaded, gold tends to keep it more so.

 

[jethro]

Its hard to say from the Pics. It looks a bit pale to be gold but it could be gold with a high silver content try burning a piece in a good hot fire. gold wont change. Pyrite will change colour to black or rust red. Just be aware that the fumes given off arsenopyrite of are pretty nasty / toxic. :awful:

 

[user 4386]

I'm a bit unsure. If you have a hand lens and steel needle (hardness 6 to 6.5) and there is a big enough speck, you can determine it without destroying your specimens. Gold has a hardness of 2.5-3 which is very soft and it can be easily scratched with a needle. The scratch mark will look golden. If it is pyrite you will get a greenish black powder when you scratch it - it will scratch but with difficulty or not at all because it is hardness 6 to 6.5 (c.f. gold that cuts like cheese). Chalcopyrite is hardness 3.5-4 so scratches reasonably easily, but gives a greeny-black powder colour. There are not a lot of other common metallic minerals that colour and so soft.

 

[Smoky bandit]

Looks like pyrite.

From those pics...X2

 

[G0lddigg@]

looks like some nice looking sulfides mate, if there's free gold you'll find it with a dolly and a pan if not you will need to crush it and leave it sit outside for 3 months then crush it again and pan, the sulfides will hopefully ahve released the gold by then. i've seen quite a bit of ore like that and it usually goes 1 gram to the tonne, hard work for a prospector

 

[Occasional_panner]

Hi All

I am new to the forum and wanting to get some guidance.

1st thing you'll need to learn.
Don't tell people where you went.
If you found something decent and spill the beans next time you go there it will be ransacked.

 

[Goldpin Prospecting]

Looks like pyrite.

From those pics...X2

Make that X3
Not necessarily a bad thing either, can be a good indicator. Get some more samples split open