Rockhound Station 1 Gazette

GOLD TRAPPING

While panning still seems to be the preferred method of choice to find placier gold, it also takes quite a bit of time. It can be extremely disheartening to spend major amounts of search and toil just to find out that not much gold is dropping in the areas you have decided to work. You would think that there would be an easier way to find out that “a lot gold passes through here” than days of scooping and syphoning creekbeds. You would be right in thinking so.

Some people have an erroneous idea that gold is no longer present in the soils and rocks of previously mined areas. This is not the case. In most goldbearing terrains gold continues to wash into the creeks by snowmelt and rains even when mines in the area have been long abandoned or closed. Because gold is heavy it is carried by rapid currents and deposited in areas where the current slows enough for the heavy metals to drop to the creek beds. Gold trapping is an easy means to find out if gold is being carried by creek waters.

When trapping gold you must first find an area that you are allowed to prospect. You can trap on public land where prospecting is permited, private land with permission from owners, or you may even buy claims. Just make sure you are in legal territory before placing traps. You will also want to put your traps where you can either keep a close eye on them or where they are not likely to be “lifted” by others. A trap that someone else absconds with doesn’t do you much good. So make sure you can put a trap where it will be left alone. Once you have the area in mind, you can set about placing your traps.

Sluice boxes make excellent gold traps under waterfalls and in areas that the current slows. Under a waterfall simply put the sluice box where it will catch the water from the waterfall. In shallow waters, and at the mouth of small streams running into larger ones, a fluted corrigated pipe or a sluice can be laid down. You must make sure the downstream end of the pipe or suice is narrower than the upstream end by enough to slow the current, but not enough to pump the water over the sides of the shaft. If the sides of your sluice aren’t high enough for the water level, you can add a sheet of metal or wood to the sides to make the shaft deeper. In deeper water you can place a sheet of metal or a board with sides much like a cake tin on the upstream side of the sheet. Trays with carpeted or felt bottoms under the upstream side of the current blocking sheet will catch the metals as they fall from the disrupted current.

Anything you can use to slow a rapid current and catch the gold as it falls will work to trap gold. These traps will work year round to catch the gold migrating downstream, but the best time of year to place them is just before a rainy season or just before the snow on the higher regions of the area melt. These are the times that most new gold will make it’s way into the streams of an area.

While gold trapping is not a method that would be of extreme use for the hobbiest out for a day of fun and luck, the more serious hunter will find this method of locating gold extremely helpful. If you find an area where you are trapping plenty of gold, you will also have a good clue about where to pan for gold by looking for the closest areas downstream from your traps where the water slows naturally on its own.

You can find sluice boxes, sluices, and other gold prospecting equipment: HERE

Life’s Short. Rock hard.

I was going to wait for pictures to write this but finding the camera broken, I guess I’ll tell you about it and post pics later when the camera can be replaced.

The weekend before last I got together with Steve Cantiello for a trip to Ace diamond mine in Herkimer County, NY. We decided to meet at the mine and then go elsewhere later so if one of us was late we wouldn’t hold the other up on a hunt. Good thing - by the time I got there Steve was already hard at work in the front piles. There were enough tourists at the place to make it feel like visiting a small city instead of going on a dig.

It was a rough hunt. I found one stone but it turned out to be broken, another that flew and I was not able to find again. It became soon apparent that the front ground wasn’t going to give up much so we headed to the back lots to do some dirt sifting. The sifting did turn up a few stones, but mostly small, and only the smaller ones were of any spectacular quality. Munchie went over to help some people dig for a few minutes but the heat drove him back into the bushes and
shade cover after just a few minutes of it.

After a few hours of digging for small diamonds, we headed back down to the stones discarded from the claim of someone Steve was familiar with. The rocks were extremely vuggy, but were disappointing as there weren’t any diamonds in the vugs. I had heard others say they found nothing significant at the Ace digs and feel it had become more of a tourist trap by this day and age to really produce if you didn’t have a claim and heavy equipment. We decided to go elsewhere to hunt other things.

