NOOBY Question. Was that flecks of gold i saw in the Snowy River?

[robertbruce]

hi all,

About five years ago i was down on the Snowy river during snow season filling up jerrys when i noticed tiny gold fleck all through the water...

i managed to find some pieces large enough to pin between my teeth and was expecting a tiny crunch but the stuff was that soft there was no crunch....

I kept asking myself, Was this alluvial gold?

 

[Redmanti]

Some of the best alluvial prospecting spots are in the Snowy Mountains.

The Kiandra Diggings that is closed to prospecting as a National Park now but there were a LOT of nuggets found there.

Just South of Jindabyne on the Snowy River there is alluvial gold just after the dam.

It is usually probably mica when you see it as specks on the bedrock. Gold is heavy and sinks into the cracks. It is also a deeper richer colour than mica.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like fools gold if it was sitting on top of the river bed, gold sinks to the bottom. Fools gold will sit on the sand gravel layer.

 

[robertbruce]

it was everywhere like you've said, on the bottom of the gravel bed, caught in the roots of river vegatation, little piles of it gathered from swirling around large rocks...

I kept thinking, if it was a pyrite or mica it would have crunched between my teeth...is that part right?

 

[Guest]

In the rivers around here Pyrite (foolsgold) is everywhere, BUT I havent been game enough to chomp on it given they used to use it to leech Sulphuric acid. haha. Best way to tell is if you look closely its a more "brass" color than yellow like gold. If you go back one day and its yellow, DONT touch it, let me know I will go clean that mess up.

 

[jethro]

I think it was probably mica as it was scattered everywhere as you said. Also mica is reasonably soft and flexible with a certain amount of pliability as it used to give me a lot of trouble blocking up the discharge sceen on my rod mill when I crushed samples containing mica as well as quartz etc.

Having said that I have specked gold in a creek on a couple of occasions with just the naked eye but that was a long time ago.
I think I would probably stub my toe on a nugget before seeing it if i was without my reading glasses these days. getting old is a pain when the body won't do the things you take for granted when young and fit 8.( .

Jethro

 

[Guest]

Yeah you read stories how the old timers would see gold in the creeks, If only that was still the norm, I go down the river feeling 34, walk out feeling 84. haha

 

[kawman]

One of our local rivers near copeland is like that with mica everywhere you look after big water events... Looks awesome but worthless..

 

[Ag Man]

Gold looks like gold from any angle you look at it.
Fools gold changes from shiny to dull/dark depending how you look at it.

 

[Newbie]

One of the first places I looked was in that area and inn particular the snowy I can almost guarantee that was fools gold loads of it there. It pans out There was some copper to be found though.. though was just in small chunks mainly in the ore matrix.

 

[robertbruce]

Gold looks like gold from any angle you look at it.
Fools gold changes from shiny to dull/dark depending how you look at it.

BINGO, it was pyrite or mica, it's color changed looking at it through the water....

ta for that,

now what to do with the dozen 44gal's full of river gravel i brought back... :lol: only kidding!