Rusty Quartz

[Tbutch]

Here is another one of my finds. Maybe some quartz. Not sure what all the rust and colors are. I broke of a piece to crush. Didn’t find any gold yet. Should I try crushing more? Any info is appreciated. 

Thanks

[nugget108]

Looks like something i would crush a bunch of. Just never know! Is it from a gold producing area?

[Morlock]

Unless you have a good reason to suspect there's gold in it, I wouldn't waste my time on it. That's pretty common.

[BMc]

1 hour ago, Tbutch said:

Here is another one of my finds. Maybe some quartz. Not sure what all the rust and colors are. I broke of a piece to crush. Didn’t find any gold yet. Should I try crushing more? Any info is appreciated. 

Thanks

If you found it in a gold producing area, (or on the fringes), I would try sampling the drainages' by panning and detecting. 

[Tbutch]

I’m not sure it’s a gold producing area. It’s basically my backyard canyon. I have found some very old hand tools. Looks like someone was trying to mine something. I have found some rocks with pyrite that might have gold. I can post those pics or just crush them.

[Bedrock Bob]

That is the right stuff. It's hematite gossan. It is exactly what most gold miners look for.

Some of it has gold and some of it doesn't. The only way you can tell is by spotting gold with a loupe or crushing it and panning it.

[Dakota Slim]

If you get an ounce from crushing a ton you will be doing really well. 
Here is a great resource for gold ore...

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/gold_specimen/Gold_ores.htm
 

[Tbutch]

Thanks Bob.  I’ll check it with a loop and see what I can find. Good to know that’s what they look for. I will do some digging in the area and see what I can find. Hopefully I’m just scratching the surface. 

[Bedrock Bob]

37 minutes ago, Tbutch said:

Thanks Bob.  I’ll check it with a loop and see what I can find. Good to know that’s what they look for. I will do some digging in the area and see what I can find. Hopefully I’m just scratching the surface. 

We are all just scratching the surface.

 

Good luck! 

[Tbutch]

43 minutes ago, Dakota Slim said:

If you get an ounce from crushing a ton you will be doing really well. 
Here is a great resource for gold ore...

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/gold_specimen/Gold_ores.htm
 

At the rate I’m crushing I’d get nothing and that would kill me. I need to up my crushing game with some equipment.  Thanks those are some great resources I will be using for sure.

[Tbutch]

12 minutes ago, Bedrock Bob said:

We are all just scratching the surface.

 

Good luck!

Indeed we are Bob!

Thanks 

😊 

[chrisski]

10 hours ago, Dakota Slim said:

If you get an ounce from crushing a ton you will be doing really well. 
Here is a great resource for gold ore...

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/gold_specimen/Gold_ores.htm
 

A ton of rocks is a lot.  A ton of dirt comes in at around 35 five gallon buckets, so maybe a couple dozen buckets of rocks will get you a ton.  THat’s a lot of work.

 

11 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

That is the right stuff. It's hematite gossan. It is exactly what most gold miners look for.

Some of it has gold and some of it doesn't. The only way you can tell is by spotting gold with a loupe or crushing it and panning it.

I have been told that also.  I always take my loupe and look for gold. Have never found it.  The staining in the quarts sometimes turns yellow and I get excited thinking its gold until a bit of a closer inspection.  

I think its odd that very few pictures of the gold nuggets have this rusty quarts attached, but instead is the white quarts.

13 hours ago, Tbutch said:

 

In my non-qualified opinion, the biggest value in that rock comes from the quarts crystals in the vugs (holes).

I’v never done it, but here is one of many articles on how to clean the crystals:

http://rockhoundingar.com/cleaning.php

Can’t find it, but my favorite article is something like. “How to become a poor crystal farmer,” and tells a guys story of purchasing a property and what he does to get the crystals that he sells.  He uses something similar to the crockpot cleaning method in the above link, but on a larger scale with old water heaters.  He also uses an excavator to dig up hills on his property.  I think some dynamite also.

[Tbutch]

3 hours ago, chrisski said:

A ton of rocks is a lot.  A ton of dirt comes in at around 35 five gallon buckets, so maybe a couple dozen buckets of rocks will get you a ton.  THat’s a lot of work.

 

I have been told that also.  I always take my loupe and look for gold. Have never found it.  The staining in the quarts sometimes turns yellow and I get excited thinking its gold until a bit of a closer inspection.  

I think its odd that very few pictures of the gold nuggets have this rusty quarts attached, but instead is the white quarts.

In my non-qualified opinion, the biggest value in that rock comes from the quarts crystals in the vugs (holes).

I’v never done it, but here is one of many articles on how to clean the crystals:

http://rockhoundingar.com/cleaning.php

Can’t find it, but my favorite article is something like. “How to become a poor crystal farmer,” and tells a guys story of purchasing a property and what he does to get the crystals that he sells.  He uses something similar to the crockpot cleaning method in the above link, but on a larger scale with old water heaters.  He also uses an excavator to dig up hills on his property.  I think some dynamite also.

