Selling gold specimens

[goldshark]

So remind me again, what is the purpose of this forum, I mean I came here in pursuit of knowledge, 'LOOKING IT UP" as you mention ya know, I mean if all I have to do is keep searching instead of you helping, then there's little need for you or this forum is what you are saying? can't believe you just tried to hit me with your purse!! Least the high heels have not come this way. I do read quite a lot, though after my mid 40's I usually require 1.25x readers these days. This geology interest is an all new passion for me and was a subject I mostly ignored the past half century, though thankfully I had read enough to recognize a strong indicator when I stumbled upon it, and from there, months later here I am hell bent on my quest for knowledge, I've read plenty, was a couple weeks just to learn the word Telluride and I'm still confused on all the sub groups, Calverite, Silverite etc and how one determines a positive identification when so many of these rocks are so very similar and multiple images looking completely opposite are shown in so many pages I've read. I know you mistook me for lazy, but Mr., sincerely I just wanted to give you experts and professionals a chance to do your thing, give you experts a chance to shine. Anyways, all ribbing aside it will take me forever to simply LOOK it UP as with this epithermal (yeah I read a lil) there are so many rocks I've never laid eyes upon and have no idea what to even look up so I was truly hoping someone knew a whole lot more than myself could narrow the guess work. Thanks again though and stay sassy! This is definitely not a forum for snowflakes!
View attachment 60125

First off, figure out how to spell what you are describing correctly. I believe you are talking about the mineral Cal A verite, with 2 a's.If you make mistakes here, you will surely make a mistake with chemicals where you use the chemical with an a, instead of the one with an i. It will make a big difference in the end result. As per the prior replies, no one can look at a rock, then give 100% accurate analysis, although I know a couple people who are very good. Posting pictures of rocks, and where you found them provides us with something to look at, then tell you the same thing I just said previously. If you have enough to set up a mine and mill, get your material assayed. Otherwise, put it on your shelf, and wait for the correct person from the universe, to identify, and maybe mentor you in your new passion for rocks and minerals.
Sorry for your problems with labs. Most of the good ones are very busy. Set up an account, send it in, and be patient. Even I have to wait several weeks, and sometimes a couple months, for the results. Don't try to pick their brains on what fluxes, or other proprietary techniques they use. They will view you as a waster of their time, and try to get rid of you as quickly as possible.
All the information you seek is here on this website, except for geology lessons. You will have to study that else where. Chemical and pyro techniques can be found here. You will not be spoon fed info though. Ask a question on your technical problems, and you may, or may not get an answer, most likely based on attitude.

 

[Heathenmojo]

From what I can see, what you have there is a rock that shows no evidence of gold. If you want to see what real gold ore looks like, check out Jason at mbmm on YouTube.

I gather you meant "mbmmllc?" Yeah he's awesome, found and subscribed to his channel about a month ago. Jeff Williams, Dan Hurd, Chris Ralph etc.So you are telling me these are just normal rocks I have and I should set them free as thats what you would do? I'll tell you whats helped me greatly, it is knowing that I do not know, and usually with some effort researching, I've come to realize, there's a whole lot of people whom do not know, that they do not know, and they'll convince you they know if you let them, and by doing such you'll condemn yourself to the natural niche such folks exist in, and thats basically scuttling along the bottom with the lower echelon. I'll tell ya what, since you say there's no gold in this and and its not ore I'm going to throw this worthless rock into a popular fishing hole just for ***** and giggles!! Then I'm going back to reading up on Pegmatites, ever hear of them? Confusing bunch they are, as diverse or perhaps even more so than the Tellurides, any tips or pointers you can offer me on how to spot the differences and positively identify any of either of the two groups mentioned? Heres a good watch or so I thought, guy seems like he knows but let me know if you think he's a quack?

