# 70 lbs monster hydrothermal gold Quartz specimen



## MorrisTheProspecter (Aug 23, 2022)




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## 4metals (Aug 23, 2022)

Nice, anyone who can carry that out deserves some respect.


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## MorrisTheProspecter (Aug 24, 2022)

Thanks brotha. It was a beast to carry out for sure . I actually carried out 4 of em. Ranging from 40lbs to 80lbs but the 70 was the coolest looking one so I started cleaning it first. I’ll post pictures of the other 3 in the next day or two when I get them more cleaned off. Definitely very happy with this find!


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## orvi (Aug 24, 2022)

MorrisTheProspecter said:


> View attachment 51856
> Not only the rusty surface ? Maybe the photo skew some colours or wiew, but it lack any metallic luster, to say at least. Altough fine mustard gold can be this coloured, that is for sure. If it is like this, what you are going to do with it ?


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## MorrisTheProspecter (Aug 24, 2022)

Definitely hydrothermal gold Quartz. I’ve already cleaned smaller pieces that show incredible gold. Not too mention all the little pieces that are flaking off as I’m cleaning them. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow when they’re a little more etched as I have them in vinegar water. I actually have 4 of them. One that is little bigger then this one then two that are a little smaller. Then I have a bunch of smaller pieces that I might break down and refine but the bigger ones I plan on selling or keeping. I don’t have it in me to destroy these beautiful specimens.


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## 4metals (Aug 24, 2022)

I understand the concepts of hydrothermal vents but what is the big clue identifying the area as a hydrothermal vent rather than an exposed vein? 

We spend a lot of time instructing others here about the chemistry of refining but little about the geology of actually getting the gold and other values out of the ground. Maybe someone could offer some geology lessons here?


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## Alondro (Aug 24, 2022)

MorrisTheProspecter said:


> Definitely hydrothermal gold Quartz. I’ve already cleaned smaller pieces that show incredible gold. Not too mention all the little pieces that are flaking off as I’m cleaning them. I’ll post more pictures tomorrow when they’re a little more etched as I have them in vinegar water. I actually have 4 of them. One that is little bigger then this one then two that are a little smaller. Then I have a bunch of smaller pieces that I might break down and refine but the bigger ones I plan on selling or keeping. I don’t have it in me to destroy these beautiful specimens.


This looks very similar indeed to a quartz seam I stumbled upon in the late 80's up in north NJ, near a place where an ancient magma formation abutted metamorphic rock. Once the weather gets cooler and the ticks and flies fizzle out for the year, I'll be checking that mountain again and get a sample. I know exactly where it is.


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## 4metals (Aug 24, 2022)

Interesting read. 
Science Direct article on hydrothermal vents

Still there is nothing I have found (but not being a geologist I'm surely looking in the wrong places) that details how eons of earth's movements have defined how these ancient vents present themselves in a modern landscape.

Not that I'm running out tomorrow to schlep 80 pound rocks anyway.


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## Alondro (Aug 24, 2022)

4metals said:


> Interesting read.
> Science Direct article on hydrothermal vents
> 
> Still there is nothing I have found (but not being a geologist I'm surely looking in the wrong places) that details how eons of earth's movements have defined how these ancient vents present themselves in a modern landscape.
> ...


It's almost certain there are such deposits in the northern Appalachians, where there are a number of known magma sills and ancient volcanic plugs. However, because that landscape is so incredibly weathered, finding them is going to be tricky. Most of the 'mountains' in NJ are actually the heavily-eroded remains of the ancestral plateau. Such is the case with a diabase-magma sill called 'Sourland Mountain' to the west of Princeton. Only the hardest rock has survived.


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## BlackLabel (Aug 25, 2022)

Hi MTMWAHTISWITRHJF
("MorrisTheManWhoAlwaysHopesThereIsSomethingWorthyInTheRockHeJustFound"),

Nice rocks - congrats!


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## Ohiogoldfever (Aug 26, 2022)

We’ll come on Morris. Crush a sample. Let’s see some gold!


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## MicheleM (Aug 26, 2022)

It looks like...


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## BlackLabel (Aug 27, 2022)

@MicheleM:
No, it doesn't. Yours is much smaller. ;-)


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## galenrog (Aug 27, 2022)

I think the point that MicheleM is trying to make is that it looks like iron stained quartz. 

Time for more coffee.


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## orvi (Aug 27, 2022)

galenrog said:


> I think the point that MicheleM is trying to make is that it looks like iron stained quartz.
> 
> Time for more coffee.


