Is there a reason gold's so rare?

[Isotonic]

My uncle and I went out because he has always dreamed about finding a piece of gold around the size of an ant, nothing even remotely big just a piece with depth that's not a shaving, and that's naturally found. He is pretty old now (64) and can only work in short bursts so I thought I would help him out, for Xmas I got him and myself a whole assortment of items to prospect with and did A LOT the research but man oh man why is gold so rare and backbreaking?

I study chemistry so I know all the properties and areas to find gold and how it deposits and behaves but out of all the places we have been our turnover is like 200kgs = 10 milligrams of gold that you can hardly see, we are 100% not losing anything and checking everything is gold just unobtainable in some parts of the country? I was considering buying a piece on the internet and stashing it in but I couldn't forgive myself and would ruin a moment.

Pic related that's around 200kgs of whats said to be prime dirt down stream from a gold mine, its there but each spec is less then a millimeter long.

 

[Dron]

It's rare because there is not that much of it on our planet, and even rarer where it occurs in concentration. Most of the time it occurs as microscopic particles and you have to process a lot of material to get it. You watch these shows like gold rush on TV in the Yukon in Alaska and they are moving hundreds of tonnes of dirt to get grams of fine gold that is only about 80% purity.

Why is it backbreaking? If it was easy to find it probably would not be as valuable.

Most gold mines measure production in grams per tonne so check the stats on your mine and also look for the total production in kilograms. It is possible that the mine never produced anything ant sized.

Minview or the mine data sheets that accompany that metallogenic maps should give you an indication of how much gold a mine produced and grades, and also the size (ore grain size= very fine to very coarse) and type (vein = primary, placer=secondary) of gold produced, so look for an area that also has a reputation for coarse gold. In the notes it may tell you if the mine ever produced nuggets.

Persistence is the key. Good luck :Y:

 

[Isotonic]

Dam, so you are telling me that the yield that I got is normal? Thats crazy, I'm shocked gold is not more expensive if thats the case. If its going to take literary tones and tones of silt then I might just go the route of sneaking a fake piece in from ebay! Thanks for the info man!

 

[mardymoose]

You could buy a decent detector and research spots where gold has been found.
Learn how to use the detector properly and go to those spots.
That way at least you have a chance of finding something bigger than a grain, and you wont have to handle so much dirt.
You might be quite surprised at what you may find.
You do need a lot of patience however.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Dron hit the nail on the head by saying gold shows move hundreds of tons :Y: ,
Back when was highbanking 0.3 gram to the cubic meter was fairly standard and at the time i was watching the gold shows and done a scale measurement on their excavator bucket and timed its dumps per minute, then when they done the cleanout and said how long it was for , i did the maths and it was pretty close to the same yeild i was getting with a shovel.
Its only the days that theres a lucky pocket in the gravel that you could walk away and cover the days costs.

Mine employees and feul companies often make more than the owner after all the costs etc.

 

[Dron]

Dam, so you are telling me that the yield that I got is normal? Thats crazy, I'm shocked gold is not more expensive if thats the case. If its going to take literary tones and tones of silt then I might just go the route of sneaking a fake piece in from ebay! Thanks for the info man!

Not that it's normal, just that it might be normal for that spot. Some spots only have 'mustard' gold.

200kgs or 20 buckets to get 20 specks is fairly poor, I would try a different spot. Try a more targeted approach like test panning or crevicing.

Buying a piece of gold off eBay and sneaking it into your Uncle's pan is called 'salting' a sample. Old timers used to 'salt' their claims to sell duffer claims to unsuspecting new chums, and it may have the unintended consequence of causing your poor uncle to waste more time in a spot that won't produce.

Which state are you in?

 

[Dignit]

Keep in mind the fine gold you are finding has come from a source that has been broken down through weathering and movement where it has been constantly broken down over millions of years. It's just the way it is. If you want bigger gold Mardymoose's suggestion is a good one. That's why I metal detect. I want to find bigger gold. But it's still hard slogging to find it.
Good luck.

 

[user 4386]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/13868/1540652419_img_14621.jpgMy uncle and I went out because he has always dreamed about finding a piece of gold around the size of an ant, nothing even remotely big just a piece with depth that's not a shaving, and that's naturally found. He is pretty old now (64) and can only work in short bursts so I thought I would help him out, for Xmas I got him and myself a whole assortment of items to prospect with and did A LOT the research but man oh man why is gold so rare and backbreaking?

I study chemistry so I know all the properties and areas to find gold and how it deposits and behaves but out of all the places we have been our turnover is like 200kgs = 10 milligrams of gold that you can hardly see, we are 100% not losing anything and checking everything is gold just unobtainable in some parts of the country? I was considering buying a piece on the internet and stashing it in but I couldn't forgive myself and would ruin a moment.

