# fools gold



## capt_dugout (Sep 10, 2011)

I recently bought some property just north of the North Carolina border in tennessee. the property has salt and peper granite with large streaks of more white than black specks running through it. The decomposed granite has been reduced to a clay that can be washed and rubbed away with water to expose golden flakes running in the water. there are large chunks of quartz strewn about the landscape. all of these rocks have gold glitter to them that I initaly thought was fools gold. I crushed samples of the rock and put some in approximately 50% nitric acid, 20% HCL, and 35% sulfuric acid and placed them on a coffee warmer after a n hour or so I can see golden flecks floating on the surface and in the acid of all 3 samples. I have not tried ar yet due to the odd concentrations of acids I need to research what mixture I would need to get to make mixtures appropriate for good ar and I do not have measuring equip. (graduated cylinder) to weigh known amounts of each acid to determin the concentrations. all I have done so far has been to familiarize myself with the various reactions. 

If this were fools gold wouldn't the nitric acid destroy it?

p.s. the hcl turned a clear yellow/orange, the nitric turned a slight green tint a bit cloudy, and the sulfuric turned a bit turbid or cloudy more white


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## shaftsinkerawc (Sep 10, 2011)

Have you crushed and panned a sample yet? How did it react in the pan? Sounds like the mica family to me. Not sure how the acids will react with mica? Have an assay done, the Fort Knox mine 10 miles from me is mining a low grade granite.


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## capt_dugout (Sep 10, 2011)

that will be my most likely my next step to pan or sluce a sample large enough to see if it will melt unless I get some AR made up first. I made an attempt to make some stannis chloride with 20.2%hcl and tin sinkers but have nothing to test the test soulition with except a few foils i recovered the other day, but I just cant bring myself to dissolve 1/2 a test tube full of bright clean shiny gold foils as of yet (my first hint of gold to show for my efforts). I am currently dissolving some pins and can see flakes of gold in there but not sure how much and they are in with a greyish mud of uncertain origin or composition (possibly cemented lead,zinc brass or something . I will save it till I learn enough to figure out what it is or try to disolve it with my AR when I get it made.


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## Claudie (Sep 10, 2011)

You could dissolve some of the Gold foils with some HCL/Clorox and use that to test your Stannous Chloride with. Without a good test solution, you are working in the dark. :|


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## kuma (Sep 10, 2011)

Hi , hows tricks ?
Just a thought , but you say golden 'flakes'.
Try pinching them , or even better try to bend them. If they do bend the chances are that you may have gold , if they just break up and 'flake' into black dust it might be that you have pyrite ( or fools gold ) , or mica , whatever you will.
I had a moment with myself a couple of years ago thinking that I had found a nice little honey hole , but no , it is gutting!
As far as I can tell , you are on the right path of thinking to try dissolution in AR , and a test with stannous probably wouldn't go a miss.
Keep us posted and good luck with it!
All the best and kind regards ,
Chris 

Edited to try and make more sense , lol


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## butcher (Sep 10, 2011)

Put a tiny piece of lead in your gold pan, it will still be there after you pan out all of the fools gold, usually if in a river you can see the golden color it is usually fools gold, real gold usually only shows itself in the very bottom of your pan after you pan off the heavier black Iron sands. fools gold is soft crushes easily, very light floats in water, will leave a brown streak if scratched on white stone, pans off before black sand, and keeps new miners thinking they are rich, and wasting their time trying to catch some in a pan (actually would be harder to pan than real gold).


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## capt_dugout (Sep 10, 2011)

thanks guys I dont think it is gold due to the ease it flows with in water. When i put a pool of standing water in the stream the light colored sand settles and the mica flows with the water. Seeing all that golden glitter when building the pumphouse finally got the best of me. The flecks are very tiny most only seen as a quick glitter of the color that catches my eye these days. I will isolate a sample next time I get there for further testing.


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## itmtrading123 (Sep 12, 2011)

nice post thanks....


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