I know about the story of a guy completely persuaded he panned ounces and ounces of gold in single day on Danube river. He collected the nice and shiny material for weeks, and accumulated like 10 kilos.

Then he revealed the "secret" to the public goldpanning forum... He accumulated 10 kilos of mica  I do not want to know how badly he sobered from this...


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## MicheleM (Aug 27, 2022)

@galenrog yep , nice quartz based rock but no gold there. I was in the italian side of the Alps, a very nice place with a discrete quantity of alluvional gold


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## BlackLabel (Aug 27, 2022)

Micheles rock is the mobile version of Morris'.


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## goldshark (Aug 27, 2022)

Well Morris, what does it assay?


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## MorrisTheProspecter (Sep 2, 2022)




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## MorrisTheProspecter (Sep 2, 2022)

Some pure gold powder dissolve and precipitated from safety + bleach + HCL mix + Metabisulfite = Little over 2 ounces.


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## MorrisTheProspecter (Sep 2, 2022)

The solution after filtering before precipitation


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## Shark (Sep 2, 2022)

That needs filtering again.


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## Ohiogoldfever (Sep 2, 2022)

Honey whys my coffee taste like shit!!


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## goldshark (Sep 3, 2022)

How many runs can you do through the coffee maker?Are you only using the filter portion, or do you pour your solution into the coffee maker, let it heat and run like you are making coffee? Nice run of Gold. Was that from the 70 pound boulder from your previous post?


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## 4metals (Sep 3, 2022)

Did you test a drop of the solution after the digestion with stannous?Just to see if you were stressing out that perfectly good coffee maker for some value.


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## VK3NHL (Sep 4, 2022)

Shark said:


> That needs filtering again.


And again…


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## Alondro (Sep 4, 2022)

Ohiogoldfever said:


> Honey whys my coffee taste like shit!!


It's a bit nutty....


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## Alondro (Sep 4, 2022)

MorrisTheProspecter said:


> View attachment 52019
> 
> The solution after filtering before precipitation


Refilter through the same filter at least one more time. Each pass through the same filter fills up the pores and catches smaller and smaller particles. 

But, it also will stress the coffee maker pump. Best to construct a proper vacuum setup.

I'm working on adapting an old vacuum cleaner motor assembly, with a stopcock valve to adjust the vacuum flow. The old vacuum was free, and I have all the parts lying around. 

I just bought 2 Buchner funnels, which will help MASSIVELY when filtering, now that I'm doing larger volumes.


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## Yggdrasil (Sep 4, 2022)

Alondro said:


> Refilter through the same filter at least one more time. Each pass through the same filter fills up the pores and catches smaller and smaller particles.
> 
> But, it also will stress the coffee maker pump. Best to construct a proper vacuum setup.
> 
> ...


I'm guessing he is only using the filter part.
No one should use the pump/heating part, at least if they want their Gold to stay in solution.
There is metal in there


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## 4metals (Sep 4, 2022)

He would be better off with a big glass speed funnel, they don't require a vacuum, they filter at a reasonable speed, and they take a big (50 cm) filter paper folded into the cone.


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## Yggdrasil (Sep 4, 2022)

4metals said:


> He would be better off with a big glass speed funnel, they don't require a vacuum, they filter at a reasonable speed, and they take a big (50 cm) filter paper folded into the cone.
> View attachment 52039
> View attachment 52040


Nice funnel


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## Shark (Sep 4, 2022)

I have a small funnel like that and it has seen a lot of use. I wish I had one the size 4metals posted, it would still be a great item to have on hand.


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## 4metals (Sep 4, 2022)

This is where to get this type of funnel. 
the big one holds 1 liter

I was looking at pricing from this Canadian supplier and I checked out beakers. WOW. beakers

These prices for 4 and 5 & 10 liter beakers are excellent. Either I am in a time warp, the company went under years ago and didn't remove it's website or they will soon be receiving a bunch of orders from beaker refiners!


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## goldshark (Sep 4, 2022)

Poor Morris, I think we need to back off a little. It is kinda fun to see what others are doing out there though.


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## Ohiogoldfever (Sep 5, 2022)

Just for the record I wasn’t teasing Morris as much as commenting about that poor coffee maker.


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## orvi (Sep 6, 2022)

Coffee filters are designed to filter big coffee particles. They are very porous and many times badly manufactured with defects and very thin areas. It is the thing from need I know, but it kinda works for filtering bulk of ppt.

I abandoned using them very early on my refining ventures, even newspapers worked better, altough very slow. 

