Help!!! What do I have here??? Mica or gold

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Leifbgon

New member
Joined
Oct 3, 2017
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Hi, I'm semi-new to prospecting, but have been into minerals since a young age. Well I bought property without much$ or availability, to my surprise I ended up in Siskiyou county, ca and on an exquisite natural seasonal water way for prospecting as well as found out there were 2 mines above on the mountain side. Although obvious past had stripped what they could they weren't interested in the small stuff nor Platinum, palladium or any of the such. So I started going at it once I found this info out... And to my much needed financial stability I believe I found something... I've done my research, panning, heating experiments, muriatic soaks, and so on so forth, and just today after a month or so I just saw Mica schist.... Google rules!!!! But I have read the usgs about the "mother load belt" and it intersects Mica schist, greenstone, limestone, shale, and serpentines, in quartz, but also can change the immediate host rock chemically with the gasious metal vapors as they cool. So without further ado...
 
Sorry here's the pics slow internet... Live in woods... Love it
 

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Mica schist is what you have, commonly found along contact zones/shear zones of hydrothermal activity/metamorphic altered rock due to pressure and temperature. Here in Australia it is most commonly found associated with granites, ultramafic greenstone and quartz lens contact zones.

Where the Mica is of a type called book mica (large plates of mica) with Pegmatite dykes and Feldspar, it is commonly found associated with gemstone deposits, Tin, Lithium, Spinel and various types from the Beryl family, ranging from Aquamarine to Heliodor and Columbite. Emerald is also found associated with granites and fine grained mica schist contact zones with Pegmatites here in Australia where Iron and Chrome are also associated.
 
The rock is mica schist, the yellow stuff is yellow mud. Mica schist weathers at the surface on exposure to air and water, it releases small amounts of clay and iron, which gives you that yellow mud you see on your rocks. It is NOT gold. Gold has a metallic sheen - meaning it looks like a metal. Mud looks dull when dry - like dried mud. Gold, when struck with a hammer smashes out flat like a piece of lead - rocks, mica and most minerals break into little bits and shatter. Go on Google and look up "Native gold images" - that should give you plenty of examples to look at.
Mica schist is one of the most common rocks on the planet, being formed by the earth's heat and pressure on mud and silt stones. It has no particular value but in some cases is associated with valuable deposits, though not always nor even very often. Have you tried panning the gravels of your seasonal water way? That would give you more useful information.
 
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