Quartz with ironstone?

The creek where I prospect is almost dry, but while poking around I came across this interesting quartz vein.



I managed to break a piece off and take it home, under a loupe the quartz looks all rusty and mineralised, is this quartz with ironstone? If it is where to from here? The creek does contain gold; the old timers spent quite some time trying to find the source but they never did.

As I have been reading with interest in Simpson Davison's "The gold deposits in Australia", which can be found on google's booksearch (kindly listed as a book of interest within the threads on this very forum), although often associated in regards to locality with quartz veins, alluvial gold often has nothing at all to do with what may or may not have weathered from local quartz veins; in many cases it seems to have been formed or distributed independently of the formation and subsequent decomposition of the quartz...

Although not much help in answering your question, it does suggest that not too much effort may be warranted in searching for any parent source within local quartz veins.

Thanks Marked, I have read similar reports of gold formation and what you said could be true. The old timers had a few theories for the area but from what I can find out they never proved one of them.

all I can say is crush the sample and pan it you may be surprised

Thanks Richo, I had not thought of that!

your welcome good luck mate

Well I crushed my tiny sample and paned the results, silly me forgot to clean the pan before I started and found some flour gold and a strange flat piece which did not settle in the pan an broke up when I applied force. Oh well I thought I had best get me another sample now that i have learnt my lesson.

So i got a larger sample and tried to crush it with a puny hammer, that did not work so I gave up on it until I could dolly it up. But today I had an idea, I could clean the samples and check them under a loupe. So I did and here are the results.




Well it looks like gold
Assuming the other samples show gold, where to next? I cant really mine in this spot because it is right in the middle of a creek bed. Is it worth sampling the surrounding area to find if the reef is exposed not to far away?

Definitely looks like gold Prospector B well done! If i were you mate i would be setting up a grid using the vein you have found as a centre pointi would dig in 2 foot gaps and sink each hole to bedrock etc theres bound to be an outcrop there somewhere! Good luck Prospector B and well done i am jealous lol

Prospector B
Mate gold it is!!! have a look at the Loaming post to get some idea's, a photo or 2 of the outcrop so we can see how it runs & have a look at the surrounds, we may be able to help further then.
cheers
Lee

Thanks Lee and YellowFever, I've been following the loaming posts with interest. I think I will take your advice and do some more sampling. I don't have any more pictures to put up but Ill get some more when I am next that way.

nice find there mate thats a ripper specimen

G day prospector B

What I see in your photo is a host rock of Gneiss, (pronounced Nice). Along schist, Gneiss is known for having pocket gold in quartz veins. You can observe the foliation in the rock, which runs (from photo extremities) left to top. The quartz intrusion in the host rock normally runs parallel with the foliation, and arrives from depths to the surface generally from 20 to 30 deg from perpendicular, and in segregated veins. See the photo below.

So to answer your question, yes definitely it is worthwhile to extend your search area. Your question how far, my answer, how keen are you.

If it was me I would take a series of measurements of the feature in hand, bearing of the foliation, elevation length etc.

My first stop as just an investigative tool, would be to look for adjunct areas whereby the topograpghy illustrates similar characteristics. Joy/no Joy, I would dedicate some time to, not to a sampling process, but a visual exploration, keeping in mind some form of methodical process. Dependant on the results then I would look into sampling .

Your find is of a very good calibre for a prospector, these types of finds are generally too low yielding to warrant a commercial operation, but have be known to fund family trusts and retirement plans travelling the world.

dedicate some time to investigating the area, sample and be sure.

Best of luck and well done

Prospector B said:

Thanks Lee and YellowFever, I've been following the loaming posts with interest. I think I will take your advice and do some more sampling. I don't have any more pictures to put up but Ill get some more when I am next that way.

Click to expand...

Prospector B
Try & get a hold of some exploration reports on your area, also investigate things like line of strike of known reef's in the area & also the dip of such, try to work out if the ground outside of the confines of the creek is deep or shallow have a bit of a look around for any outcropping.
good luck, ask all ????????????????????
cheers
Lee

Village, 8) the gold could be that good? Holy cow, I'm keen 8) Thanks heaps for the info, I'll digest it and try to understand a bit more about geology. I'll certainly be going back for another look, trusting my luck the old timers found this location and mined it out, just leaving this little bit for future suckers like myself!

Lee, your right, the answer could already be out there, I'll just have to wade through the data again.

Thanks everyone for their help, most of what I have learnt about prospecting has come from this forum. I'll certainly be posting back when I have more questions.

Good luck Prospector B and i look forward to hearing of your progress!

Hi Prospector B, the little piece looks very nice sitting its quartz home there, Further to what Lee and Village have posted, I would be looking at the line that little vein takes both sides of creek for any other tell tale shows of quartz, this may be covered with dust and hard to distinguish, also see if you can find some cracks or other points of weakness in this rock, you may be able to get a point of a chisel or bar in there to pry and work it and eventually crack out the vein.

Looking at the host rock, I can see some kind of linear patterns on it, it looks like it is slate, shale or some other layered material, I would give it a hit with a geo pick or cold chisel and mallet and see what happens. You may be surprised at how fragile some "solid rock" is when force is applied across the right plane.

If you are going the chisel route. then take an old towel or some other kind of material to use as a "blast mat" and lay it over the quartz before hitting, this should stop the bits flying all over the place. Maybe damp it down a bit so the chips may be caught in the mat and then you can shake it out into a bucket or pan.

Just a thought. Certainly an interesting spot, good luck with it

Cheers, Tone