Maybe you would be better to just let it settle and decant after one day. Assuming the ppt is silver chloride (from naturally occuring Ag in the gold), you can also do it in reverse - add conc. HCl to redissolve it and then drop the gold. Not the best practice, but it also kinda help.

When free acid is high, usually it is better to dissolve SMB than using powder, as it only tend to fizz out the SO2 on surface of the liquid, rather than really adsorbing it into the solution-wasting the acid you just purposefully added. Be aware of "boil-over" when doing this, SO2 does not have best solubility in water, so pour it slowly with good stirring.

We do not know your intentions with the gold, so hard to say if it is necessary for you to refine it. For me, 90% gold is sellable for practically same % than 999 gold... So maybe waste of time here.


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## 4metals (Sep 6, 2022)

orvi said:


> We do not know your intentions with the gold, so hard to say if it is necessary for you to refine it. For me, 90% gold is sellable for practically same % than 999 gold... So maybe waste of time here.


Small hobby producers who tend to use coffee filters need to get the gold purity high enough to visibly be pure, as is seen when the freshly poured bar cleaves along the top surface exposing crystals below. This is not attained with coffee filter filtration but the need exists for knowing the purity sans XRF or other analytics not available to the hobbyist or home refiner.

The reason for this is they then know the gold is at least 999+ fine and they will not be subject to dishonest gold buyers XRF magic chopping off a few percent on the purity when they pay you.


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## Cambridge Environmental (Sep 6, 2022)

4metals said:


> This is where to get this type of funnel.
> the big one holds 1 liter
> 
> I was looking at pricing from this Canadian supplier and I checked out beakers. WOW. beakers
> ...


Hello Thank you for the kind words, we are still in business and these are our current prices 
If you have any questions, please give us a call at Cambridge Environmental Products Inc 1-800-535-3751 or [email protected]


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## orvi (Sep 7, 2022)

4metals said:


> Small hobby producers who tend to use coffee filters need to get the gold purity high enough to visibly be pure, as is seen when the freshly poured bar cleaves along the top surface exposing crystals below. This is not attained with coffee filter filtration but the need exists for knowing the purity sans XRF or other analytics not available to the hobbyist or home refiner.
> 
> The reason for this is they then know the gold is at least 999+ fine and they will not be subject to dishonest gold buyers XRF magic chopping off a few percent on the purity when they pay you.


Yeah, that is the right point. I do not have this issue since I always had access to XRF.

Maybe then the settling and decanting approach is more recommended then endless filtering through inefficient filters.


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## rickbb (Sep 7, 2022)

Time spent rinsing, (washing), settling and decanting will do a better job than filtering, even vacuum filtering. Unless you have pro grade equipment/filters.

For vacuum filtering I use an aquarium type of air pump with a hose connected to the air inlet on the pump. Works surprisingly well and cheap too.


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## stoneware (Oct 15, 2022)

Cambridge Environmental said:


> Hello Thank you for the kind words, we are still in business and these are our current prices
> If you have any questions, please give us a call at Cambridge Environmental Products Inc 1-800-535-3751 or [email protected]


Placed an order yesterday with Cambridge, great people and service is excellent.


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## Yggdrasil (Oct 15, 2022)

I can't see that this post belongs in this thread at all.
Why did you post it here?


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## stoneware (Oct 15, 2022)

4metals said:


> This is where to get this type of funnel.
> the big one holds 1 liter
> 
> I was looking at pricing from this Canadian supplier and I checked out beakers. WOW. beakers
> ...


Simply because 4metals had made reference to Cambridge a Canadian company which carries lab glass, I decided to browse their inventory and found an ORP meter within my price range.

The people who handled my order were very helpful.

The transaction was paid via a bank transfer which made it an easy purchase.


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## stoneware (Oct 15, 2022)

Yggdrasil said:


> I can't see that this post belongs in this thread at all.
> Why did you post it here?


When trying to make a point or to correct someones mistake have you considered using the PM system instead of making your comments a public spectacle.

Your attitude and comments made publicly sets a precedent.

If I were a betting man, would guess your Gen x.


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## Yggdrasil (Oct 15, 2022)

stoneware said:


> When trying to make a point or to correct someones mistake have you considered using the PM system instead of making your comments a public spectacle.
> 
> Your attitude and comments made publicly sets a precedent.
> 
> If I were a betting man, would guess your Gen x.


Well good your not a betting man then.
I did not get out to correct you as such, but this post have nothing with neither hydrothermal quarts nor are suitable Gallery material.
There are better sections for your post.


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