 

[Heathenmojo]

First off, figure out how to spell what you are describing correctly. I believe you are talking about the mineral Cal A verite, with 2 a's.If you make mistakes here, you will surely make a mistake with chemicals where you use the chemical with an a, instead of the one with an i. It will make a big difference in the end result. As per the prior replies, no one can look at a rock, then give 100% accurate analysis, although I know a couple people who are very good. Posting pictures of rocks, and where you found them provides us with something to look at, then tell you the same thing I just said previously. If you have enough to set up a mine and mill, get your material assayed. Otherwise, put it on your shelf, and wait for the correct person from the universe, to identify, and maybe mentor you in your new passion for rocks and minerals.
Sorry for your problems with labs. Most of the good ones are very busy. Set up an account, send it in, and be patient. Even I have to wait several weeks, and sometimes a couple months, for the results. Don't try to pick their brains on what fluxes, or other proprietary techniques they use. They will view you as a waster of their time, and try to get rid of you as quickly as possible.
All the information you seek is here on this website, except for geology lessons. You will have to study that else where. Chemical and pyro techniques can be found here. You will not be spoon fed info though. Ask a question on your technical problems, and you may, or may not get an answer, most likely based on attitude.

Oh snap, my typo has kicked the hornets nest, the air fryer has now been plugged in. Thanks for correcting my misspelling, most likely I've been butchering the pronunciation of CAL-A-Ver-ITe as well? Dang, so its a bit of a process to establish a connection with a lab and unless you're big daddy tonnage they are going to treat me like an annoyance regardless? I really detest paying people money to treat me that way. I'm good on flux I believe as Jason at MBMMLLC ran some good experiments in his post "Gold smelting 101, Part 2: Gold Smelting Techniques, Flux, & Collector Metal for Maximum Recovery" and you are correct, even though I have pretty much the best ore one can hope for with many claiming it averages 40% AU (hell I''l be happy with even 5%) all I have at the moment are worthless cool looking rocks until I smelt some actual bars. Its like some torturous bad joke, I can hold much gold worth so much money in my hand and lick it if I choose, but until I bring it across to this side in at least a 10k state, I'm hanging with the poor folk dodging debt collectors. Lit my frosty T for the first time yesterday, gunna be hot, hot hot today all most all day, Kiln is ready for Refractory cement. Thanks again.

 

[Heathenmojo]

Crush it, classify, crush some more, pan it, and post a pic of what you find.

Oh I been busy for several weeks on all that, here's two pansI'm working down to concentrates, not all that shiny stuff is gold, some of it is quarts doing that trickery, but a lot of it is not quartz! You might say the fever has hit me, has me in its grasp, days turn into nights turn into another sunrise of just a blur. Being honest, kinda all began after I found the first Pegmatite, started researching to learn more, digging more samples, the more I found the more I was convinced it was pyrite or something else, but the more I learned, the farther I dug thinking I'd prove myself wrong, well the more I was assured, better get while the getting is available to be gotten, my girl hates what I've done to the basement, she's probably leaving soon unless I do indeed appear with gold bars in hand very soon, real soon. I don't think I've been this passionate and worked this hard on anything with such a happy obsession since I began tattooing over 3 years ago, just swept me away. This is too much like hard work most times!
View attachment The Grind 720.mov

 

[goldshark]

Please do not try to smelt/melt indoors, especially in the basement. Many, if not all rocks, have varying amounts of Mercury. You don't want to become the Mad Hatter of GRF. Please read more on safety.

 

[Heathenmojo]

I’m curious as to where you found this rock. I’m not asking for your address or a specific location. Just a general idea. Like maybe what State and general area.

It's a very crazy story, if I tell you you will not believe me, but it's old gold mine here on the North East Coast, complete with kilns, which is where I pulled some of these from. My guess is they were strip mining for coal when they hit the epithermal outcrop, as they had half the ridge torn off, same as they did farther up the ridge. Theres much more to the story that I will not divulge, but clearly the mine was hidden and kept secret, then the people whom knew about obviously passed on and it sat waiting almost 200 years for me to find it. Lot of copper and iron mines in this area, so anyone whom stumbled upon this assumed it was merely one of those old mines and paid no attention to it. I have a friend whom is a rock hound, owns a herkimer diamond mine in NY state, check out his YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@DigDigDig, ran to him immediately thinking he'd have my answers, he got sad looking and told me flat out he had no idea and may have walked past stuff like I found countless times as he does not even look for it nor put much effort into learning about it, as simply we do not have gold in these parts, it does not exist!

 

[Heathenmojo]

Please do not try to smelt/melt indoors, especially in the basement. Many, if not all rocks, have varying amounts of Mercury. You don't want to become the Mad Hatter of GRF. Please read more on safety.

