Alabama Gold

[twisterdmk1982]

Hey guys, I’m quite new to the forum and new to prospecting for about a year now. Recently purchased a gold monster 2000, went out late Friday evening in a gold bearing district and found two good size pieces of some type of metal. The monster is hitting a 16-18 I have recorded a short video, this has been soaking in vinegar and salt for about two days. Does it look like a small picker to y’all or something else. The two pieces weighed in at 1.1 & 1.8 grams this is the bigger of the two.

[twisterdmk1982]

Sorry 10 second video wouldn’t upload

[twisterdmk1982]

[GotAU?]

Welcome to detector prospector! My first detector for Prospecting was a gold monster 1000, great little machine that could pick up very small stuff. You should do pretty well with yours. I also found stuff similar to this and misidentified it at first - but I had some help form others on DP finding out how to ID it.

I think congratulations are in order, as I believe you found your first hot rocks. It could be a good indication that there’s gold around so don’t be discouraged by them, there will be many more. The adage “gold rides an iron horse” rings true in many gold bearing locations.

It’s either magnetite or hematite. Do a magnet test first, if it sticks it’s probably magnetite . Next, get an unglazed tile or turn your toilet tank cover over and scratch it with that rock. If it streaks brownish red or red, it’s Hematite. If grey or black, it’s Magnetite.  These are both minerals with iron in them. That’s what set off your detector. The other possibility is it’s a piece of iron - maybe left over from mining activities, but since it’s not rusty, I kind of doubt it’s that.  Iron won’t leave a streak at all, it’s too hard.

 

[twisterdmk1982]

Okay I will try that. This was found on top of a red clay layer do it stained pretty bad, the pics do not do justice to what it actually looks liked in the video it looks more like a nugget, you can see the yellow cluster here

 

 

[twisterdmk1982]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T420yJXfyCyb8NEJ9ZB2iZIUuFs1l6Sq/view?usp=drivesdk

[Bedrock Bob]

It sure looks like a rhodium nugget to me. There are many stories about lost rhodium mines in Alabama. 

[Redz]

Throw it in some muriatic acid. That should narrow down your possibilities

[chrisski]

36 minutes ago, Redz said:

Throw it in some muriatic acid. That should narrow down your possibilities

What would you expect this to do?  

True inexperienced acid user here😀
 

Muraic seems to be good for cleaning sidewalks, but oxyclic (harsh) and hydrophilic (dangerous) is what I’m used to seeing on mineral specimens.