Thank you for responding. I am very interested in cleaning the quartz crystals. I was going to try vinegar and baking soda but I don’t want hurt the crystals. I used it on some chalcopyrite and it definitely dissolved some quartz. I’ve been using it to clean iron pyrite with good results. What do you mean by vugs (holes)? 

[Bedrock Bob]

1 hour ago, Tbutch said:

Thank you for responding. I am very interested in cleaning the quartz crystals. I was going to try vinegar and baking soda but I don’t want hurt the crystals. I used it on some chalcopyrite and it definitely dissolved some quartz. I’ve been using it to clean iron pyrite with good results. What do you mean by vugs (holes)? 

Quartz is insoluble in most acids. So cleaning them is easy. It is a matter of the other minerals involved that will stain them. 

Quartz isn't worth much. Even large terminated crystals. So it isn't worth much effort. 

Your specimen is loaded with iron from the oxidized end of a quartz vein. It is hematite. This will turn a solvent into enchilada sauce and stain the quartz. Your best bet is to break out the crystals you want and clean them away from the rest of the rock.

A couple days in warm vinegar and a scrubbing with soap and a stiff brush will get them as "clean" as they need to be. Most other methods will stain them even more.

If you are looking for quartz crystals look for deeper geology formed under higher pressures. 

If you are looking for gold you have identified the right stuff. Every piece of gold I have ever found originated in ore that looks just like that.

[chrisski]

I think if the crystal dissolved in vinegar, it was calcite.  I have trouble telling calcite and quartz apart.  I Always have to google the differences.  I think I’m addition to vinegar, calcite is softer.

Edited January 9 by chrisski

[Tbutch]

15 hours ago, chrisski said:

I think if the crystal dissolved in vinegar, it was calcite.  I have trouble telling calcite and quartz apart.  I Always have to google the differences.  I think I’m addition to vinegar, calcite is softer.

Thanks! This one must be calcite. Some of the crystals dissolved in vinegar. Do you think I should soak the hematite gossan in vinegar?

[chrisski]

I am no expert, but a breaking a small chunk off the rock and trying it would be nice. Either that or put it in your rock garden for a while to decide what to do with it.

I’ve got some interesting, but valueless samples in my rock garden.  I have what I thought was turquoise, but turned out to be chryscolla a green copper ore.  I also have what I call a jar of gems, again valueless with some azurite, a blue green copper ore and some Chalcedony.  The Chalcedony is rust stained and I soaked that over a year in in CLR and it became much less rusty, but still brown.

[4meter]

I suggest soaking it in Iron Out.  Iron Out will not dissolve the calcite but will clean off the rust stains.  I have found that Iron Out works best when warm (left out in the sunshine in a container with a top).  I may take 3 to 7 days to fully get rid of the staining.   Iron Out will attack and dissolve copper carbonates, so do not use it on Malachite or Azurite.

[Tbutch]

On 1/8/2022 at 12:21 PM, Bedrock Bob said:

Quartz is insoluble in most acids. So cleaning them is easy. It is a matter of the other minerals involved that will stain them. 

Quartz isn't worth much. Even large terminated crystals. So it isn't worth much effort. 

Your specimen is loaded with iron from the oxidized end of a quartz vein. It is hematite. This will turn a solvent into enchilada sauce and stain the quartz. Your best bet is to break out the crystals you want and clean them away from the rest of the rock.

A couple days in warm vinegar and a scrubbing with soap and a stiff brush will get them as "clean" as they need to be. Most other methods will stain them even more.

If you are looking for quartz crystals look for deeper geology formed under higher pressures. 

If you are looking for gold you have identified the right stuff. Every piece of gold I have ever found originated in ore that looks just like that.

Hey Bob, you said this hematite is from an oxidized end of a quartz vein. Does that mean a quartz vein is nearby? If so how should I go about finding it? This hematite was visible on the surface in loose dirt. 

[Bedrock Bob]

58 minutes ago, Tbutch said:

Hey Bob, you said this hematite is from an oxidized end of a quartz vein. Does that mean a quartz vein is nearby? If so how should I go about finding it? This hematite was visible on the surface in loose dirt. 

Red dirt. Chispas (float) laying around in a spot.

That type of geology is generally found at a contact zone. Where 2 different types of rock create a "seam" or "contact zone". 

Look for altered rock at the contact zone between igneous and metamorphic rock. 

The upper 6-20 feet of contact zone will be weathered (oxidized) and iron will often be red hematite. That is the classic gold vein. They usually go down a ways and are richest at water table or at the level the oxidation has not worked on the iron. Then the values often tale a nose dive. 

So look for red dirt and places where that type of rock is abundant. If the vein has free gold in it you should be able to go downhill and recover a few colors. If you can't find a few particles in the gravel where the float is breaking up the vein probably does not have much value. 

