Here's a video showing what I look for when I'm prospecting for gold ore in the mountains. This is an old dump pile of ore, with some left over that wasn't taken. You can "high grade" the ore by selecting the best pieces, take them home, and get the gold out. Around here, there's very little placer gold, but there is hard rock gold if you know where to look.
Every ore has it's own "fingerprint;" while gold is almost always found in quartz, you might find the mineralization varies considerably. There's a saying "the redder the better" but I've also found red quartz with mineralization and no gold... One doesn't guarantee the other.
Did you know... The vast majority of the world's gold is in hard rock quartz vein deposits, and is from about bb to flour size (nuggets in alluvial/placer gold are the exception). While large corporations dominate the market, artisanal small scale gold miners (ASGM), comprise a significant percentage of gold production, primarily in 3rd world countries.
5 окт 2024