I wanted to hunt celestine, but the only nearby possibility was posted no trespassing with threat of prosecution. Not my idea of a fun dig so we decided to do some fossil hunting for trilobites at a nearby location.

We stopped at the river to let Munchie cool off a bit and found some vugged rocks there, too, but on examination they weren’t any better than what we’d seen at Ace. With the dog now cooled and looking like he’d averted a possible heat stroke (it was so hot, muggy, and generally miserable) we continued to the trilobite site.

We arrived at the parking area for the trilobite hunt and it turned out to be at a and and rock pile for the county. Low and behold - I parked right next to a pile of….you guessed it….Herkimer diamond bearing rocks. Hunting through the pile, I found a rock with a 2 1/2 dazzler in it. It was far from perfect, but was the best thing I’d seen all day. The rock also contained a 1 1/2 inch diamond and a couple of one inch stones that I will need to dissolve out of the calcite matrix to get to. We had a pretty good laugh at finding such large diamonds free after not being able to score more than a decent 1/3 inch stone at a fee dig. So much for commercialism.

We spent some time in this rock pile before we wandered back to the creek for a fossil hunt. The creek was incredible and I was thrilled with the whole place. The water was shallow and moved over layers of shale that were extremely easy to walk over. We used chisels and hammers to bring up some sheets of shale. Steve had a crowbar that worked well in some areas, too. In some areas the shale was just too crumbly but in others we revealed some very nice fossils. Here and there were tails of sea scorpions and we both had some keen interest in finding a complete fossil of one of those but it didn’t happen. Most of the fossils were not complete, but there were a few intact specimens here and there. Of course, I broke a couple - par for the course. I still took home a few pretty nice fossils.

The creek itself meandered into a canyon of shale that was simply gorgeous. The whole area was free of other people and that was a welcome change from the crowds of the commercial digs. I spent awhile walking just for scenery, then sooner or later a pile of shale would catch my eye and I’d be back at collecting. Munchie was well entertained as the flat shale would skip across the water when thrown and he was kept busy chasing “skippers”.

Had I been closer to home I’d not have had the change of clothes that I took with me that day. I don’t think they’d even have served me at the drive through at McDonalds the way I looked when we finished up at dusk and decided to go grab some food before heading off in our own directions home. We settled for McDonalds, as even after changing clothes I still wouldn’t have wanted to go into any establishment. People understand rockhounds and dirt in the NW but out here, most people don’t seem to understand about getting dirty and rock hunting. We ate sitting on a curb in the parking lot and talking about the finds of the day and where else might be fun and productive to visit. By this time it was getting dark and we didn’t notice the rain clouds until they started to dump on us. It was time to go home anyway so we finished our conversation behind our steering wheels through cracked windows. It was pouring by this time.

I’m pretty sure Steve and I will be back out on another adventure soon. We were both glad to have the company of another person who was just flaming to find the stones and didn’t know when to quit.

If anyone else here in NY or close by knows of any terrific, but not well known sites for exploration, drop me an email - I’m easy to find at “contact us”. And if you are a member who has a trip to report about, be sure and send me your report and I’ll post it here, too.

Until Next Time,

Life’s Short, Rock Hard.

Over the 4th of July weekend I spent a day in New Hampshire at a couple of mine dumps not far from the Vermont border. I left early on Saturday while it was still dry and even looked like I might get some sun for the trip. It was only around a ninety mile drive out, but it took a few hours because Munchie and I get curious about places and we stop here and again along the way.

The first mine I visited was the Stoddard mine just outside of Westchester. The area of the mine is fairly populated, which is a bit unusual to me being used to the wide open spaces of the West. I parked on the shoulder of the road and walked back the quarter of a mile to the mine. There were quite a few tailings to sort through but my first hunting was in the water filled pit. I found some quartz crystals shoveling dirt out of the water into my classifier and panning. There were a few broken crystals of either feldspar or fluorite in the pan, but they were broken and cloudy with poor color so I didn’t keep any of those. The water in the pit was deep enough that I didn’t have a lot of access to bottom sands and dirt so I didn’t spend a lot of time sifting there.