Yeah, I've learned some of those lessons the hard way. In the beginning I kept finding these lil red things on some of the rocks and thought they were perhaps baby Rubys that never quite formed, peeled them out of the rock, held them, looked at them, then learned what "CINNABAR" is. Ugh, and thank you, that aspect had never even crossed my mind in the beginning, lead, mercury, and quite a few other nasty lurking. I was taking my Oxytocin's Acetylene torch and melting rocks, no respirator in the garage, man, lot to learn with this, thats for sure.

 

[cejohnsonsr1]

That’s all I needed to know. What you have is a rock. Geological surveys have shown absolutely no gold in the NE US.

 

[jobinyt]

"it sure looks and acts like gold"

I too am curious. In what ways does it act like gold? I'm in PA, wondering where Pennsyltucky is?

 

[Heathenmojo]

That’s all I needed to know. What you have is a rock. Geological surveys have shown absolutely no gold in the NE US.

Well you definitely should hone your reading skills, as PA does indeed have some gold well documented, however, take note, take strong note of what you do not know, and re-read what I previously wrote you. I stated NORTHEAST COAST, never ever said PA. Now rub it on your chest and go guzzle some more H8trade. People like you...........now go enjoy more of what you do not know while convincing yourself you know. Cognitive Dissonance never bothered you a bit.

 

[Heathenmojo]

"it sure looks and acts like gold"

I too am curious. In what ways does it act like gold? I'm in PA, wondering where Pennsyltucky is?

Its not PA, it's Northeast America, I live in PA. Pennsyltucky is on the map if you have the right map! As far as act like gold, well it does everything gold does, EVERYTHING, including being a real pain in the kisser to extract from all the other material its surrounded by. There is indeed gold in PA though, perhaps even veins like I just found, so ignore these "EXPERTS" and pay attention when you're out there, I'm pretty sure I saw signs of an epithermal in PA now that I know what I'm looking for, but will have to investigate farther when time allows. Most the gold in PA is glacial, from what is already known, so you can target those areas where the glacier stopped perhaps. I'm no expert though so do not take what I say for trusted knowledge, research, research and research some more

 

[Yggdrasil]

Well you definitely should hone your reading skills, as PA does indeed have some gold well documented, however, take note, take strong note of what you do not know, and re-read what I previously wrote you. I stated NORTHEAST COAST, never ever said PA. Now rub it on your chest and go guzzle some more H8trade. People like you...........now go enjoy more of what you do not know while convincing yourself you know. Cognitive Dissonance never bothered you a bit.

Careful now!
There is no hate here.
And since you both are sketchy about locations you both may be right in where you think it is from.
He is right anyway in that until you have an assay you have a rock and that is it!

 

[Heathenmojo]

"it sure looks and acts like gold"

I too am curious. In what ways does it act like gold? I'm in PA, wondering where Pennsyltucky is?

Here, to give you an idea of what is possible, and know that many of these loud mouths roaming here are wallowing in their own ignorance while trying to convince you they know more than you, its best to leave them lie where they have chosen and move along. As I stated, Research, research, and research some more, trust nobody word but your own and you will be just fine! The part you must admire the most is..... I mean hey 4.8 oz of AU per ton is something any smart miner will sneeze at.

Production notes

In late 1911, an 8.5 ton sample of material from the Pennsylvania Mine averaged $100 per ton in gold (4.8 ounces of gold per ton). A second lot of Pennsylvania ore was custom milled in early 1912 and averaged $52 per ton (2.5 ounces of gold per ton). The mine was not in production in 1913. The mine was examined in 1922 by Stewart (1922) and Davis (1922) but was not in production at that time. Some time between 1922 and 1931, the western drift on the 50-foot level was extended to a length of 70 feet and stoped to the surface; this work produced about $10,000 in of gold (484 ounces) (Hill, 1933).

Pennsylvania (ARDF #LG156) Au

 

[Heathenmojo]

Careful now!
There is no hate here.
And since you both are sketchy about locations you both may be right in where you think it is from.
He is right anyway in that until you have an assay you have a rock and that is it!

