What can i do with this nugget- acid?

Hey gold explorers,

Ive been detecting a few times now around NSW and came across this speciman
its very heavy and has veins all over i have been doing reaserch about acids
crushing etc but unsure witch way to go - i dont want to stuff it up considering im only new at prospecting
any pointers will be much apreciated


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G'day mate and welcome to the forum and congratulations on your terrific find.
Being a rock of that size I would crush it and then pan it off and melt all that down.
Good luck,
Uncle Bob.

Cheers Uncle bob - hey i have one of them,

can acids dissolve rock to leave a nice shape to it .
That you are aware of? Its VERY heavy and i am reluctant on hammering it beyond recognition might be better to leave as a sample, would you crush? or be happier as is

Do a search of the forum, I think started by Gus?
the heat shock treatment will fix it for ya!

At the end of the day, it's your decision on what you want to do with it.

Here is the second stanza of the thread..

https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t13515-central-west-super-speci-a-work-in-progress

Hi Digalot, are you sure it's gold? not just pyrite?

Wayne.

well its solid and squashes doesnt chip or flake only time & some effort will tell as far as i know pirate doesnt sound on detectors im hunting for some direction- ill keep posting

calaverite?

now im getting newbie nervs,
air weight = 1044 g
water= 793 g

if i have followed the formula correct this = 468 g it doesnt seem right could someone experianced assist?
starting shock treatment tonight hope its not calaverite and melts!

Good luck!!!

G'day sir-dig-alot

Well done on the specie yu have there, the specific gravity calculations may not be real accurate on this one because it looks to have a fair amount of black rock (possibly ironstone) which will through out the standard calculations. It needs to be totally in Quartz for the SG to work out close.

There are other formulas where you can change the numbers to siut the host rock and maybe get closer accuracy.

There is really only Hydrofluoric Acid (HF) that would eat that rock away and it's really deadly stuff not to be messed with unless you really know what your doing. Even after using this stuff on some species I still end up crushing them as not all end up nice looking nuggets and some just completely fall apart and you end up with a lot of small gold in the bottom of the dish which needs to be collected and melted into a button.

So unless you are really sure it is going to look spectacular after and acid treatment my answer would be to smash it up in the first place, pick out the bigger bits and keep running the remainder through a strainer until it is all powdered up and collecting the bits you can pick out along the way. Then pan of the remainder, with a bit of added surfactant to stop the fine stuff from floating. then melt the whole lot back together in a button after crushing and melting.

Example of an 80 gram gold button after crushing and melting



cheers dave

I noticed you are from Urunga, if you found that specimen around Taylors Arm, Dorrigo, Hill Grove, or Nambucca areas the dark grey mineral is most probably Stibnite (antimony sulphide) and the yellow mineral is obviously pyrite, as the specimen hasn't oxidized it has come from a mine,
Other possibilities of the grey material are arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite or argentite.
It could have micro gold in the minerals, crush some up then use Nitric Acid then pan whats left, no acid will dissolve pyrite it has to be baked untill its turns to iron oxide.
If you are not familiar with sulphide minerals Google them.
cheers
Tezz