Greetings!

[GoldReport]

Hello all! I was very excited to find this forum, there is an amazing amount of information on this site.

A little about me, I've got my bachelor's in Mining engineering and have about 10 years in the mining industry in underground salt, open pit hard rock quarries, now I work a travel job and cover about 40 sites that mine aggregates in one form or another across the USA.

I've been a rock n dirt nerd as long as I can remember: digging holes, finding rocks, crushing rocks, licking rocks... In the last year or so I've started prospecting for gold which is quite fun. Along side panning in rivers I've also panned some decent gold from sand and gravel pits, it's all about who you know.
More recently I came across a report that indicated gold in a lode deposit, but it was small and not too significant at the time. I've been searching for this deposit in my free time (whats that??) and have a couple of samples that might be worth something. The report, from the 1860s, said that it is associated with pyrite, iron sulfide. It didn't indicated if it was mill gold or bound up chemically. What I've done so far is crush my samples, pan them, and then roasted followed by panning again. No luck so far.

Any questions I have right now could probably be answered by continuing to research on this site, I'm just excited to be here and wanted to say hello!

P.S. I firmly believe I won't find anything worth a great deal of money but it's more of a hobby and would be incredible to me to find (even a little) gold in a state where there's never been a commercial gold mine.

 

[4metals]

Welcome to the forum, we can use members who are experienced with the mining aspect and recovery. We get our fair share of questions about rocks and aside from being certain that their photographs are actually rocks, we can use commentary from people who actually look at rocks and can make sense of what is there or potentially is recoverable.

What I've done so far is crush my samples, pan them, and then roasted followed by panning again.

This alone is encouraging for what you didn't say, which is often about throwing rocks, which they know little to nothing about, into aqua regia and living long enough to ask how to clean up the mess.

Again, welcome, you may enjoy the ride.

 

[GoldReport]

Welcome to the forum, we can use members who are experienced with the mining aspect and recovery. We get our fair share of questions about rocks and aside from being certain that their photographs are actually rocks, we can use commentary from people who actually look at rocks and can make sense of what is there or potentially is recoverable.


This alone is encouraging for what you didn't say, which is often about throwing rocks, which they know little to nothing about, into aqua regia and living long enough to ask how to clean up the mess.

Again, welcome, you may enjoy the ride.

Thanks! I will make sure to check out posts about rocks to see where I can weigh in. Some of the posts I've seen so far have pictures far too blury to say anything definitive. What I've heard and always say about mining gold is when you have gold there's no question but if you aren't sure.. its probably not gold.

 

[nickvc]

We have a few members who know about mining and ores but not many , for treatment or processing look up Deano who has been in the industry for many years and is extremely knowledgeable and has posted some extremely detailed posts about processing.

 

[4metals]

What I've heard and always say about mining gold is when you have gold there's no question but if you aren't sure.. its probably not gold.

While this is likely true most of the time, when gold climbed north of $2500 an ounce it seems the rock pickers came out of the woodwork. We tell them to crush and pan the fines and separate the gold by density but many are convinced well before even crushing. And an assay, you mean spend money? Fuggeddaboutit!!!

We try to ask new members posting about rocks to read this thread which was written by Lou, one of our moderators. He was motivated by the frustration we all feel when the rock pictures show up. Feel free to comment on the thread.