After playing at panning for a time I decided to hunt through the rock dumps. This was a long process. Every now and again I found a rock that just needed to be split up to be checked out. There were plenty of broken crystals around that were translucent but nothing really gemmy. Most were a pale, cloudy green. Here and there were hints of purple and I was hoping to run into a nice purple crystal, but it didn’t happen. I did get a few pale green crystals that aren’t as clear as I would have liked. Had it been sunny or at least dry out, I might have pounded more of the rocks in the dump and done some more intense digging but the rain put a bit of a damper on more intense hunting. Being new to NE rocks, I was also interested in just getting the idea of the habits of the rocks I’m looking for, too.

This was the first time out for these Eastern minerals and I am guessing from the form and color that they are fluorite or some sort of feldspar. Some time I might actually try to ID them positively. Right now they are just sitting there where I can see them so I can smile and remember I found something that I’ve never hunted or even seen in the rough before.
At least I didn’t get skunked and that is sometimes good enough to please me. Later, when I go back out that way, I’ll be ready to get real serious about the hunt. I am hoping that this incessent rain will stop by then.

I did get some nice dogtooth quartz crystal slabs that are in a need of some cleaning before I take any pictures of them. One group looks as if they might be citrine, but I can’t be sure it isn’t just an iron coating until they are cleaned. The matrix is clean and only the crystals themselves are orange so it’s 50/50 odds I guess.

By the time I had started to sift through the dumps it had begun to rain rather healthily so most of my time there I was just trying to pretend I didn’t mind the rain. It rains more here than I ever saw it rain in Western Oregon so if you wait for it to stop you just end up never getting outside. By the time I decided that I had gotten about the pick of what was laying around and started back to the car I was loaded enough to make the walk back a bit miserable. About the time I was leaving it also quit raining and had I known what the other mine would be like I’d have stayed put and looked around some more.

The next mine I went to was the Turner mine. Again, the road was quite populated - more densely than the road the Stoddard is on. The parking spot is actually a school bus turn around. I walked up the hill and found the mine area in a fairly densely forested area. That might have been nice on some days, but this day was dark to begin with. While it was no longer raining, the sun still was clouded over with absolutely black clouds that let loose on me once or twice while I was there. The whole dump area was so dark that I could barely see what I was trying to look at. Was it a great area to hunt? Who knows. It was dark enough that I imagine I passed over or threw out some pretty nice specimens without seeing that they were right there in front of me. It was quite frustrating but I continued to til through the piles for a time until I could tell the dark was from the sun setting rather than rain clouds and headed down the mountain. There was just loads of huge chunks of mica and I could actually see those so I picked a few up for the rockpile at the side of the house.

It was extremely frustrating and I left disappointed. That mine will never be a destination of mine again, but I would definitely stop again if I were in the area during a bright sunny day.

These digs were free to poke around in. There were some other free digs that were on the list but the rain just took the will out of me to stay in the area for more than one day - especially with thunder bangers forecasted for the next day. Swinging a hammer in lightning isn’t my idea of a good time.

I’ll put some pics of my finds in the photo gallery when I get time to catch up a bit.

Life’s Short - Rock Hard.

Where the Heck is “Where You Find It” Located?

Sure gold is “where you find it”. Anyone even thinking about taking up prospecting has heard that one. It’s probably the most frustrating answer any beginning prospector ever hears when asking where to look for gold. Where the heck exactly is “where you find it” located and why do people keep telling you that?

While that answer is a bit frustrating for the beginner there is a lot of truth in it. Gold can turn up in some pretty unusual places. Sometimes it has been sprinkled through areas by ancient glaciers or waterways. There are stories of people finding gold and thinking they had found a place to stake a claim, to discover later that they had only found the remnants of some unfortunate prospector’s lost cache. Trains and carts being wrecked while hauling gold to smelters have spilled loads of ore which might be found later in the streams downhill.

While you might run into bits of gold scattered by such events, you might also appreciate a word of where you might be more statistically inclined to make an actual strike of some good concentrations of “color”. It’s really not as mysterious as it has been made to sound.

