# Quartz and the Iron Horse



## alloy2 (Feb 14, 2016)

Vancouver Island quartz recovered from one of the many creeks nearby the harbour where I have my sail boat moored for the winter.

Most if not all of the creeks and larger steams originate from the same watershed, and the streams are loaded with quartz. The larger rivers with faster running water the quartz has been worn down and mostly broken into smaller pieces, this quartz has black inclusions throughout.

The quartz below comes from a smaller stream with a slower flow of water, the quartz has not been beaten to a pulp and still has a nice coating of iron surrounding it.

The quartz appears to be from volcanic origin, the bottom image was wetted with water to bring out detail.

Your thoughts appreciated.

https://goldrushexpeditions.com/how...for-gold/second-step-sampling-your-gold-mine/


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## alloy2 (Feb 14, 2016)

From the same small creek a lump of rusty brown sandstone, I suspect there is a possibility there is some fine gold encapsulated in iron in this sample.

This sandstone sample from the creek is identical in nature the the material I found n the ancient river bed with the latter layered in a thick blanket of which I have yet to determine its depth.

After breaking up the sandstone sample then panning out the iron the water is orange and not red as iron oxide would have been, red and yellow make orange.


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## Platdigger (Feb 14, 2016)

Iron can sure make some pretty colors, yes?


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## alloy2 (Feb 14, 2016)

Platdigger said:


> Iron can sure make some pretty colors, yes?



The reflective flecks will remain after a cleansing in hot HCL to remove the iron.


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## torscot (Feb 14, 2016)

If you want to get rid of the iron staining to see the surface of your rock. Buy a product at the hardware store called "Super iron out" That will remove the iron staining.

If you're hoping for gold, crush it and pan it. Pick out your reflective pieces. hit them with a hammer. if they turn to dust, it's mica or pyrite. Gold will flatten. Look them over with a magnifying glass before and after.

If it's gold you're looking for. Use the tests shown at the top of this subject to see if there is any there.

For those rocks, That's the only thoughts I can come up with for you. 

Good Luck.


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## alloy2 (Feb 15, 2016)

This specimen comes from one of that faster flowing streams, the softer minerals worn away from the host rock.

Wetted with water, camera flash used the rock appears to have an aura surrounding it. Kinda cool and thought I would share my observation.

On a side note I'm now thinking the silver flecks in the sandstone picture could be mercury. I'm going to pass that material over a clean copper plates see if anything sticks.


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## alloy2 (Feb 15, 2016)

Just returned from taking some night time pictures of the rocks on the shore, much to my surprise it is the black coloured rocks that exhibit the most mineral reflection from the camera flash.

The last two pictures were taken from above the water,


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## g_axelsson (Feb 15, 2016)

Is this leading somewhere or are you just filling up the server with pictures of wet rocks?

Göran


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## alloy2 (Feb 15, 2016)

g_axelsson said:


> Is this leading somewhere or are you just filling up the server with pictures of wet rocks?
> 
> Göran



Was hoping the rockman would comment on the quartz, but sine he has no you may delete this thread.


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## silversaddle1 (Feb 15, 2016)

As long as one can learn something from the thread, it should remain.


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## alloy2 (Feb 15, 2016)

I'm not claiming this to be gold, just doing this out of curiosity and sharing the results.

I went back to the creek and brought back 4 litres of water which I proceeded to evaporate down, my first observation the fresh water tested out at 6.5 ph then as the water became more concentrated with mineralisation the ph changed to 8.5.

From the first picture on the right hand side you will observe a reflective material has begun to form on the water surface, the last picture shows the bottom of the pot which shows a massive collection.

The last picture is an enlarged sectional screen shot from the bottom of the pot.

Also on the backplane of the camp stove there is an obvious collection of reflective material that carried over with the steam, also I was not particularly pleased with the colour of the steam coming off and shut the experiment down prematurely.

I wonder how long it would take one of the DOW resin;s to capture an ounce of gold.


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## torscot (Feb 15, 2016)

alloy2 said:


> I wonder how long it would take one of the DOW resin;s to capture an ounce of gold.



Here's your answer.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=23088&hilit=seawater#p242355

Something tells me you're going to need a little more than 4 litres.........................

No body however knowledgeable can say anything about the mineral content from your pictures. It's DIY solution. If you want to know read the other posts everything is there.


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## alloy2 (Feb 15, 2016)

After determining it was the black rocks that showed the most promise went back this afternoon gathering up a few to play with, solved two mystery's. 

