# I Have Some Gold Ores



## t00nces2 (Dec 17, 2015)

My grandfather was a geologist who traveled the world. He worked for Standard Oil as well as other companies and mines and prospectors. He died and passed a collection of ore samples on to my mother and now she has passed and I am in possession of the ore samples. There is significant gold ores, copper, silver, zinc and lead. I am wondering what would be the best way to get rid of them. are there any refiners here who would be interested in purchasing the ore samples? Should I sell as a collection on ebay or does someone have an idea that might net me more. While I do keep some of my grandfathers mineral collection for personal reasons, I really have no one to pass them on to and I would hate to see them dumped in the trash. If I can get enough for an eagle, I would prefer that to the ore.


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## butcher (Dec 17, 2015)

Nice box of rocks.
Joking aside, I would think a museum in the area where these mineral samples were collected would be the best place for your box of rocks.


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## FrugalRefiner (Dec 17, 2015)

There is a huge gem and mineral show in Denver, Colo. every year. You might find someone interested there. I don't know about getting enough for an eagle though.  

Dave


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## t00nces2 (Dec 18, 2015)

Thank you for your replies.

butcher, the ores are from all over, so selling as a lot to one museum would be about the same as finding someone interested in the collection. At this time I am not feeling so altruistic as sending notes with offers of free gold rocks to people in museums all over at my expense. 

FrugalRefiner... Dave, a gem and mineral show is a great idea. I will have to look for a show in Florida.

Thank you both for your ideas. I think between the two of you I have gotten an idea of what to do. My first idea was to sell the box of ores as a whole, but I think maybe it would be better to break them up and sell them individually listing the location of where they were collected on ebay. There is a bit of a minimum price I would be willing to take as they do have some sentimental value to me, but there is a lot more gold in these ores than there is in hours of dust panned from sand left by a stream.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 18, 2015)

And how much of gold do you estimate that is there? Just curious.


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## t00nces2 (Dec 18, 2015)

My guess would be an ounce and a half or so. Hard to say, but there are a couple of chunk with some heavy veins. #8 is an almost solid metal chunk that is listed as gold and copper ore.


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## justinhcase (Dec 18, 2015)

t00nces2 said:


> My guess would be an ounce and a half or so. Hard to say, but there are a couple of chunk with some heavy veins. #8 is an almost solid metal chunk that is listed as gold and copper ore.


not realty realistic.
The kind of oar you have listed would be 2-6g a tun.
And that is considered very rich by mine standard's.
very easy to confirm.most of the oar you list have standardized observation's made about them.any discrepancy's should be evident after a week
or so observation.
The microscope and spectroscopy Annalise are your friend.


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## g_axelsson (Dec 18, 2015)

I think you are wildly overestimate the amount of gold you have. Gold ores is measured in ounces or grams per ton of rock. The metallic copper gold ore you have is probably massive chalcopyrite.

If you can see the gold I think it will do great on eBay as a collectors specimen, but don't think you can extract any large amount of gold from a few rocks.

Last time I sold gold ore specimens I got between 5 and 15 dollars per rock. The mines you have represented in the collection are probably closed today which makes them more precious to the collectors.

Göran


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## t00nces2 (Dec 18, 2015)

These actually have visible veins. Keep in mind these were cherry picked samples by the geologist prospecting for the mining interests 80 years ago, and I imagine the ore and nuggets from 80 years before that were breathtaking. I will post a pick of #8...


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## g_axelsson (Dec 18, 2015)

Sorry, I can't see any clearly visible gold in #8. Maybe I detect a bit of yellow in the upper right corner that might be some gold. I would call that rock a complex sulphide ore.

As a comparision, this is a rock I picked in an active mine a couple of years ago.




It is mainly pyrite in quartz but there are a few visible gold grains as intensive yellow dots. The mine produced 1500 kg gold per year when it was running and this is some of the riches material.

This is another rock from the same mine. The gold sits embedded in quartz. It sticks out of the rock as gold doesn't break, it is drawn out into a point and it's easy to feel it with the tip of your finger.





I would use a loupe and go over the surface of the rocks to try to find visible grains.

Göran


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## t00nces2 (Dec 19, 2015)

Thank you. I will do that.


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## kurtak (Dec 21, 2015)

I have to agree with Goran on your #8 rock - it looks like a sulfide complex ore meaning the gold is tied up as a complex (a chemical compound of gold) & not in the form of pure elemental gold (the metal)

In other words the gold is there - its just not the actual "metal" gold - but rather gold in the form of a chemical compound

Kurt


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## Reno Chris (Jan 5, 2016)

Various sulfide minerals like pyrite and chalcopyrite (copper rich pyrite) can fool people. 
Goran is right, gold normally looks different and it can take some experience to spot it in hard rock ores especially if the pieces of gold are small.

It can be even more difficult if the gold and pyrite occur together - which they commonly do. Here is a specimen found by a friend with a metal detector. This is what he found when he cracked it open. The brown chunk was once pyrite and golden colored, but the pyrite has long ago weathered and converted to brown iron oxides.


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## g_axelsson (Jan 5, 2016)

Chris, that's a really nice specimen. 8) 

Göran


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## PeterM (Jan 13, 2016)

Truly a nice collection, however donating them to a museum would be more of a tribute to your Grandfather for his life's work then the small price you'd get from Ebay.


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## Anonymous (Jan 15, 2016)

PeterM said:


> Truly a nice collection, however donating them to a museum would be more of a tribute to your Grandfather for his life's work then the small price you'd get from Ebay.



I like that Peter. 8) 8) 

Jon


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