Introduction

[MCB0513]

Hey y'all i appreciate you all letting me join the group! I am new to all of this I had a hunting accident back in October and lost a toe so I have been out of work since. I couldn't be lazy and just sit in the house as the doctor wanted me to do I went searching! I have been looking since then and now I have found a what appears to be gem mind and some gold of course. Recently I have found a quart's vein and have so many questions but I'm kinda figuring them out as I go. I bought a vevor smelter and I am using it to start with. I am trying to make 3.5 oz bars. Any good flux recommendations? Thanks again for having me!

 

[GieTM]

Hi. I'm pretty brand new too. Unfortunately, I can't contribute to your question.

I just wanted to say hi and thank you for sharing your story. I won't ask.
Good for you for getting outside and having some fun.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hey y'all i appreciate you all letting me join the group! I am new to all of this I had a hunting accident back in October and lost a toe so I have been out of work since. I couldn't be lazy and just sit in the house as the doctor wanted me to do I went searching! I have been looking since then and now I have found a what appears to be gem mind and some gold of course. Recently I have found a quart's vein and have so many questions but I'm kinda figuring them out as I go. I bought a vevor smelter and I am using it to start with. I am trying to make 3.5 oz bars. Any good flux recommendations? Thanks again for having me!

Welcome.
Until you have an assay it is just rocks.
In order to decide on flux one need to know what is in the rocks.

 

[MCB0513]

Welcome.
Until you have an assay it is just rocks.
In order to decide on flux one need to know what is in the rocks.

I have gold I have already tried one time and it came out as black glass is what it looked like. You could see gold all in there but it was black. I also took it and had it tested and it was gold platinum and hemitight. So what would the bright green and black rock be? Would that be the ore? I'm having to chip threw that to get to the top of the quartz vein. Finding a lot of crystals and what looks like dimonds that would be one and a million but they are 4 sided and all have points.

 

[MCB0513]

Hi. I'm pretty brand new too. Unfortunately, I can't contribute to your question.

I just wanted to say hi and thank you for sharing your story. I won't ask.
Good for you for getting outside and having some fun.

Thanks, I really enjoy it I am finding all kinds of interesting things. Alot of Indian tools and workings also. I wish you the best also brother. Hopefully I will have a bar to show in a couple of days it's been a working progress I have been diging and walking since October been hard at it because I am not released to go back to work yet. I hope that this can be my work good Lord willing.

 

[Alchemy]

If there are blue and green rocks, along with the history of natives mining there suggests copper. Natives have been mining copper in north America for almost 10,000 years. A lidar report that I saw a few years ago suggested over 3000 copper mines in the Michigan area alone. There were also some known mines in the Appalachian mountains and a few other areas. It's known as the "old copper complex", no doubt the eastern woodland natives looked for copper everywhere.

I found a copper arrow head. I assumed it was fashioned out of some scrap European copper, however the site and area has history going all the way back to the eastern woodland natives so it could very well be much older.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I have gold I have already tried one time and it came out as black glass is what it looked like. You could see gold all in there but it was black. I also took it and had it tested and it was gold platinum and hemitight. So what would the bright green and black rock be? Would that be the ore? I'm having to chip threw that to get to the top of the quartz vein. Finding a lot of crystals and what looks like dimonds that would be one and a million but they are 4 sided and all have points.

So since you know you have Gold and Pt I assume you have an assay?

By the way I moved your thread to the Rocks section

 

[MCB0513]

So since you know you have Gold and Pt I assume you have an assay?

By the way I moved your thread to the Rocks section

Yes I do not a very expensive one but I have one that reaches 2800 degrees. I ordered the Chapman flux Thanks I'm sorry about that. What did you think about them?

 

[MCB0513]

If there are blue and green rocks, along with the history of natives mining there suggests copper. Natives have been mining copper in north America for almost 10,000 years. A lidar report that I saw a few years ago suggested over 3000 copper mines in the Michigan area alone. There were also some known mines in the Appalachian mountains and a few other areas. It's known as the "old copper complex", no doubt the eastern woodland natives looked for copper everywhere.

I found a copper arrow head. I assumed it was fashioned out of some scrap European copper, however the site and area has history going all the way back to the eastern woodland natives so it could very well be much older.

I have also found some kind of rocks or something that's heavy and it's black red and green on the inside but also you can take a drimel to it and it turns to dust. Some of them also have a number stamped with SC AND A PALM TREE

 

[SRM]

In my opinion (worth exactly what you paid for it)
South Carolina is a known as a gold producer, so you have that going for you. I understand that it is difficult to photograph rocks. However, your photography may limit our ability to correctly identify your material.

Most of the pans you showed looked to have quartz and feldspar. There may be some fine gold in a couple of the pics. Black opaque minerals look to be metallic and I would guess hematite and weathered pyrite (a streak test can help with this). Glassy black minerals could be a wide variety of minerals.

When I refer to an assay, I envision a very specific process of sampling, preparation and analysis by an experienced lab. Assays are not cheap for the average person but can save time, effort and disappointment by showing where not to dig. A handheld XRF should not be confused with a proper assay.

I wouldn't suggest smelting at this point unless you just want to experiment. SC is not known for arsenic or mercury, but you should still take proper precautions. If your first smelt produced a glassy slag, that is a good thing. You may need to add a collector metal to remove the gold from the melt. If you suspect pyrite, add some iron to the melt to convert the pyrite and drive it into the slag.

Good luck, have fun and get well.

SRM