newbie - broke open some quartz found gold coloured sliver inside

[JasonC]

hello I'm new to this forum
trying not to get the gold bug, but on my property is a lot of quartz exposed wherever the ground has been cut for driveways etc

I live in the Adelaide Hills - no NOT close to Jupiter Creek

anyway I am a total newbie and haven't got myself a detector yet

BUT I did collect some quartz on my place and cracked open a few pieces

what I found was a small sliver of what looks like gold, but given it looks crystalline I'm thinking it could be a mineral of some sort............

would members take a look and give an opinion if I post a picture?

 

[Heatho]

G'day Jason welcome aboard, sounds promising, gold can come in a very rare crystalline form, though could be quite a few other minerals also. I'm sure if you post a pic it can probably be identified.

 

[JasonC]

ok thanks
I'm hoping its good
I will take a photo tonight

 

[XIV]

Sounds like iron pyrite
If you hit it with a hammer it will crush into dust.
If it was gold it will just go flat.

 

[Twapster]

Pyrite is my guess but lets hope its not! If it flakes away with a pin then no good.

 

[JasonC]

pyrite could well be

oops I'm not allowed to post links yet need 10 posts

 

[Guest]

Limonite is often mistaken for gold as well. Try and scrape it with your fingernail. If it crumbles its not gold.

 

[JasonC]

well it crumbled
hit it with a hammer and it crumbled into shards

 

[JasonC]

now I need to get a detector.................
loads of quartz around everywhere

 

[JasonC]

thanks to everyone's help here and some research I have made a few steps forward
I have been collecting a lot of nice iron laden quartz ready for crushing and panning and I'm going to get a cheapie second hand detector as well
looking forward to finding some colour after the crushing - I'm not getting ahead of myself - yet!

 

[Twapster]

Don't get a cheapie detector....it most likely wont find gold! Buying a detector need solid research, esp if targeting gold.

 

[JasonC]

I'm looking at an oldie minelabs VLF detector

 

[Twapster]

I have an Xterra 70, great for coins/ relics but very disappointing on gold. Will ping metal deep (1ft+) but only squeaks on gold about 3 inches. Yes it is a good for crack/crevice or quartz gold but not straight ground gold in my experience. Try get a detector that will get a 2 gram nugget at min 5-6 inches.

 

[nuggetino]

Don't get a cheapie detector....it most likely wont find gold! Buying a detector need solid research, esp if targeting gold.

+1

Gold is hard enough to find as is, I'd be buying the best detector you can afford or keep saving. Considering my only 3 nuggets from the adelaide hills were pinged at between 4" and 15" deep I'm glad I had the gpx4500 as I doubt a cheap detector would have signaled on the deeper nuggets.

 

[JasonC]

ok food for thought - thanks
I will crush up and pan my quartz first then figure out what to do after that

thanks for the advice

 

[JasonC]

I will post up some pics tonight of the quartz I've found (on the surface)
see what folks think

Nugget is sending my a crusher so I will also crush some up and pan some out, not that I've seen any visible gold on any of the quartz

 

[Nugget]

Hey Jason, the small amount of quartz that I have crushed so far didn't have any visible gold either. I was actually quite surprised to see gold in the pan afterwards.

 

[JasonC]

thats good to know!
ok here are some samples
what do people think







here is the pyrite I found first


and here is what makes me suspicious some shallow digging has occurred before, this is a pristine area

 

[Twapster]

Jesus that looks like mighty fine quartz. I'm excited for you that's a good spot!

 

[user 1769]

That trenching looks like old-timers were looking for a reef in the general vicinity...