So do I have Gold ?

[aksplace]

Recently my fiancee and I was driving passed the colorado rockies and stopped near a forested area with a small running stream running down from the mountain top area. On the side of the stream was sand along with portions of what appears gold flakes mixed with the sand area sides. When we got to Arizona I filtered out as good as i can the gold flakes from the other elements like sand and rocks. I took the vile of gold into a local jewler where he tested the gold with some form of acid test. He concluded with the results that it was passing breakdown test at a min 22k. I took the flakes to a strong magnet and the flakes did not stick. The only concern the jewler had was when he tried to melt the flakes together with a torch it turned sorta black and didnt colect well together. So i ask you folks do i have gold or junk false gold?

Regards
Curious George

 

[aksplace]

 

[Palladium]

Looks like mica.

 

[g_axelsson]

I second that, looks like mica.

Göran

 

[butcher]

Fools gold can be seen in the sand, as it is light and will mix easily with the sand on the surface, real gold has a much higher specific gravity and you will not find it on the surface mixed with sand, as it naturally goes to the bottom of the creek bed or river, even down to bedrock.

If you see lots of gold flakes in sand you can bet its fools gold, to prove it pan the material, the fools gold will leave your pan with the sand, real gold is heavy and will be left in the pan after all of the rocks and sand is panned away.
Here we have beach's full of iron pyrite in the sand, many new to mining strike it rich on this fools gold, until they learn to pan for real gold.

Put your gold or fools gold into a pan, fill the pan with some sand and rocks and dirt, and a small pellets of lead, mix them up well, and then pan it, pan out the dirt, rocks and sand, and the pyrite fools gold. When your left with only the lead pellets, if gold was involved it will still be in your pan, gold has a higher specific gravity than lead, and the lead will pan out before the gold.

 

[galenrog]

Mica. There is a lot of it in the Rockies. It is resistant to acids and will blacken to some degree when torched. Some micas are gold in color, fooling some until they have a bit of experience.

 

[acpeacemaker]

I've got some pics from our Colorado streams that are so littered in mica. The entire stream is golden. The right light it can almost be blinding.

 

[rickbb]

Just spent the weekend camping at one of my favorite places here in the east. South Toe River flows through the largest Pegmatite zone in the east. Rivers and creeks so full of mica and quartz you can't see when the sun is reflected off of it.