Does This Ore Have Some Gold?

[Marc]

Hello, I was in patagonia last week and found a quartz on the mountains. I broke it down and this shiny mineral appeared inside. I would like to know if this pieces have some gold in it or if its just chalcopyrite (since I'm relatively new to prospecting). 

Thanks.

[jasong]

Smoosh a steel nail or knife point into some of those gold-looking blebs. Gold is soft and will smoosh and stay together, chalcopyrite and other similar minerals will flake, powder, or break.

Most posts I'd discount right away as not worth additional tests, but your samples there look interesting. Just too hard to say for sure via pictures only, vs having it in hand. 

[Marc]

Thanks. I smashed a very little sample I had and all this shiny little flakes appeared along with the quartz.

[Marc]

[Marc]

This is the best picture I got

[Geologyhound]

Unfortunately, gold does not cleave into sheets or flat flakes.  Shiny flakes sound like mica to me. That would be a sheet silicate (phyllosilicate).  Muscovite can occur in a range of colors (including orangey and goldish) depending on the impurities.  I imagine when you swish the water in your pan, those flakes move fairly easily?  Gold, being dense, would settle into the bottom crease of your pan and not move very easily.

[Marc]

Yes, unfortunately the flakes move easily.

Otherwise, I tried smooshing a nail into the rock and it made a hole in it, and the largest flakes from the pan leave a really yellow mark behind when I try to scratch something with them. That's all I could try at the time. 

 

[Marc]

Hello again. Sorry to keep posting in this topic but I put the samples under a 60x microscope and this is what I got.