The most common way to prospect for gold, especially for beginners, is to hunt for placier gold. Placiers are gold deposits that have washed into a stream bed from erosion of gold bearing rocks.

Just as there are the right places to look for gold, there are also the right times of year. If you have applied the strategies in part one of this series, you already have an idea of where you are going to begin your search when you set out on your prospecting journey A good plan is to go look the creek over during it’s high season and take notes of the currents when the water is high. Place gold traps while the water is high and fast or make notes of where good panning spots are located, but do note that raging waters are not easy to pan! Returning later when water levels have dropped, you will already have an idea of where to start panning for gold that has been spilled by the full spring currents.

When you get to your chosen region you must still pick out good spots to pan. Gold will not just distribute itself evenly throughout a creek. The best place for beginner to start is where you know that there are mines or claims uphill and upstream from your chosen location. Gold will wash downhill into a stream over time. If you can find a spot where a stream flowing downhill from known gold localities converges with a stream you are going to hunt, this is a terrific place to start. Converging streams coming from an uphill source can be excellent places to pan, too.

Gold is heavy. It can be carried by a rapid current, but when the current slows down, the gold will drop to the creek bed. This makes it important to start by hunting down stream from a converging creek or mining dumps uphill from you. Look for spots in the creek where fast moving water is impeded or slows down. The base of a small waterfall is always worth checking as are areas where the current is diverted by large rocks. Bends of the creek where water rushes in the middle but slows along the shore of the bend are another good area. Don’t be afraid to be creative. I know a man that swept a year’s living expense worth of gold from an old corrugated pipe that ran under a road where a creek passed through. The grooves of the pipe had served as a sluice to catch the grains and nuggets. Anywhere a rapid current slows down is a good prospecting area.

If you are searching during high water seasons, place gold traps wherever you see that current is being slowed or impeded. A gold trap is an easy contraption to build — gold trapping will be discussed in the next Gold Series issue.

There are many ways to tell where the current might be right for dropping gold. You can throw a stick into shallow water and watch it’s progress. Wherever it slows down or where its progress is impeded, gold might be dropped. If the water is deep this method is misleading as currents underneath the water can be stronger than those above. Another method I have seen reported, yet never have used myself, is to tie a small sinker unto some fishing line with a light floater on the other end. When the sinker is dropped by the current you will be able to see exactly where it drops. Do note that you will want the floater to be lighter than the sinker so it does not pull the sinker along itself.

Where there are rocks protruding from the water that are large enough to deflect the current, there may be deposits at the base of these rocks. Where a creek widens out from a narrow channel which water moves through rapidly is another good place to start a search. If there is an area of freshly piled sand and rock in the water or on the edge of a bank, that is where current is depositing material and a good place to dig into. Areas that have rapid currents that flow through many rocks can create a washboard effect and are good areas to hunt when the water levels are low. By checking for sand and rock piling behind larger rocks you can tell where material is dropped and during seasons that the water level is low, these rocky areas can be easy to pan in. Remember, though that gold is heavy so might be dropped before other lighter materials. Do not be disappointed if a spot of deposited sand and rocks doesn’t yield any color. You may just have to look to find an area upstream where the heavier material has been deposited. You want to find areas of slowed currents as near to the source of the gold as you can.

When panning, you will want to dig a bit rather than just scoop from the top dirt. You might find some traces of color just scooping the top of the creek bed due to recent deposits, but because of its weight, gold will work it’s way down rather quickly until it eventually hits something that prevents it from going any further. The smaller the grain or the more recently it has been dropped, the closer to the surface you might find it. The deeper you dig, the more you will find if you are searching a good area.

Cracks and crevices in rocks are also a great place to find grains of gold which become trapped, but you may need special suction or picking equipment to get it out. There are items you can buy very inexpensively that will help you do that. Equipment will be covered throughout later issues as the equipment you use will make quite a difference in your success in finding good concentrations of gold.

Learning to read a creek for good panning areas takes some time and can lead to frustration for those who lack the patience for placier hunting. Through practice, though, you will soon become able to size up good spots on a creek to pan. When you take your cache and proudly show it off, if someone asks you where you got it, you can just smile and say “it was right where I found it”.

