I found gold rocks in a basement I dug out

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Radcliff89

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Joined
Jan 23, 2012
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I live in Illinois and have NO place anywhere close to have these rocks tested. I found them along with a bunch of buffalo nickels down deep in my buddies basement we were digging out. I have pictures of one of the rocks. We found several. Is there a way I can test them myself? Thank you for your help!!
 

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What do the nickels look like? Are they wore pretty bad or are they in nice shape?
 
They could be pyrite (fools gold), I cannot tell from picture; sometimes pyrite can have a small amount of gold.

You could send these to someone who can fire assay, but if you only have a couple of small rocks it would not really be worth it, unless you wish to spend money just to find out.

One problem with ore is it can be very dangerous to deal with, in some processes it can release arsenic, or other gases, so if you do any tests you should take precautions.

There can be several tests other than these.

Take a very small sample, cut it out with your pocketknife, what looks to be gold, and try to crush or hammer it, if it crushes or powders it is pyrite, if you can hammer it flat it can be gold.

Crush rock to powers and pan.


Here is a field test:
Sulfide ore gold test
Pinch of powdered mineral is fused (strongly heated to like a syrup) in a surplus mix of
One part ammonium chloride
And
21/2 parts ammonium nitrate
Melted fusion cooled
And salts dissolved in a few drops of HCl acid
A drop of solution on Qtip or filter paper, and add a drop of stannous chloride,
Red to violet indicates some gold in ore.
Take care not to breath fumes.
This test can be done in the mountains with simple tools (small kit and chemicals) packed up there with you.
 
It certainly looks like Iron Pyrite to me. A quicker test would be to break off a small piece of the metallic looking portion, crush it a bit with a hammer, then and add a couple drops of muriatic acid. Iron Pyrite will react and release hydrogen sulfide gas (rotten egg smell). Even so the rock may contain small traces of gold also, but I think you'll find the vast majority of it is Pyrite.

macfixer01
 
It does look like mica, but keep in mind, Glaziers left corn size nuggets in Illinois. It could be a mix of both.
A corn size sample heated in the reducing flame (tip of the blue flame) on charcoal with soda ash (or baking soda) will leave yellow flakes or beads if it's is or contains some gold. Dr. Poe

For clarity, I think he means glaciers, not glaziers, who are not known for leaving gold (minerals) behind.

Harold

The results of typing too fast. Thank you Harold. :mrgreen:
 
Dr. Poe said:
It does look like mica, but keep in mind, Glaziers left corn size nuggets in Illinois. It could be a mix of both.
A corn size sample heated in the reducing flame (tip of the blue flame) on charcoal with soda ash (or baking soda) will leave yellow flakes or beads if it's is or contains some gold. Dr. Poe

For clarity, I think he means glaciers, not glaziers, who are not known for leaving gold (minerals) behind.

Harold

lol I was going to ask if those guys who put putty in window frames left it behind when they built the house but you beat me to it Horold, Just having fun Mr. Poe. :lol: Anyways I asked a similar question early in my membership here, it was golden, sparkly, and an impressive size stone. I was just mica. Oh well I live I learn.
 
joem said:
Dr. Poe said:
It does look like mica, but keep in mind, Glaziers left corn size nuggets in Illinois. It could be a mix of both.
A corn size sample heated in the reducing flame (tip of the blue flame) on charcoal with soda ash (or baking soda) will leave yellow flakes or beads if it's is or contains some gold. Dr. Poe

For clarity, I think he means glaciers, not glaziers, who are not known for leaving gold (minerals) behind.

Harold

lol I was going to ask if those guys who put putty in window frames left it behind when they built the house but you beat me to it Horold, Just having fun Mr. Poe. :lol: Anyways I asked a similar question early in my membership here, it was golden, sparkly, and an impressive size stone. I was just mica. Oh well I live I learn.
Call me Doc.
 

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