For the last few days we had some friends down from Sydney for a visit. We did the obligatory Sovereign Hill trip where the kids and my mate definitely got the gold fever from panning and finding a few flakes.
So yesterday whilst I had to go back to work (I'd rather be digging bullets out of the bush
) they all headed off to Blackwood for the day to go and see the garden at St. Erth.
While they were there they spied a couple of cool looking rocks in the car park, some quartz and a nice looking 2kg sedimentary rock that was showing some colour. Excitedly I got the text message from my wife "Graham found some gold!!!"
So I get home from a day in the office to the usual jibes of "you don't need an expensive metal detector, we found some gold in the car park at St. Erth!" and "Why do you waste your time digging bullets out of the bush??" I get out the magnifying glass and sure enough I could see specks all over this particular rock. After confirmation from the party of experts (wives
) that there was gold in this rock, we decided to crush it up and pan off the gold.
During the subsequent rock crushing over the next few hours, there's cries of "We're gonna be rich", "Awww, look at the size of that bit" and "There's gotta be a least a gram of gold in this rock!". These cries drowned out the complaints of "My back hurts", "My knees are locked, I can't get up" and "How much rock dust do you think we've eaten?".
So we get the rock all crushed up and it's time to pan off our fortune, yippeee! We place our big bucket in the laundry tub and I take to the rock dust with my Garret Super Sluice and start showing off my awesome panning technique
After panning off the first 3rd of rock dust, it's time for a look at our "colour". Excitingly, I get out the magnifying glass and look deep into the pan.
And what do I see???? Lots and lots of specks of...... FOOL'S GOLD 8.(
8.( :8 Yep, nice little chunks of Iron Pyrite
So I quietly say to my partner in crime "Mate, I can't see any gold, just pyrite". "Bollocks! Give me a look!" Sure enough he confirms it "Bollocks!"
So stupid me says "Well, let's pan off the rest. I'm sure there's gold in there somewhere. I'd hate to die wondering :/ " Another 20 minutes goes by as I meticulously pan off the rest of the rock dust. Gotta make sure I don't throw any gold out!
Our worst suspicions were confirmed - yep, you guessed it. We were fooled by fool's gold :8 8.(
This morning my wife asked "So how much gold did you guys get out of that rock?" After explaining that yes, we are fools for not only spending 3 hours crushing up a rock but for also thinking that the rock contained gold she quietly walked away and had the decency to laugh quietly to herself (and my mate's wife) without denting our macho rock-crushing egos too much.
Bollocks!!!
AU
