Fine gold flecks in quartz

[Jadeo]

hi all. I’ve been a member for some time but never properly introduced myself. My names Jade, mid 40s in the diamond valley vic area . my partner and our 9 year old daughter like to get out prospecting around the Yarra valley and reedy creek area. We mostly enjoy getting out doors. We have a detector but it’s never found anything more than bullets and scrap . We seem to have more luck with the pan and do manage to find. A bit of alluvial gold. We do come across a bit of smooth quartz with gold tiny gold flecks in it ( see pics) I’m inclined to think the gold may have imprinted onto this like gold leaf. My partner thinks it could be coming from inside and worth trying to work out how to get it out. I’d love some input from someone with a bit more knowledge than us. Thanks great little community on this forum

 

[user 4485]

Hard to tell from the pics but could be water worn gold specimens.
The cheapest way to get gold out of host rock is to use a dolly pot, especially for small samples.
You can buy them from most prospecting supply shops or if you like to DIY make one.
https://www.araratgold.com.au/products/dolly-pot

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/threads/diy-dolly-pot.2931/

 

[grubstake]

We have a detector but it’s never found anything more than bullets and scrap .

As Matt says, crushing and panning is the time-tested way to determine whether or not a rock contains gold, but what sort of detector do you have, Jadeo? If it's sensitive enough (eg. Gold Monster, SDC2300), it may be able to give you a positive signal even on quite tiny gold, especially in unmineralised quartz as that rock appears to be.

 

[Hawkear]

I wouldn’t be in a hurry to put it in a dolly pot just yet rather firstly check it out with a detector optimized for small gold as per grubstakes suggestion.
If the specimen only contains a miniscule amount then probably not worth destroying a discussion piece. On the other hand sometimes specimens containing larger amounts of gold can have very little or none showing on the surface.
One way to tell would be to do a Specific Gravity test which would indicate the amount of gold contained. Unless such a test indicates a reasonably large amount of gold, I would be inclined to leave it uncrushed as having a nice specimen may be considered better than just a few flakes of gold when showing to friends.

 

[Dean Mortimer]

Usually can see with a loupe as to if its surface gold or if its intruding back into the rock itself. Also a pin pointer can help, if the rock is noisy all over and won't go quiet it obviously more in the rock. Its ok on quartz rocks, Ironstone rocks can give false noise if loaded with noisy minerals. On quartz rock if no noise anywhere else on the rock and only on the gold parts its not worth crushing.

 

[grubstake]

Also a pin pointer can help

Pin pointers are designed for coin detecting and cannot reliably indicate tiny amounts of gold.

 

[Jadeo]

Thanks for the input everyone it’s really appreciated, I thought I had replied earlier but must not have posted it properly. The pin pointer and equinox 800 both give no reading . We have a lot of these rocks so will just let them pile up until we work out what to do with them. Bit really worried about a show pice as we do find a bit to show. We have also found a lot of saphires by default and would love to know if anyone knows anyone who buys them rough in vic.

 

[Dean Mortimer]

Pin pointers are designed for coin detecting and cannot reliably indicate tiny amounts of gold.

Not true. It depends on the brand. My trx can pickup tiny specs in quartz. Its not a loud beeping noise like a coin. But it still beeps on them softly.

 

[grubstake]

Not true. It depends on the brand. My trx can pickup tiny specs in quartz. Its not a loud beeping noise like a coin. But it still beeps on them softly.

On the contrary, because as you point out it does depend on the brand (and also the model), the Whites TRX and the Falcon MD20 being the only examples I am aware of that will signal on tiny gold. That's why I qualified my statement with "reliably", as most people aren't using either of those two.