I grew up in that tattoo industry, so my skin is thick, but I'm kinda feeling sorry for anyone with that level of ignorance trying to laugh at me, my skills are honed and I'll wound an inner child quickly. To boot though I came here seeking knowledge I lack, so the passive aggressive attack of ridicule from the other you mention is a freudian character display, and I do not tolerate such beta attempt at posturing on me. I typically come with a very well informed argument and as for that, you sir speak the truth, Assay is the missing info I must acquire. I'll do my best to keep it classy and give respect to those worthy of such.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I grew up in that tattoo industry, so my skin is thick, but I'm kinda feeling sorry for anyone with that level of ignorance trying to laugh at me, my skills are honed and I'll wound an inner child quickly. To boot though I came here seeking knowledge I lack, so the passive aggressive attack of ridicule from the other you mention is a freudian character display, and I do not tolerate such beta attempt at posturing on me. I typically come with a very well informed argument and as for that, you sir speak the truth, Assay is the missing info I must acquire. I'll do my best to keep it classy and give respect to those worthy of such.

Nothing you have shown us so far has much indications of Gold,
still you have already made up your mind and the conclusions are clear.

You started this thread claiming to have specimens which you do not have, only rocks.

We don't know you or your abilities or lack there of, so you need to convince us not the other way around.
Have you now read the threads we recommended you to read?

 

[Heathenmojo]

Careful now!
There is no hate here.
And since you both are sketchy about locations you both may be right in where you think it is from.
He is right anyway in that until you have an assay you have a rock and that is it!

This is a very interesting read, "It seems very strange that anyone can be so lacking in foresight as to expect to make money by mining, whether the mine contains much or little of the mineral sought and yet there are those who seem to think that any mine, especially if,it is on their own land,
is necessarily profitable. As a mattei of fact the greater num- ber of mines are not a success. As in the last report I wish to call attention to the very common occurrence of little particles of yellow mica in the rocks of the state. In some specimens, these
yellow sparkling bits of mica are easily mistaken for gold and many are deceived by them."
https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/geo/MiscPubs/GoldInVT_1998.pdf

 

[Yggdrasil]

This is a very interesting read, "It seems very strange that anyone can be so lacking in foresight as to expect to make money by mining, whether the mine contains much or little of the mineral sought and yet there are those who seem to think that any mine, especially if,it is on their own land,
is necessarily profitable. As a mattei of fact the greater num- ber of mines are not a success. As in the last report I wish to call attention to the very common occurrence of little particles of yellow mica in the rocks of the state. In some specimens, these
yellow sparkling bits of mica are easily mistaken for gold and many are deceived by them."
https://dec.vermont.gov/sites/dec/files/geo/MiscPubs/GoldInVT_1998.pdf

I can't see how this is relevant to the post you reply to.

Anyway, industrial mining may be profitable with as little as 1 gram per tonne.
But the key here is industrial scale.
As a small scale miner one may need much more than that.

 

[Alondro]

That’s all I needed to know. What you have is a rock. Geological surveys have shown absolutely no gold in the NE US.

Not quite true. A small amount of hard rock gold has been confirmed in north NJ, associated with the copper ores in Franklin, NJ. There is also quite a bit of placer gold, dragged down by glaciers.

There may also be quantities of gold ores, mainly chalcopyrites, which were not known to contain gold when the area was first prospected in the 1700's, and thus went overlooked. I have found chalcopyrites in some gravels sourced from quarries in NJ.

So, gold does exist. It's simply in 'hobby-level' prospecting quantities in most cases. HOWEVER, I suspect some higher amounts of ores are yet undiscovered because those ores were unknown to contain gold when the old mining companies first scouted the areas. MANY localized pyrite-bearing deposits exist, and I doubt most have ever been assayed for gold content.

The northern part of NJ and eastern PA is 'geologically tormented' as plates were torn apart and slammed together at least 3 times in the same region, creating a jumbled geology, where pockets of unusual minerals can pop up unexpectedly.

For instance, there is Lorimer Park in eastern PA, where a very small vertical intrusion of igneous rock lifted some schists and other rock about 100 feet straight up, exposing garnet and tourmaline-carrying minerals which can only be found in that immediate area. It's a very odd little formation, there is a tiny cave near the top of it where in the back you can actually see almost an arrowhead-like formation of quartz pushing upward through the surrounding rock.

 

[cejohnsonsr1]

I’m using my phone to read this. 3rd time in the last couple of days that I’ve written a considerable couple of paragraphs and then watched them disappear. Bummer.

 

[Thomas M Joseph]

Who owns the mineral rights? There is no place east of the Mississippi that I know of that is open to new mineral claims. Private property? State forest, National forest? BLM? If you don't own the mineral rights, me thinks you have a problem.