New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

The forum has moved to community.paydirt.co.nz, see you there!

This forum is now an archive to preserve the knowledge and finds posted here.

Pretty Rocks - Quartz and other minerals

Kittik		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 4:49:10 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 9/04/2015(UTC) Posts: 16 Location: Auckland Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 13 time(s) in 9 post(s)		Thought I would share some pics of some of the more interesting rocks I've been undercovering on my quartz reef. Mainly its standard feldspar quartz, but also cinnabar and manganese as well. Its quite incredible how they colour and layer.. Hopefully this link will work.. Rock album

Kittik		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 5:28:36 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 9/04/2015(UTC) Posts: 16 Location: Auckland Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 13 time(s) in 9 post(s)		Hopefully this link will work.. I should probably mention that it wasn't until I started giving the rocks a really good clean and getting rid of sediment and the iron / Peacock ore off of them, that I actually realized that they were mineral rocks at all. It takes a lot of work soaking and scrubbing to get the black build up off.. I guess its a bit like unwrapping presents at xmas time, and finding out if you've got socks or a new tv. ;-) The photos I've put up so far are a couple of rocks, one big one about head size, and a few smaller ones about fist sized, plus a photo showing all the different types of minerals I've come across so far. The big rocks I tried to take pics of both the outside as well as the veins in the middle, just to show the difference. Its amazing the difference between the outside, and the inside.. I'll do a second pic at some point showing my favorite small rocks, mostly these are the transparent quartz slices where you can see the gold veins going through them. They go in my non crush pile. slideshow

1864hatter		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 7:04:07 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 4/08/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,007 Location: Auckland.... Thanks: 49 times Was thanked: 566 time(s) in 269 post(s)		Hey mate, can't seem to view the photos. At least on my phone I can't. Good on you finding a gold vein. Your location says you are in Auckland. Would be a doubly good find finding a gold quartz vein here.
		And now....On sandy beaches and muddy soil, rings and coins await my coil!

Kittik		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 7:55:55 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 9/04/2015(UTC) Posts: 16 Location: Auckland Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 13 time(s) in 9 post(s)		Originally Posted by: 1864hatter Hey mate, can't seem to view the photos. At least on my phone I can't. Good on you finding a gold vein. Your location says you are in Auckland. Would be a doubly good find finding a gold quartz vein here. Cheers matey. Strange that you can't see the pictures, I'll try embedding some of my fav photos to this message and see if that works. [url=http:// ]cinnebar mix[/url] [url=http:// ]mineral mix[/url] [url=http:// ]Sunset fade[/url] [url=http:// ]Boulder rock[/url] [url=http:// ]preddy rock[/url] [url=http:// ]sideways[/url]

Kittik		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 9:42:32 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 9/04/2015(UTC) Posts: 16 Location: Auckland Thanks: 14 times Was thanked: 13 time(s) in 9 post(s)		And 3 more, just for good measure 'cause the photos look cool.. lol I really should look at getting a macro lens for the small bits. Some of them are so visually beautiful, theres a couple of bits of quartz I'd like to get made into jewelry. Anyway, after staring at rusty quartz for the last 3 weeks these make a nice difference - which is probably why I'm more excited as how attractive they are than the gold they contain. If anyone has seen Astrobouncers videos, I have a ton of that same boring dirty iron oxide quartz sitting in buckets here that I've collected from the creek. Source rocks are quite different, I'm assuming that the creek which is below the reef has collected the top layers of the reef over time.. which is why the reef rocks are quite different. Possibly they are from a different reef somewhere close by though. I've recently noticed a thing along our road, of people decorating their letterboxes by piling quartz boulders around the base of them.. [url=http:// ]1[/url] [url=http:// ]2[/url] [url=http:// ]3[/url]

c4bb0ose		Posted : Wednesday, 22 April 2015 11:45:01 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 7/09/2014(UTC) Posts: 97 Thanks: 1 times Was thanked: 32 time(s) in 29 post(s)		If there is gold in the rocks your best bet is to let them dry out and get a jewelers loupe, a 10x or 20x magnification will do. Gold should remain shiny if the rock is dry, it also should remain shiny under shade. If you reckon there is smaller amounts in it use that same concept but with the jewelers loupe and see if anything shiny pokes its head up.