Next issue - Gold Trapping.

Don’t have the gold prospecting equipment that you need? Solve that problem HERE

Learn Gold Prospecting from Expert Stan Grist HERE

Sal

RHS1 member “gemvalley” has a great place for you to hunt if you live in or are visiting North
Carolina this summer - whether you like metals or gemstones. Sounds like a load of fun.

Gem Valley LLC is Ashe County’s (North Carolina) first operational public/family gem flume mining and lapidary supply business. A family owned and operated business, Deborah Farmer and her father, Harry Davis have been rock-hounds for years, and have trained at the “William Holland School of Lapidary Arts” in Georgia, in various forms of gemology including faceting.

Gem Valley is located near the OLD Historical Mining community of “Ore Knob”. Copper mining started in the late 1800s, with “Ore Knob” being possibly the best known mine (at one time, being the leading copper producing mine in the United States). Also mined from the Ore Knob were other valuable minerals such as GOLD that still can be found today.

“This area is still very rich in geology, and bringing Gem Valley LLC to life will help the county preserve some of it’s historical roots as well as offer a wonderful family recreational experience in the world of gemstones.”

Numerous valuable stones are found by the “prospector” in this area, including valuable garnets, gold, emerald and fossils. We at Gem Valley will be offering the inexperienced (as well as experienced) rock lover the chance to locate some of Ashe County’s lovely hidden treasures to keep for him or herself.

Nestled between the “Blue Ridge Parkway” and USA’s oldest river the “New River”; Gem Valley is located at “Little Peak Creek rd” off of HWY 88 In Jefferson/Laurel Springs. Gem Valley has covered mining flumes, a gemstone/rock supply shop and gift-shop with a local-rock museum. There are also recreational picnic areas to enjoy. Make sure to bring your camera when you visit, as the views are “breath-taking, and there is something for everyone at Gem-Valley.

You can even experience “Gem-Valley” online at our website with our online lapidary supply store at http://www.GemValleyNC.com .

PRICES: $10.00 per person for access to the flumes and mining for the entire day (all equipment supplied). Children 5 years old and younger accompanied by a paid adult have Free Admission. Gem-Bucket prices start at $10.00 a bucket and up.

HOURS: May to October: THURS - MON, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. http://www.GemValleyNC.com

Thanks for the heads up, Deb!

Our pal, RHS1 member “Dragon” is holding a contest – with quite a nice prize. All the information and links you need to get into the contest are listed below. Have fun, and good luck!

Pictured is an exquisite specimen of Chromium Petrified Wood from Northern Arizona. This specimen originates from the Araucarioxylon arizonicum conifer, which grew to a height of 150 to 200 feet tall and six to eight feet in diameter. Found only in the Chinle formation, this type of petrified wood is extremely rare by comparison to the more famous Rainbow wood, also from the same tree. The difference between the two color variations is the infusion of chromium during the fossilization process, producing a beautiful hue of mint green ranging to almost an emerald green. As with any petrified wood, the degree of agatization, the fracture content, and color all play a role directly related to the value of the rock. This being the rarest color and the scarcity of available material, commands a higher value than any other petrified wood.

From a close examination , this specimen appears to be of gem grade material with a retail value of $ 325.00, quite a prize for the lucky individual who wins this beauty.
Statistics:
Color Deep Emerald green center with a cool minty green bark
Grade AAA
Size 2 .62in. x 1in. x .75in.
Weight 65 grams

Comments:
Not quite a complete round, it is only missing about 10% of the bark on the underside, this piece would definitely enhance any collection or could be cabbed if you so desire.

The object of the contest is to promote the site and gain new buyers and sellers. In order to compete in this contest, you must be a registered seller and abide by all of the regular Terms and Conditions listed at the bottom of each Dragonsaye Auctions page.

