There is another less common method of finding gold however.
Gold vein in quartz rock.
Gold and quartz specimens.
In some cases you may be able to see small masses of gold within quartz but much of it is invisible to the naked eye.
Searching for gold veins that exist as deposits in exposed rock formations above the ground usually mixed with formations of quartz.
Gold quartz specimens are in a completely different league of their own.
This chunk of vein quartz from mariposa is typical of gold quartz material from the mother lode district of california.
This ore shows considerable bright and visible metallic gold disbursed through the quartz vein gold ore.
In epithermal gold deposits it is quite common for sizable gold veins to run through quartz rock and these specimens can be located using a quality metal detector.
Finding gold in quartz rock.
Often these gold in quartz specimens are very beautiful and interesting causing them to be highly valued by mineral collectors sometimes even more than the value of the gold itself.
In gold bearing regions when the desert pavement contains significant quartz vein material this is a reliable sign that gold may also be present in the surface material.
Rivers and streams wear down through the bedrock and can leave patches of gravel high and dry.
Most of the prospecting methods for finding gold that we discuss on this blog include panning for flakes and dust metal detecting for nuggets.
Yes gold can be found in quartz.
A vein of gold located in a quartz deposit.
It nestles in the veins lines or cracks in quartz and will appear as small particles or scales.
Hard rock mining also known as lode mining is obviously the best method for finding gold specimens since you are mining the true source of the gold by following veins of high grade ore into the mountain.
These are a real treat for gold prospectors and collectors as well and are often valued at a premium due to their beauty and rarity.
This page is dedicated to the gold that s still attached to quartz or a host rock.
Outcrops of quartz vein matter among slabby slate rock as pictured here is a fine geologic indicator that gold could be found nearby.
Fractures and cracks in the bedrock form ideal pathways for superheated water and steam under pressure to flow and to precipitate out their dissolved mineral and heavy metal loads.
In most gold ore the gold is present in tiny specs either within minerals like pyrite or spread out free among the quartz.
Normally even good rich gold ore has no gold metal which is visible to the naked eye.
Look for gold in quartz veins in areas where the bedrock is fractured by tectonic and volcanic activity.
The geologic concepts and indications that are the most important for finding gold vary from location to location.
Gold bearing quartz veins blue ribbon mine alaska for this reason veins within hydrothermal gold deposits are no longer the exclusive target of mining and in some cases gold mineralisation is restricted entirely to the altered wall rocks within which entirely barren quartz veins are hosted.
25 perched gravel benches along gold bearing streams.
This type of gold is highly desired in the mineral collecting community.
