I was having a poke around a local creek today that had the usual rounded cobbles etc etc when I suddenly came across a skull-sized piece of quartz sitting about 1 foot up the bank above low water. It just looked very out of place amongst the dirt and rocks etc, and has only been rounded/smoothed on one side
. It needs a good brush or pressure clean to get the mud off, but I can’t see any visible gold on the surfaces that are clean.
I couldn’t see where it had originated from, nor could I see any other quartz. Is finding a largish piece of quartz like this partially up the bank of a creek something to be slightly excited about and follow up or nothing special?
Things that look out of place are worthy of investigation, if only to provide a good excuse for more time in the bush!
A good clean will show texture, composition of the vein better.
As a general rule, “grotty” veins are more mineralized than clean ones, cavities full of black, red oxides may be decomposed sulphides.
Blue-grey quartz may indicate fine sulphides.
That said, “gold is where you find it” and can still show up in plain white quartz!
Fine crushing up of the stone and carefully panning it off will show any gold, black sands etc
Let us know how you go!
Cheers
Cheers for the reply! I’ve had it soaking in double strength vinegar for a couple of weeks try to clean it up a bit - that worked a little bit but didn’t help a great deal. So I decided that it was time to break the lump down a bit so I used the highly scientific method of wrapping it in three plastic bags and then throwing it high in the air and letting it land on the bitumen road outside the house. After a few of those about half of it has broken into smaller pieces, the other half is still one lump.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I haven’t gotten any further because when I was out in the forest on Wednesday I came across seven kittens that some a-hole had dumped in the forest - they were maybe five weeks old and had been there for a couple of days. I rescued them and they are making a good recovery now and will be fostered out eventually. Fortunately they had all stayed together and had remained hidden in the bracken etc right beside the road. It was just incredibly lucky that I chose that exact spot to pull over and take a piss - 5 metres up the road and I would never have seen them.