How do I compete?
For every seller or buyer you get to sign up as a registered member you, will be awarded, 1 point. The individual with the most points at the end of the contest, will be the winner. All new sellers must list and maintain a minimum of 5 items in their store for the seller to be counted. After completing the requirements, the new sellers are then eligible to be entered into the contest. For all registered buyers to be eligible the referred person must follow the Terms and Conditions for the site as stated above. All referred sellers and buyers must send and email to — gollum @ mdonline.net (live link: HERE) with the name of the person or User ID of the person who referred them.
How do I get people to join?
Everyone has a friend or a list of past customers, tell them about dragonsayeauctions.com, what you like most about Dragonsaye Auctions , emphasizing the low fees and no final value fees. Remind them when they register, to send an email to admin: gollum @ mdonline.net (live link: HERE) with your name and you will receive 1 point for the referral. Regular $5 credit values towards listing fees for referrals will not be issued during this contest!
Why should I get involved?
As with any new forum, getting people to try it is half the battle. Many other forums have been available for quite some time. They have a built in following but may have forgotten where they started and who supports them. I assure you we will not forget! We believe this new auction venue will succeed in time. However, we need to get the word to as many prospective customers as possible. The item we are giving away as a prize was donated by one of our sellers as an incentive to have others help us be a better competitor in the internet auction arena. The question should be, do you want to have a site dedicated solely for lapidary materials, where the customer is valued more than the dollar or are you content to stay where you are?
Rules of the Contest:
1. Open to all current and new Dragonsaye Auctions sellers with a minimum of five items listed for the duration of the contest.
2. All Referrals must have a minimum of five items listed in their new store.
3. Referrals must email admin: gollum @ mdonline. net (live link: HERE) with your name as a reference.
4. Duplicate entries will be disqualified, from the contest.
5. Contest starts on May 1st,2008 and ends on September 1st, 2008.
6. Approved entries will be posted on the Site News, under Contest Results.
7. All decisions are final and at the discreation of Dragonsaye Auctions Admin
8. A minimum of 5 listings to the contest must be met or the contest will be null in void.

Go To Dragonsaye Auctions Contest Page HERE
Go To Dragnonsaye Main Page HERE

Nice prize, Dragon.

If you get together with other rockhounds and discuss tools you are sure to come up with some new and innovative ways to use a chisel or hammer. If we have a need to get a gemstone we can be a pretty creative bunch when it comes to getting a great find back home. Sometimes the uses for a favorite tool can seem endless.

Now here’s a guy that had a pretty good, yet unusual, use for a rock hammer and I thought I’d share it with you just in case you ever need quick ideas. Enjoy.

VEIW HERE

Life’s Short - Rock Hard

Sal

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GOLD PROSPECTING: series part 1

GOLD PROSPECTING STARTS AT THE OFFICE

Serious gold has been found in about 3 out of every 5 states in the US. While there is still untold amounts of gold to be found it’s not as easy as it was in the 1800’s to find open land to prospect. You can jump right in and start fishing through streams for a cache, but it can also be a risky and disappointing way to go about any serious prospecting. There are a few things to consider before loading up the mule and heading off to the mountains that will greatly increase your odds of success - and decrease your odds of ending up in court.

Just because a mine or claim is no longer worked does not mean that the gold is gone. That particular property might or might not be still be off limits to hunters. Public lands are not always free for all gold prospecting areas, either. Some public land contains claims and other places are off limits to hunting at all. Some areas are restricted hunting, meaning you can use a pan, but not a dredge, sluice, or other equipment. If you are thinking that you can just slip into off-limits areas and slip out without notice, you are taking one healthy risk to your wallet or freedom. By getting some research under your belt before diving into the creeks with your prospecting gear, you can avoid not only fines, arrests, or being shot for claim jumping, you can also get a pretty good idea where your best bet is to find a good productive placer. The search for records can be time consuming, but it is a “must” do for anyone serious about gold prospecting.

While you will want to know the ownership status of the land you wish to hunt, it’s not going to do you much good to hunt if there isn’t a decent amount of gold to be found in the area. You may have heard that gold can be found just about anywhere, but a few flakes dropped by glaciers aren’t really going to make a hunt worthwhile. You should start your search by studying mining records to find areas from which good amounts of gold have already been found. State Bureau of Mines offices will have information about mining in the areas you are researching. Remember, thousands of people already have searched the country for gold. You aren’t likely to make much headway in new and untouched territory. Your best bet is to stick with known territories. While some people believe that areas that contain mines are tapped out, this is rarely the case. Gold in these areas still works its way down into streams and forms placers downhill from the sources.

