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Thoughts On Specimen


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I found this in a Gold Mine tailing pile. My machine went into major overload when I pulled it out. It is extremely heavy and you can see gold like flecks all through it, along with quartz.

 

Its really hard to explain but before the cell ph captures the photo, it changes the image to the point that you can see so much more in the stone.

 

I had read that digital cameras can "spot gold?" But it was more reading than I wanted to do on the subject. But it defiantly transforms it in the image before it captures the below photos.

 

I am wondering if its worth having someone at the local college look at it, if in fact they have a geology program?

 

Not sure if it has value beyond being a VERY heavy door stop..

 

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

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Cell phone cameras normally take very low quality close ups - they just are not designed for that. Its hard enough to tell little bits of gold in a specimen with a good picture, and blurry, low quality pics make it a lot more difficult.

My guess from the pics you have is that you have a rock full of pyrite. Pyrite is about a zillion times more common than coarse visible gold, and is heavy. The green is most likely copper minerals.

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Thank you Chris that was what I was thinking as well, that it was Pyrite.

I could take better pics with the Cannon on mico just more of a hassle to load. 

 

A friend got a hit on a nice chunk of Quartz with Gold/Pyrite stings all through it as well.

Looks cool though. Guess my best find of the day was my Ore Cart Rail spike..

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Thanks for all the views and advise.

I want to take it to my slab saw and cut a slab off and see what it reveals. I did break off a small piece and crush it up and pan it around a bit.

I ran a magnet through it and not much of anything stuck to it.

I will do the nail trick also..

 

I did show it to a couple local rock hounds and they where kind of blow away by it, they also couldn't believe how heavy it was either.

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Would not be surprised if an assay showed some gold values. Looks like a typical mixed sulphides, probably with some copper, gold, and silver values. In Alaska you could also count on some lead and zinc. I used to have a garage full of the stuff but left most of it up north with the local rock club when I moved. But normally it is minimal ounces per ton stuff, nothing to get excited about unless you have a mountain full of it, and in California even that would not matter. But fun nonetheless.

 

Common pyrite is just iron sulphide but there are various other "pyrites" that all have a similar hackly golden appearance. Chalcopyrite is a common copper ore that looks a lot like regular pyrite and with the copper staining that may be some of what you are looking at.

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