A new gold panning thread. Pyrite , the other gold.

ohiochris · May 30, 2012

For those of you who are interested , Ive been finding a LOT of some type of pyrite , some of it coated in a rusty brown or dark brown , even black iron coating of some sort , a lot of it dont have the coating and is shiny silver , dull gray or even slightly gold color. Its pretty heavy and ends up at the bottom of my pan or literally clogging up my sluice box. After doing some internet research I found out that a lot of pyrite actually contains real gold. I did an experiment where I took 7 little BB and pencil eraser sized bits of it and melted it down into slag in a carved out charcoal briquette and when I cooled and busted up the slag I found visible gold inside it , about as much as most of the flakes Ive been finding. Check your concentrates well , you may have been throwing a lot of this away and not realized it can have gold in it. Heres a pic of the pyrite I am finding and a pic of the piece of slag with gold in it.....if I can get the pics to load right.

Trickworm · May 30, 2012

Thats all I ever find

ohiochris · May 30, 2012

Trickworm said:
Thats all I ever find

LOL , nothing wrong with finding pyrite since it may contain real gold in it.

KingTotsalot · Jun 2, 2012

In Arkansas we have widely scattered pyrite in many geological formations and areas of the state....however the only pyrite known to contain gold is in Garland County at a site known in literature as the V intrusive. A pyrite fluorite chalcedoney vein will always give a gold value upon analysis, and the pyrite seems to be carrying the micron sized gold, either as discrete grains or "dissolved" in the pyrite structure.

Unfortunately the vein is so small as to be of no commercial interest. And the landowner is not exactly the easiest to deal with to get access to the property.

Basically KT is tellin' ya...want gold? Go to some state with a record of actual gold mining and production, don't waste yer time foolin around in Arkansas with that hobby. That's the reason KT is interested in Metal Detecting and not gold prospecting! HA HA

ohiochris · Jun 6, 2012

KingTotsalot said:
In Arkansas we have widely scattered pyrite in many geological formations and areas of the state....however the only pyrite known to contain gold is in Garland County at a site known in literature as the V intrusive. A pyrite fluorite chalcedoney vein will always give a gold value upon analysis, and the pyrite seems to be carrying the micron sized gold, either as discrete grains or "dissolved" in the pyrite structure.

Unfortunately the vein is so small as to be of no commercial interest. And the landowner is not exactly the easiest to deal with to get access to the property.

Basically KT is tellin' ya...want gold? Go to some state with a record of actual gold mining and production, don't waste yer time foolin around in Arkansas with that hobby. That's the reason KT is interested in Metal Detecting and not gold prospecting! HA HA

We are lucky enough in my area to have gold bearing material delivered to us by glaciers from Canada , otherwise there would be no gold panning here either.

A new gold panning thread. Pyrite , the other gold.

ohiochris

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Trickworm

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KingTotsalot

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ohiochris

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