After pulverising the rock then grinding it into a paste saved the brown coloured water to let it settle out, panned the mass until the water came out free of any sediment, in the bottom of the pan some very and I mean very fine visible gold along with some silver looking beads which turned out to be mercury.

You can move the shiny beads around making them take on different shapes, so I would appear that the pictures showing a large silver reflection with a purple halo surrounding it is mercury laden with gold.

After swirling the gold pan around playing the pay-dirt, I have now lost the visible gold, the free mercury has stolen my gold.

If your going to use a camera to assist you,in finding gold you'll need one equipped with a tungsten flash, no other will work.


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## Platdigger (Feb 16, 2016)

Well then, perhaps here is an ore (rock) that you can use mercury to your advantage without actually 
adding any.
Now if you can just collect (recover) enough to get into a retort.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Feb 16, 2016)

Build you another retort so you can use it. You can look at running this over a copper plate to collect the mercury on the plate and let the gold wash on buy. Do a search on egg whites here on the forum as well.

Good luck 

8)


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## g_axelsson (Feb 16, 2016)

Are you sure you have mercury? That rock doesn't look like any mercury specimen I've ever seen. Normally mercury is found as cinnabar and in rare cases as metallic mercury with cinnabar, and I can't see even the slightest hint of that.



> You can move the shiny beads around making them take on different shapes, so I would appear that the pictures showing a large silver reflection with a purple halo surrounding it is mercury laden with gold.


Say what? :shock: 
How can you know that is gold? The pixels in the camera is saturated at the reflection, at the border obviously green pixels are not as saturated as the red and blue ones, giving a purple halo. You can see that effect in every flash photo you have taken from start.

And evaporating river water to recover... what? Obviously it can't be gold because that's impossible to do.

This has nothing to do with prospecting or refining, I'm moving this thread to Bar and Grill for now.

Göran


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## rickbb (Feb 16, 2016)

If mercury is present it suggests that some old timer has already worked this strike. (Back before anyone knew better.)

Your gold, (if it is gold), is not lost, but you will need a good retort to recover the gold. Boiling off the mercury without one is dangerous even deadly.

Follow the field testing methods in the sticky at the top of this section to see it if is indeed gold before you get too carried away.


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## jeneje (Feb 16, 2016)

Gill, why do you start threads like this? Of all the members here you most of all, differently know to either confirm or deny gold in an ore you will need to have an assay done. :roll: 

Ken


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## alloy2 (Feb 16, 2016)

g_axelsson said:


> Are you sure you have mercury? That rock doesn't look like any mercury specimen I've ever seen. Normally mercury is found as cinnabar and in rare cases as metallic mercury with cinnabar, and I can't see even the slightest hint of that.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Goran, British Colombia is well known for her gold, the Chinese played any river or stream that showed colour as even today in the Philippines mercury was their poison of choice to recover flour gold. 

Plenty of mercury strayed from the chamois, potato or the pan not to mention mercury vapour from heating it over a camp fire all of which eventually made its way into the water system and food chain from the mighty Fraser River the Native Americans compliment their diet with fish caught in this river. A documented fact the Indians are being poisoned by mercury lost by previous miners.

Vancouver Island in her heyday was famous for coal, its a well know fact mercury can be found in coal and perhaps the main reason for mothballing electric generation plants dependant of coal.

You may dispute the fact that I was able to show mercury from evaporating water down to a condensed form with enough heat to drive off some of the mercury in vapour to re condense, look at the backplane of the camp stove - right hand side you'll see a collection of purple and silver. While your at it take a look at the colour of the steam coming off the pot the colour is off and it was for this reason I terminated the experiment.

While the mercury was in vapour form it carried some gold along with it.

The stream from which the rocks came from has obviously been worked by the Chinese who favoured mercury, the mercury over the years has dispersed, as we all know mercury and gold have an ongoing love affair they seek one another out. The mercury being the most mobile of the two elements attaches itself to any gold it may come across. 

Go back and take another look a the large black rock with the purple spots, there were fissures in the rock, gold first settled into the fissure with mercury later finding the gold to attach itself onto.

The quartz that broke open this afternoon looks like Swiss cheese ,lots of voids filled with crystals and other junk.

So this is what came of this stupid time wasted experiment, it is the rocks in the steam that display a showing of mercury that are of interest to me.

