Gold or Fools Gold.

Hi all,
Im new to the forum and gold prospecting so i dont have much of an idea about the difference between gold & fools gold.
I live in Australia NSW Far South Coast & recently drove to a nearby mountain that has gold mines there since the 1860's & decided to take a few samples in a bucket from a little creek - the creek was very sandy & silty but i took a few scoops from behind rocks and the slower moving part/corners of the creek to practise my panning when i got home as ive never done it before.

I got a chance to go through a bit today & found it hard to get rid of the last bit of fine sand/little rocks but i did find something that is either gold or fools gold but im not 100% sure. Ive got a Garret AT Gold on order from the USA but it hasnt arrived yet & i would of just swung it over the jar to see if it registered but i havnt got it yet. I put the little flakes on my finger nails and tried to crush it but the little flakes just bent, then i smeared it across my finger and a heap of little flakes just spread across my finger. I thought fools gold just crumbled and had a tinge of black in it

Just wondering if a few people here a bit more experience here could help me out with these photos - Thanks

Hi Hellhole

looks like it could be Mica to me
but maybee someone else on the forum might give you a better diagnosis

regards
mick

Yes i would say mica too. Best way to tell is to drop it in an pan or bowl of water and give it a shake. Mica will foal and swirl up easily where gold will just sit on the bottom of the bowl.

shivan wrote:Yes i would say mica too. Best way to tell is to drop it in an pan or bowl of water and give it a shake. Mica will foal and swirl up easily where gold will just sit on the bottom of the bowl.

When it was in the pan i thought it moved around a bit to easy , ill give it a shot this afternoon and see what it does and let you know.
Thanks for the fast responses.

I ran into a bit of mica when i was down mogo/batmansbay way. It was pain but looked nice in the pan
May see you out and about in the field

Yep its not gold
Put it in my pan and swirled it around and some of it floated and the other stuff moved really easy on the base of the pan. Time to go hunting again.

Sorry to hear it was not gold But better luck next time. Some nice spots round the south coast so iam sure you will get lucky sooner than later.

I concur with the others it is mica. You really need to get a chance at doing some panning, try Oallans Ford up on the Shoaelhaven ( please forgive my spelling). Can be a bit grotty but we have camped and panned up there with friends in the past. You also need to be aware that there is such a thing as float gold which will move around. I have no doubt there is someone near your location that could give you a hand. If not through the forum try a local lapidary club, bound to be one. regards Phil

Thanks guys.
Im going to try Mogo, Mt Dromedary (The river there links onto Punkally Creek), Bermagui & Pambula i think.
The samples i took where from around Mt Dromeadary but i dont think i dug down enough & i collected a lot of sand/rock on top....