Question about quartz vein

At the moment I am in Luxemburg (europe) for holydays and I am trying to find some gold up here in the river. So far no luck, but I noticed that the rocks here do have some quartz veins. Not very big though but it is quartz. I took a sample from a very eroded vein and it looks a bit mineralised with iron, mayby some copper and a little bit pyrite or mayby gold, can't tell the difference yet it's very small and I need more sunlight.
This is my first attempt to actually crush rock to find gold. When I get home I will pulverise the rock. Do you guys think this rock would be something?

I know nothing of the Geology in your area, but I do have plenty of experience in prospecting, loaming and hard rock mining. Quartz is a very common element in respect to geology and hydrothermal activity, quartz with iron oxides can deposit all kinds of minerals, gold deposition in relation to Quartz is a rare occurance in payable quantity simply due to the fact that silica is an extremely common element. The fact that you are in a creek and have found Quartz literally means nothing. You need a dolly pot for rock sampling and a loaming dish and or a goldpan. Start by sampling the creek below the source in several places starting at approximately 30 metres below the source for a telltale gold trace, don't forget you are dealing with ancient geology, the watercourse may have changed several times as time has gone past so dry stream beds can hold the gold NOT the current watercourse as the deposit may have already weathered away thousands of years ago. Everything that shines is not gold, some deposits are held totally microscopically in sulphides in which case only a laboratory assay is going to give you the real numbers. If you want to find gold, start where gold has been found before untill you have the geological experience to maximise your chances by minimising the prospective area and geology type, much research is needed, unless you have pure dumb luck, good luck with your adventures pursuing the elusive metal.

Hi there Lightspeed,

Thanks for your effort in giving me this great and helpfull answer!
We were on a camping site for holydays with the family. I have three young kids so not much time for full investigation. In the river of today I found no gold after panning several places. The last day I realized that the river itself could be relatively young.
The geology of the Ardennes is that it is an old mountain area raised about 300 million years ago. It has a vulcanic origin so I hoped there would be a little gold in the streams and creeks. The sample I have taken and still need to crush and pan is just a sample that looked the most promising. The quartz is mineralised, a sign for gold. Of course it would be dumb luck, but i'll give it a try. I let you know the result.

I wish you luck in your search but bear in mind most of the free gold in Europe was mined long ago by the Romans who used slave labour, some gold still remains but it is scarce and in small quantities, this might be less true for any area never under Roman rule. In the U.K. the remaining gold seems to be in Scotland and Ireland with some still remaining in some parts of Wales.
Perhaps do some research on old Roman mine sites and see if you can find any they missed..

The Romans with their knowledge of controlling water, did have some amazing mining techniques, digging holes into the mountains, then letting the water flow in, blasting the whole mountain into pieces. The water would build extreme pressure at the end of these shafts fracturing the whole mountain.

Something very interesting to look into on a boring day.