Gold or not? Interesting Find

[G0lddigg@]

HI Crew

I found these nuggets accross about a km stretch of a creek in the really think mud layer of false bedrock.

THe colour is great when polished up but fades slightly the longer you leave it, i've been to the Gold shop in Ballarat, showed two gold buyers and no-one can tell me conclusively if its gold or not.
I'm thinking it may be mercury rich or white gold? the nuggets themselves where encased in iron and I had to scrub it real hard and soaked these in acid for two weeks.

Interested to know your thoughts.....

 

[Heatho]

Does'nt look like a mercury amalgam, looks more like a copper-gold mix to me,
interesting find though for sure. I wonder if they would disolve in aqua regia?

HCL alone won't affect copper or gold, from the reading I've done.

 

[G0lddigg@]

yeh i said copper originally when i found it due to the rich copper ore in the Ballarat region might have to bite the bullet and get it assayed

 

[Heatho]

Yeah I guess so with the assaying, what was the weight, just out of interest?
I'm sure Goldcompany here on the forum would be curious to see what they
are. My newbie intuition tells me gold, silver and copper mix, I'm probably wrong
though

Fingers crossed that it is gold.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Bronze smelter spillage? the thirde one down looks like a ineresting find fist clenching a stone..

 

[G0lddigg@]

hey tenounce tone was hoping it wasn't slag the roundish stuff looks like it a bit.

I weighed it next to an equivalent looking (not exactly scientific) pile of gold and they weight up nearly the same both jars 13 and a bit

here's the weight on the others

 

[Tassie Daz]

Hey Golddig@ check out my post from "Eureka" from a few weeks ago. The grey stuff looks familiar, and the "gold" stuff does too. I was told by a geologist at Ballarat that the stuff all looked like some smelting slag. It made the detector go nuts but sadly wasn't anything of worth. Still those things that came out with the find, the small weights (x2) made the day a real pleasure. Keep diggin', mate

 

[G0lddigg@]

hey Tazzie Daz

Yeh I looked at that last week doesn't look anything like the stuff i pulled out but the thought crossed my mind when readin it, I've been to the ballarat gold shop and they reckon its gold with mercury.... i've stopped working that ground untill i gte a chance to cath up with a mate who buys gold he said he take a pice to get assayed for me, just need some closure :0 in the meantime i dont mind thinking it just might be gold its pretty anyway one bit looks like dog balls and the other a knee bone

Hey Golddig@ check out my post from "Eureka" from a few weeks ago. The grey stuff looks familiar, and the "gold" stuff does too. I was told by a geologist at Ballarat that the stuff all looked like some smelting slag. It made the detector go nuts but sadly wasn't anything of worth. Still those things that came out with the find, the small weights (x2) made the day a real pleasure. Keep diggin', mate

 

[Tassie Daz]

Yep, I'm with you. The little Teardrop from Eureka, I thought was a pearla. The others looked really authentic "nuggets" and on a chain, just polished up might look special. Anyway Golddig@ we live in hope.

 

[downhalo]

Really hard to tell, looks gold ish, but not at the same time.. Weird..

 

[garnethawkins]

I have heard one way to test is to weigh it dry then place a jar of water on the scale, add the gold and calculate the difference. Not sure how accurate this test is though...

 

[HeadsUp]

I have heard one way to test is to weigh it dry then place a jar of water on the scale, add the gold and calculate the difference. Not sure how accurate this test is though...

yup

you took the verbs right out of my mouth

a density test is free . stuff the assay

find a narrow graduated flask or test tube , get its volume in cc and weight

weight divided by volume = density

density for pure gold is 19.3 grams / cm3

13 grams / 19.3 > > volume should be about 0.6735 cc if it was 100 pissent pure

dont throw it away , and never take somebody elses word for it thats its "rubbish" until you check yourself

 

[G0lddigg@]

sounds like a good test, bit too much stuffing around for me. I gave a piece to the bloke who buys my gold and he's flattened a piece with a hammer very mailable good sign he will get it assayed for me no cost. cant wait to find out because i've left that spot unitll i know for sure and the creek has been a rising.

 

[echidnadigger]

Hello everyone here, This is my first post on this forum,
I have also found these weird little finds in the past and found them to be what I think is bronze slag. Close inspection usually finds the little bubble dents left behind from the smelting process. I may be wrong, but I found on all counts it was not gold. The idea of it being a gold/mercury mix is interesting but as far as I know the color is wrong. Gold and mercury tends to be a bit of a bright, lighter yellow color for the want of a better description.
I hope I'm wrong because I have got some of this stuff in the scrap box in the garage.
Dangerous but true, putting the mercury gold mix in a potato and cooking it in a fire will absorb the mercury into the potato and leave your gold inside the spud when it cools. Don't try this though as mercury is dangerous unless you know exactly what you are doing. Do not ever breath the fumes from mercury.
Cheers.

 

[Heatho]

Actually the second pic from the top almost looks like a Platinum
nugget. Just out of interest I was looking at Gold/Platinum nug pics
and some look very similar.

 

[Jon]

Have you tried scratching them with a sharp blade or similar?

 

[Ballsup]

Had my Bendigo trip today with a hire 5000 and some instruction. No gold found unfortunately but detected about 10 x lead shot and a slug gun pellet, some very small wire type stuff that gave a good signal (to me LOL) and a small thing (about the size of a teardrop) that looks similar to what you have posted - I was a bad boy and tried to bite a corner piece and it crumbled with some heavy pressure so think it is either some kind of hot rock or slag...or maybe a tiny nugget inside? (One lives in hope hehe)
Think it may be slag though, but was a clear signal all alone with no other noise near. Cheers, Mark

Oh, I say a bad thing re biting as arsenic was used in the early days so was always told never to put a nugget in mouth...Very hard not to though