You can often see the veins as slight depressions or outcrops running along a hill. Veins often form channels down hills and sit at the bottom of the watercourse. So in addition to coloration, the contours of a hill might also give clues as to where the contact zones are. 

In.my neck of the woods the oxidized veins are obvious. And well worked. The ground is red near the veins and the patches of red gravels below the vein mountains are the paying placer gravel. The hills are littered with hematite and quartz but below the veins there is a lot more of it. And the contact zones are reddish creases in the hills or outcrops where altered andesite meets copper porphyry. 

Check out a geological report of the area and learn to identify the types of geology. Look for the contact zones between them. Find the red spots. Look for float. Concentrate a few buckets of gravel. If you get color then bump around until you find a sweet spot. 

 

 

[Tbutch]

19 hours ago, Bedrock Bob said:

Red dirt. Chispas (float) laying around in a spot.

That type of geology is generally found at a contact zone. Where 2 different types of rock create a "seam" or "contact zone". 

Look for altered rock at the contact zone between igneous and metamorphic rock. 

The upper 6-20 feet of contact zone will be weathered (oxidized) and iron will often be red hematite. That is the classic gold vein. They usually go down a ways and are richest at water table or at the level the oxidation has not worked on the iron. Then the values often tale a nose dive. 

So look for red dirt and places where that type of rock is abundant. If the vein has free gold in it you should be able to go downhill and recover a few colors. If you can't find a few particles in the gravel where the float is breaking up the vein probably does not have much value. 

You can often see the veins as slight depressions or outcrops running along a hill. Veins often form channels down hills and sit at the bottom of the watercourse. So in addition to coloration, the contours of a hill might also give clues as to where the contact zones are. 

In.my neck of the woods the oxidized veins are obvious. And well worked. The ground is red near the veins and the patches of red gravels below the vein mountains are the paying placer gravel. The hills are littered with hematite and quartz but below the veins there is a lot more of it. And the contact zones are reddish creases in the hills or outcrops where altered andesite meets copper porphyry. 

Check out a geological report of the area and learn to identify the types of geology. Look for the contact zones between them. Find the red spots. Look for float. Concentrate a few buckets of gravel. If you get color then bump around until you find a sweet spot. 

 

 

That is great information that will certainly be helpful to me. You mentioned the water table. I live way above it. Does elevation matter?

[Bedrock Bob]

58 minutes ago, Tbutch said:

That is great information that will certainly be helpful to me. You mentioned the water table. I live way above it. Does elevation matter?

Its complicated. But you aren't going to dig that deep anyway. 

Where a vein intersects water table it often enriches. It's called supergene enrichment. 

The same thing happens where the oxidized zone at the surface fades into unoxidized ore.

So a vein is often much richer nearer the surface than at extreme depth. And often richer at the water table or at the point oxidation fades than anywhere else.

It's kinda like bedrock is to a placer miner. Where a vein pinches, hits water table, or becomes less weathered is where the really rich spots are often located.

So if you chase down a contact zone with a hematite/quartz vein that shows gold values, you can expect there to be some enriched pockets down there where the vein changes abruptly. And gold veins often play out or loose value below the oxidized zone or the water table.

So don't dig too deep. Once you hit the 50 foot mark you might want to move over a few feet and sink another shaft. 

[GeoJack]

14 hours ago, Tbutch said:

That is great information that will certainly be helpful to me. You mentioned the water table. I live way above it. Does elevation matter?

I live on a ridge at 2000 ft. My well has a water level at about 65 feet down.

Historically, quartz in my area was crushed to minus 30 mesh to release the gold. I'm just a stones throw from the gold Discovery site at Coloma. Greenstone belt as well as slate / quartz seams. 

[Tbutch]

7 hours ago, GeoJack said:

I live on a ridge at 2000 ft. My well has a water level at about 65 feet down.

Historically, quartz in my area was crushed to minus 30 mesh to release the gold. I'm just a stones throw from the gold Discovery site at Coloma. Greenstone belt as well as slate / quartz seams. 

That’s interesting you have a well on a ridge at 2,000’. We live on a Mesa above 7,000’. Nobody has wells in our area. 

That’s really amazing you are so close to the gold discovery. I’m going to do more research of our area. I have no idea what the mesh would be here. How do you Cush to a certain mesh size?
 

[chrisski]

42 minutes ago, Tbutch said:

 How do you Cush to a certain mesh size?
 

I have found no better way than a mortar and pestle, run the crushing through the  size mesh I want and the stuff that didn’t go through crush again and repeat until it’s done.

Very slow process to get a couple of tablespoons to pan.

I’ve crushed rocks dozens of times and I have only come up with a spec of gold.  I did get very sore joints.

Of course there’s other crushers that will do it quicker, but rock crushers are pricey and noisy.

If you have steel pipes and caps lying around, you can make something out of that.