Short Day Out

[Chris Ben]

Hi all, I had time for a half day hunt today, so I planned on going back to a couple spots we had found gold in the past, hoping to squeeze out another nugget or 2. Plan a was a bust so I made a beeline toward the truck. On the way walking over random ground perpendicular to all the washes I hit a nice smooth signal on a small ridge. Dug down about 6 inches and got it out of the hole. Turned out being a fist sized rock. Thought it was a hot rock at first, but the signal was too good, so I was hoping it was a possible meteorite. Washed it off and immediately saw quartz. So now I was hoping for a speci. (Which I have never seen from this area) I washed it off a little more and saw some gold!!! Not sure how much is in there, but when I got home and cleaned it better, I found more gold than I was expecting. 

I got back to the truck and was headed home when my girlfriend said they were running a couple of hours late, so I had a bit more time to detect. I decided to try a completely new area expanding a known gold district on my way home. I made my way into the hills to the place I wanted to check out. Looked promising,  very similar geologic to the place I was just at. I only had time for about 20 minutes of detecting. So I headed up the nearest wash. Got a little way up and hit a nice mellow deep signal, dug down about a foot and half and found a 1961 nickel on bedrock, 3 feet away hit a similar signal let than a foot deep on bedrock again..another nickel 1984. Strange this was really out of the way and didn't find any trash. Only detected a small part of the wash when I had to head home.

You can zoom in on the quartz and see a couple of spots of gold.

Chris 

[DolanDave]

That is a great looking piece Chris. Congrats on a nice find. If you do specific gravity test on it, let us know how much gold is in it....

  Hope those nickels bring you good luck, When some prospectors find a  gold nugget
they leave behind a nickel in the hole to show appreciation or respect to the
earth or God for their good luck. Here is a webpage about nickels...

Dave

[phoenix]

A very nice piece Chris. ?   Have you checked with a ohms meter if any of the bits of gold are connected?

[beatup]

Great find,congrats

[Chris Ben]

On 9/16/2018 at 11:31 PM, phoenix said:

A very nice piece Chris. ?   Have you checked with a ohms meter if any of the bits of gold are connected?

No I haven't. I don't have a meter. I'm trying to decide if I am going to crush and pan, or try to soak in acid.

Chris 

[IdahoPeg]

Cool find! Interesting how the nickels found their way there too.

[Chris Ben]

19 minutes ago, IdahoPeg said:

Cool find! Interesting how the nickels found their way there too.

Thank you, I'm anxious to get back into that wash and check it out.

Chris 

[afreakofnature]

I'd dissolve the quartz

[GB_Amateur]

On 9/16/2018 at 10:33 PM, DolanDave said:

If you do specific gravity test on it, let us know how much gold is in it....

 

On 9/18/2018 at 11:04 AM, Chris Ben said:

I'm trying to decide if I am going to crush and pan, or try to soak in acid.

I would take Dave's suggestion and do the specific gravity test before deciding on an irreversible (destructive) route.  If there's a reasonable amount of gold, you might have a better (that is, more profitable) approach to take than turning this into dust.  More info is almost always helpful.

 

[geof_junk]

It would be hard to do an accurate SG on that sample due to the other impurities with the Quartz. I would put it in "muriatic acid" (hydrochloric acid) for a week/month and see how it cleans up (rinse well).