The BLM office in the area you are researching will have mining and mineralogy maps. Once you study these and are content with pursuing prospecting in an area, you will want to do another bit of study. The BLM also has maps containing land status plats that show the ownership of public lands. You will find there where you are free to prospect. You may also want to check for claims that have been abandoned.

Claims can become abandoned for many reasons. Some might be abandoned because the area had been worked until the claim quit producing. Others may just have never been fruitful in the first place. Others could be abandoned due to other difficulties that the owner encountered, such as inability to get to and from the claim, illness or death, and a myriad other reasons. If a claim is abandoned and the land is open to prospecting, you might be able to pick up the claim for a low price and continue work on it. If it has been a considerable amount of time since a claim has been worked, it may contain fresh gold which continues to wash down into placer areas over time.

Local assay offices are sometimes willing to provide information about their own records of gold assays from local area claims, although sometimes you will be charged for records searches. If the claim produced gold recently enough, someone in the office might just even remember if it produced well.

A bit of geological study about gold is always a good idea for those who are extremely serious about prospecting, too. What you learn may just help you identify “new” localities near the older, known ones.

While these studies can be time consuming, most areas have several months a year (in some places most of the year) which are not suitable for hunting in the field so these are excellent months to do your “indoor” prospecting.

Once you have the information you need about open land and available claims, you are then ready to go out into the field and try your luck in the 2008 Gold Rush. For the latest in gold equipment to aid you in hunt Click Here

Next time: Getting Started in the Field

© 2008: Sally Taylor

More Info:
http://www.mzexpos.com/

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Tenacity
Specific Gravity
Notes On Other Methods

Tenacity

Tenacity, also known as a mineral’s toughness, is the durability of a mineral - the more difficult to break, the higher the tenacity. Do not confuse toughness and hardness. Despite common belief, if you smack a diamond, the hardest mineral, with a hammer it will shatter. The hardness of a diamond is not the same as it’s toughness. Jade has an extremely tough mineral. While it is not nearly as hard as a diamond it is tough enough that in ancient China it was often used as an anvil. Some minerals are very hard, but are still also quite brittle and break with ease.

Exactly how the mineral breaks is also referred to by tenacity. Gold will flatten into sheets when hit. Brittle minerals (which most are) can be pounded into powders but the amount of effort to do so will vary. Some minerals will bend when pressure is applied. Here is a list of a few mineral tenacities that will help you identify some minerals.

Brittle - If you hammer a brittle mineral it will crumble or even turn to powder. Most minerals fall into this category.
Friable - Crumbles easily.
Sectile - These minerals can be separated into slices. Gypsum is sectile and can be sliced into shavings with a knife.
Malleable - These minerals will flatten out if you pound them. Metals are malleable.
Ductile - If you can stretch a mineral into a wire it is ductile. This is also a trait of true metals.
Flexible - A flexible mineral can be bent. Mica is a flexible mineral.
Elastic - A flexible mineral that can be bent but will spring back to it’s original shape. Fibrous minerals are often elastic.
Tough - You can hammer these minerals without breaking them. Jade is extremely tough and has been used as anvils.

You do not have to hit a mineral to tell if it is brittle. When checking for hardness, if scratching the mineral produces some powder of that mineral, it is brittle. Remember not to scratch a fine mineral where the scratch will lessen it’s beauty and value. When testing for flexibility or elasticity, be careful when you put pressure on it. Even these minerals will break after a certain point so check gently and slowly for these traits.

Specific Gravity/Density

Density is the measure of the mass of an object compared to its volume. In relation to minerals, Specific Gravity refers to how dense a mineral is compared to water. I have seen many technical explanations of this principal and will try to keep this explanation as user-friendly as possible. If you want physics, you can find plenty of discussion of density in textbooks.

