urbangold95 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Is there any chance you can pan something that looks like gold, but isn't? If so please let me know. thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfinger Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 When In first started prospecting, I was always mistaking pyrite or even mica for gold while panning. I'm sure there's other minerals that could be mistaken for gold but once you find it, it's pretty easy to indentify.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homefire Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Nothing that has the soft yellow color of gold. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangold95 Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 I wish I had enough to make visible to post a picture to show you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homefire Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 All it takes is this much to make you want more! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck,tx2 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 All it takes is this much to make you want more! LOLI can be down with a bad case of the blues & find a speck of the yellow stuff ( gold) & Iam on cloud 9 with a hole new out look on life & the fever rages on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangold95 Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangold95 Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 does anybody have a picture(s) of gold dust and pyrite dust. I just want to compare the picture to the stuff I panned and see if its gold or not i am pretty sure it is, but im having trouble telling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfinger Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Dab some of that dust from the pan onto your finger and try to smear it on a piece of white unglazed porcelain tile. Can use the underside of a toilet lid if nothing else is avalible. If it's pyrite, you will see a blackish green color. If you don't see anything, that doesn't mean it's gold. it could be mica or some other mineral that doesn't leave a streak. I assume you are panning the streams in your area for glacial gold. If that's the case, it's usually pretty fine and has a high karat content, therefore it has a bright gold color.Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedrock Bob Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Gold is so much heavier than pyrite it is not difficult to tell it by the way it moves. Gold will sit steady and stable in a swirl of water where pyrite will move, flutter, and not want to settle.Pyrite always has flat sides when you look at it under slight magnification. It is a mineral crystal. It has fracture, cleavage, and faults that follow a geometric pattern. Gold is a soft metal. Amorphous and without an internal shape of any kind.Pyrite is brittle and any piece no matter how small will crush into dust. Put some in a spoon and smash it with another spoon. Pyrite will "crunch" and be dust. Gold will not yeild at all or it will press into a flatter piece. Bite it! Gold will form to your tooth and flatten out and pyrite will crunch and make your teeth gritty. You can find a little tiny color and bite it into a big flake that is very thin!It is the basic physical hcaracteristics of any substance that identifies it. No tricks, just observation. Weight (density), structure and appearance, hardness, and malleability. If you do these simple observations there will be no doubt. Then, once you see the real thing in the pan there will never be any doubt again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Au Seeker Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 Another thing you can do is to get your pan in sunlight gold and pyrite can very well look the same as long as they're in direct sunlight and have that glowing gold color, now using your hand shade the "gold/pyrite", if it's gold the glowing golden color will still be there, if it's pyrite it will not have that same golden tone if any at all as it did in the sunlight, gold has it own "sunshine" so to speak!!Skip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangold95 Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 Ok thanks I will try that. I put a small flake/dust on my finger and put my little vile with water in it and when the gold/other mineral hit the water it sucked the piece to the bottom really quickly. Also it shines pretty good I just don't know if it shines without any light on it I will try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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