Pic related that's around 200kgs of whats said to be prime dirt down stream from a gold mine, its there but each spec is less then a millimeter long.

It is rare because it is a heavy element that is rarely produced (only in supernova explosions, not in the decay of normal stars that can produce the other elements - it requires the extreme explosions of supernova):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB0MZAzNPPc

It is to do with its large atomic mass and number of neutrons relative to protons I think. You can see from an atomic mass table (rather than the atomic number versus abundance table shown above by Dron) that some of the platinum group metals = PGM such as platinum, osmium, iridium and rhenium (other precious metals) are similar to gold in mass number. All except the 4 elements immediately heavier than gold (mercury, bismuth, thallium and lead) are actually radioactive (uranium, thorium, plutonium and heavy short-lived elements) and so unstable that they decay to lighter elements (e.g. by neutron and other decay) - uranium and thorium being the most long-lived (longest half-lives). I suspect that the other precious metal PGMs (rhodium, ruthenium, palladium) are rare for the same reason, those between again being more stable mass configurations (silver to tungsten) until rhenium is reached, then they stabilise again from mercury until uranium and thorium.

https://www.lenntech.com/periodic/mass/atomic-mass.htm

Gold is present everywhere, but in much of the Earth it is only in minute quantities (a very few parts per billion on average in the crust = a few milligram per tonne). Economic gold ore is commonly 1 to 20 gram per tonne (parts per million), so is enriched in ore relative to average Earth crust by a factor of a thousand times. It requires special chemical conditions in ore fluids to form such an enrichment. The most common conditions for this are the hot fluids (dissolved water etc)in igneous melts (e.g. "granite"), or the water given off when certain igneous sedimentary rocks are metamorphosed, giving off water (e.g. as minerals like clay or chlorite are heated and buried (subjected to pressure) they give off water to form minerals like hornblende (which contains less water than them). The gold is enriched into these fluids relative to the remaining rock. The reason being that ordinary hot water cannot dissolve much gold, but fluids of this type contain lots of chlorine and/or sulphur in the form of chloride and bisulphide ion, which can form metal complexes with the gold and thus permit the solution to carry a lot of dissolved gold. A similar thing can occur near surface, where rainwater containing dissolved sea salt (chloride) evaporates to form highly saline solutions that re-concentrate gold out of weathered bedrock as gold chloride complexes and into iron rich laterites - a common occurrence in our desert areas such as the Eastern Goldfields of WA. Sometimes nuggets in these areas contain enclosed iron pisolites (iron-rich soil) showing that they "grew" in the soil.

There is method in the madness of the universe.....

Probably more info than you wanted - but it may interest you or others who know some chemistry. It is why gold is not "where you find it" but only occurs where the chemical conditions were right to concentrate it, so that a knowledge of geology and geochemistry can increase your chances of success.

 

[user 4386]

.igneous OR sedimentary rocks....

 

[shakergt]

Its getting rarer and rarer.

 

[WildManDan]

I feel your pain, I drove 300kms out to some old workings this weekend, 90kms of dirt, boggy holes, steep desents, near impassable climbs, I spent half the day chainsawing logs off the road just to get in there (anyone who goes to the cells can thank me later)

Finally I set up the sluice, ran it for a couple of hours working pug & yabbie pumping holes before it got dark, and after I panned out my concentrates it looked something like this:

But you've gotta take in the journey, sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug

Now I know that's a small consolation, you know your relevant geo, now you've gotta learn the creek, there's gold in them there hills, bit you've got to earn earn their trust before they'll show it to you.

 

[Redfin]

He is pretty old now (64).

Poor bloke, better start building a pine box.

 

[Ramjet]

He is pretty old now (64).

Poor bloke, better start building a pine box.

Yeah that comment cracked me up. I know plenty of "pretty old" people who can work much harder than my fat ass.

 

[RM Outback]

I noticed in another post you said you have a Geology degree so I'd expect your studies would be sufficient to apply the right research to find what your looking for.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Love how he is Bought back from the Dead... Lol.... Popcorn please......I have run out after last time.... ]

A man? with a Geo Degree? can find Gold, so I recon you missed a few days of school.... Or was You one of 'Those' who just mucked up in the classroom and learnt little Isotonic?....

LW...

 

[LONEWOLF]

Spot on wild man...

Its the Journey, not just the Destination or the Result that Life is about.....

LW....

 

[mudgee hunter]

Well the OP sure went about getting someone to show where and how to get some gold the wrong way in the other disgraceful thread.
I would of thought a normal thread would of started off asking in the "members meet ups" section asking in a civil manner for help.
Rather than accusations that come from jealousy. :N:

 

[mudgee hunter]

 

[mudgee hunter]

 

[7.62marksman]

hope that is a gold top mate layful: layful: