Is there Gold in fools Gold

This may be a long time in coming back with an answer, but, as I had said, finding fools gold or even mica, is not an indication of gold. If I took the time to list every other rock and mineral that I found in the  same pan as my gold, it would be a near endless list. The point is, when you are looking to find gold in your pan, then all that counts is the gold. The idea that you found or find other materials in the sand/dirt you dig up have nothing to do with that gold. It's just a coincidence, an incident that happened at the same time, coincidence. There are certainly indicators that gold is around.That will generally be an outcropping of white quartz. As the gaseous fumes came up from deep in the ground volcanic magma, the quartz formed and then fractured. Then gaseous fumes came up with the gold in a gas/liquid form, and it cooled and became trapped in the cracks in the white quartz. Subsequently, iron also came up through some of those cracks,more likely as well water (it ruins Koolaid in many parts of the upper peninsula of Michigan and northern Wisconsin.). The iron will appear as rust in the fractures of the quartz. These indicators are telling that there may be lode gold present. Lode Gold is unrecognizable by most people because it looks like little silver crystals. There is also yellow gold present in the quartz rock, and it makes for many fine specimen pieces. You will not however find much loose gold around white quartz, if any, unless you are the first human there. That gold will need to be hammered away from the quartz and then processed as most lode gold would. Sometimes however, some of the yellow gold will be left loose as the quartz deteriorates and crumbles. It will then begin it's downhill journey. Gold, being heavier than most of the dirt around it, will always continue to move downward until it meets up with an immovable surface, usually bedrock. Any gold that is down in a creek or river is only there, because like all of the other rocks and minerals, it broke away from it's original source and eventually came to rest in that water. There is nothing in the water itself that is any indication that you will find gold. Hopefully now, this will help anyone new to prospecting when it comes to this topic.

I am a prospector of over 26 years experience. I have been at one time, the president or past-president board member of the Gold Prospectors of Colorado. I answer questions only when I know the answer without doubt or hesitation, so you can take my responses to the bank.

Posted on: July 16, 2014, 06:16:30 pm

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		Quote:			Posted by Hobbyist
	Of course it's a very valid point. I'm not as experienced as you guys in prospecting, but I know enough to move on to other areas if I find iron pyrite. And yes, people have found gold in pyrites before, I saw it happen about 4 weeks ago 2 miles from my house. They processed 12 sacks (approx 360kg) of iron pyrite-riddled dirt and got a button of gold less than 6mm across for their pains. Net result: Loss. I'm still waiting the fire assay results on my lump of Chalcopyrite. Hopefully there'll be enough of the noble metal in it to make hobby processing worthwhile. If not, on to the next site! Limonite is new to me. Time to do a bit more research!

  OK. What you are using as an argument that there is gold in pyrite is that, "They processed 12 sacks of iron-pyrite riddled dirt....". So the gold is not in, as in part of the iron pyrite. What you are saying is, in a mixture pulled from the ground or creek there was iron pyrite, and mixed in with it was some gold. The gold is not "IN" the iron pyrite, it is only part of a mixture of materials that will be processed. Therefor, no the gold is not IN iron pyrite. Now I have a question to this. Are you calling Black Sand (Iron Oxides) iron pyrite in error? Yes, as established in the very beginning of this thread, there may be iron oxides (black sand) in the same place as gold is found, but the presence of black sand has nothing to do with gold. The only reason they are found together is because black sand has a specific gravity high enough that it will also remain in a pan after lighter materials wash out. To finalize this though, black sand is NOT an indicator of gold. It is just a coincidental occurrence.


Posted on: July 16, 2014, 07:09:41 pm

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		Quote:			Posted by agate195
	in metamorphic pyrite [ limonite] carries gold also

		Quote:			Posted by Hobbyist
	Limonite is not an actual stone. It is soil made up of crushed iron oxides, generally decomposed or weathered outcroppings at the surface. This decomposed material forms with other soil and minerals to become Limonite. Yes, there is gold trapped in the Limonite at times. Once again though, people are being pulled off the trail of gold by looking for black sand (decomposed iron oxides). There is a long scientific process that takes place as the iron oxides leach through 5-6 layers of soil to the water table, and none of it matters. You can set your machine for iron and find all the black sand you want, bucket loads even, and just maybe you'll find a teensy bit of gold, or you can set your machine for gold and find gold with maybe a speck of black sand stuck to it. It's all up to you. If people continue to follow the black sand as their old manuals tell them to do, then they may find gold, but they'll sure find iron oxides, and a lot more than they want. If you have a Gold Bug or a Lobo, or another gold specific machine, and it's not a million years old, then forget the topic of black sand, iron pyrites, iron oxides ever came up, set the machine on gold, and look for gold. Why are gold seekers such a difficult lot? I'm answering a 4 year old question and am not aiming my response at anyone in particular. I'm just on the topic today. Linkback: You are not allowed to view links. Please Register or Login http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,15730.msg277499.html#msg277499

Staying tuned to this thread

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Xavier

Some of that stuff looks like galena to me.

Posted on: July 17, 2014, 04:05:29 pm

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You know your stuff daddio.
golddustcarl

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A bad day at gold prospecting or metal detecting is better than a good day at work.

Yup. Got some at home.
Golddustcarl

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A bad day at gold prospecting or metal detecting is better than a good day at work.

Let me wrap up my involvement with this thread by giving you some great advice. Whether you accept it or not is up to you, but some of you are seemingly more stubborn than a mule and want to continue to argue like a 3 year year old with nanny nanny boo boo attitude. Here it is. OK, yes, as some have consistently argued, there is possibly a minute amount of gold in pyrite. Digging up and collecting pyrite for this reason would be like going fishing and after bringing up a couple lines with skinny dirty crawdads, deciding that since they might have eaten fish, we should switch to catching the crawdads instead of fish. That makes no sense at all, and neither does collecting huge amounts of pyrite on the outside chance that there might be a microscopic amount of gold in the heavy buckets. If you are one of those guys who just wants to argue - to prove you know sumpin about sumpin, then fine, go out and dig up all of the pyrite you want to. At the end of the day I will have a lot more gold than you, because I know enough to just leave anything that isn't gold alone. I'm a gold prospector, not a rock collector. GOLD!

If you are after gold, then pass up all of that bullcrap that "might" contain gold. You are a prospector, and you are looking for gold. SO LOOK FOR GOLD for God's sake! Skip all of the nonsense. Who cares if you heard from an old guy that just maybe this other substance contains a little gold. GOLD CONTAINS ALMOST ALL GOLD! Then some of you people were unable to understand what the question was. We were talking about a solid mineral (pyrite) having some gold present. We were not talking about crushed up powdered pyrite in the bottom of the creek having gold possibly mixed in with it. YES, that is possible and likely, but that wasn't the topic.

So my final words on this. Gold is where you find it. Prospecting is not gold panning. Prospecting is digging holes in the ground working your way uphill looking for where the flaky gold or little pickers were coming from. Pulling sand or soil out of the creek and panning it is not prospecting, it's just gold panning. With this in mind, who cares what other rocks or minerals have specks of gold present? If you are looking for gold, you look for the gold that might have a speck of something else on it. Everything else is just Leverite- or "leave er right" there on the ground.

Posted on: July 19, 2014, 12:19:57 pm

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		Quote:			Posted by nickel_n
	Gold bug was THE MACHINE in AU finding the small gold, Minelabs took over, but people still using them

he Gold Bug remains as one of the best gold machines out there. When you can't afford thousands for a Minelabs, a few hundred for even an older Gold Bug is great. They were always designed to find gold - period.

Posted on: July 19, 2014, 01:04:05 pm

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		Quote:			Posted by nickel_n
	Gold bug was THE MACHINE in AU finding the small gold, Minelabs took over, but people still using them

The Gold Bug remains as one of the best gold machines out there. When you can't afford thousands for a Minelabs, a few hundred for even an older Gold Bug is great. They were always designed to find gold - period.

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