Miners in search of uranium went out during darkness using black light to find the ore they were seeking, From research I have found that mercury under UV aka black light will glow. This will take the guess work out from which rocks I'm going to leave and those I'm going to pack out.

This afternoon I brought back fifty pounds of identical material from another creek to process. if the gold is present in any quantity I'll just carry on as I do not see that an assay at this stage would prove anything for this is placer.

If I get to the point of selling some gold then an assay would be prudent.


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## torscot (Feb 16, 2016)

Elemental mercury does not fluoresce in any way under any wavelength of UV light, fact. Some minerals that contain Mercury may, but it's not the mercury lighting up.

I use a scintillometer for collecting radioactive minerals, and a black light for fluorescents. They are not the same (yes, some radioactives fluoresce). My eyes and a loupe for gold. I do not know where you are getting your information but, it is wrong, so wrong. If your camera is so good. Show us the gold! That will shut all the doubters up. I posted what I hoped was good information for you at the beginning. This topic is now bordering on ludicrous.

Gold from water. Then Mercury from water. 

I won't be posting on this subject again.

Good luck! 

P.S. The quality of your photos is excellent.


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## alloy2 (Feb 16, 2016)

torscot said:


> Elemental mercury does not fluoresce in any way under any wavelength of UV light, fact. Some minerals that contain Mercury may, but it's not the mercury lighting up.
> 
> I use a scintillometer for collecting radioactive minerals, and a black light for fluorescents. They are not the same (yes, some radioactives fluoresce). My eyes and a loupe for gold. I do not know where you are getting your information but, it is wrong, so wrong. If your camera is so good. Show us the gold! That will shut all the doubters up. I posted what I hoped was good information for you at the beginning. This topic is now bordering on ludicrous.
> 
> ...



Good catch, my mistake should had said mercury vapour.

The gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JABbofwD3MI


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## alloy2 (Feb 16, 2016)

torscot said:


> I won't be posting on this subject again.



Nor will I be.



torscot said:


> Good luck!



Thanks



torscot said:


> P.S. The quality of your photos is excellent.



Thanks, camera is the Samsung Galaxy.

The specimen above shot with smartphone.


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## g_axelsson (Feb 17, 2016)

alloy2 said:


> torscot said:
> 
> 
> > Elemental mercury does not fluoresce in any way under any wavelength of UV light, fact. Some minerals that contain Mercury may, but it's not the mercury lighting up.
> ...



Hg vapors absorb UV, what you are seeing is a shadow in UV light made visual by a fluorescent screen. Hg does not fluoresce in UV, neither does the vapors.

Your "gold" looks like iron stained mica.



torscot said:


> This topic is now bordering on ludicrous.


I totally agree.

Göran


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## alloy2 (Feb 17, 2016)

Goran the gold found in B.C. runs around 85% purity.

The specimen below weighs slightly over 500 grams.

Top picture is dry with out water.


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## alloy2 (Feb 18, 2016)

jeneje said:


> Gill, why do you start threads like this? Of all the members here you most of all, differently know to either confirm or deny gold in an ore you will need to have an assay done. :roll:
> 
> Ken



I'm shocked that you did not suggest testing with stannous chloride :twisted: 

Ms. Hoke clearly describes the procedure to test auric chloride solutions in her companion book Testing Precious Metals Wastes has been available as a free download for many years now.


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## alloy2 (Feb 18, 2016)

g_axelsson said:


> Your "gold" looks like iron stained mica.
> 
> Göran



After pulverising a sample then giving it a hot bath in HCL would have to agree the gold adhered to the above specimen is off colour while the cleaned gold looks fabulous.

I ran about a 4 gram sample and there is a lot of fine gold with a couple of pieces about the size of a pin head, the gold looks like little beads.


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## Harold_V (Feb 18, 2016)

The accusation has been laid that this individual is one who has been banned from this board more than once. Indications are that it's true, as the IP's used are identical. For that reason, this individual has been banned from the board once again. This thread has been a huge waste of time. 

Harold


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## Harold_V (Feb 18, 2016)

alloy2 said:


> I'm shocked that you did not suggest testing with stannous chloride :twisted:


I'm shocked that you don't have the wisdom to stay away from this site. 

Harold


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## jeneje (Feb 18, 2016)

Harold_V said:


> alloy2 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm shocked that you did not suggest testing with stannous chloride :twisted:
> ...


 :lol: He's not the sharpest tool in the shed.... :lol: :lol:

Ken


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