Most minerals are around 2 - 3 times denser than water. If you pick up a piece of gold and an equally sized piece of quartz, you can feel that there is a difference in the weight of the pieces even though the size is the same. Gold has a high specific gravity (around 10 depending on the purity) and quartz is only average (2.54). While the most valuable metals have a high specific gravity, the value of a mineral is not determined by it’s gravity. Diamonds have a 3.52 gravity while fluorite has a gravity of 4.

In your field guide you will see the density of minerals described as as light, heavy, etc. Below is a scale that gives examples of different gravities.

Very Light - less than 2 - borax
Light - gypsum 2 - 2.5
Average - quartz - 2.54
Heavy -flluorite, alamandine garnets - 4 - 5
Very Heavy - galena and pyrite- 5 - 10
Extremely heavy - gold, silver - 10
Super Heavy - platinum - 20

Testing specific gravity may seem to be advanced mineral ID that you might never need to learn, but it is quite handy to know. Consider how alike many metals look. Could you tell a piece of platinum from less valuable metals if you found it? If you tested the specific gravity of a piece of platinum, you would not have to wonder what it is. Platinum has a gravity of 20, which is extremely heavy, twice that of gold. If you are panning in a stream and find a crystal that has been water worn, it may be hard to tell if that crystal is topaz or quartz. The shape would have told you had it not been smoothed by water. Being that quartz has a specific gravity of 2.54 and Topaz is 3.5 - 3.6, by testing the gravity, you have solved your identity issue easily and have not needed to damage the crystal at all to identify it.

Professional gold prospectors are well aware that some specimens of gold are more pure than others and assay higher. They can get a good idea of the purity of their cache through specific gravity testing, too. While the hobby oriented gold hunter may be thrilled with a nugget even if it has a high mix of other metals, a professional prospector who depends on gold for a living might not want to spend a lot of time in an area where the gold is too diluted to be of high assay value.

While you might have to be mathematically inclined to understand how density measurement works, you do not have to be a physicist to understand how to test for specific gravity. The way to test the gravity of a mineral is to see how much weight it loses in water. First you weigh the mineral in air. Then put the mineral in water. Weigh the amount of water displaced by the mineral, then divide the weight mineral in air, by the weight of the displaced water. The result will be the specific gravity.

You can get a good testing scale HERE

Other Mineral Identification Methods.

The methods of mineral identification we have covered in this series are the most important ways to tell what a mineral is. They work for generally all minerals. There are other methods that also are good methods but are relevant to only a few minerals so they are not a usual method of testing. You might use these methods in specific circumstances, but for everyday mineral testing, they would be of no avail to your identification efforts.

One of these is fluorescence. Only a few minerals are fluorescent. You need an ultaviolet light to see fluorescence. Aragonite, willemite, and fluorite will all glow beautifully under a black light and you will occassionally see specimens displayed under a black light.

In Wyoming you may pick up agates that fluoresce a yellowish/green. This fluorescence has nothing to do with the identity of the mineral. In that area, the fluorescence is due to radioactivity, and a Geiger counter will react to these minerals. Um…by the way….you really do not want these specimens laying around your house.

Magnetism can also be used to test only one or two minerals. Magnetite is the only commonly occurring magnetic material, so unless you are looking specifically for this material testing for magnetism is pretty much a waste of time.

Taste is also pretty mineral specific rather than a general method of identification. Taste is a method I suggest no one ever use as there are only a few minerals that really have a distinct taste - and you really don’t know what you have in your hand, you also don’t know if you are licking something poisonous.

If you have read the complete series on mineral ID, you now have a pretty good idea of using the different methods to figure out what mineral you are holding in your hand. Some of these methods will seem a bit confusing at first, but as you use them, you will not only become more familiar with the methods themselves, you will also become more readily able to identify the minerals that you find. You will learn to identify some just by looking. Others will require multiple tests no matter how experienced you are. You will soon find, however, that the more you are able to identify specimens on your own, the more fun and rewarding your gem hunting experience will become. I hope you have learned something that you will use and enjoy - and pass on to other new hunters along the way.

LIFE IS SHORT - ROCK HARD

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