Unknown mineral ? thought to be a mixture of of the platinum group & Gold

G'Day,

I am new on this forum & last year while in the far north of Japan in the gold and platinum fields I found a couple of sites that contained this mineral that I saw posted on a web auction in Europe about 7 ~ 8 years ago, & its was sold for quite a lot of money by a woman geologist who stated the Brown coloured mineral is a ' type ' of rare gold that can't be see with the naked eye & its adhered to some of the Platinum group of minerals.
There is also found in another Location the same type of mineral in a black coloured stone & the geologist was saying on the web the black coloured stone has more Platinum content than gold.
Where this particular specimen was taken from is a stream thats well known from the gold rush days as having small 24k nuggets. I have some photographs of some of the gold taken from this stream in the gold rush days & it is very spectacular.
I have used this Link for my pictures as it hosts very High Resolution pictures.


I am certain there must be a geologist or prospector in Australia that might have heard about this mineral i have found or knows someone that could confirm if I have the correct mineral I saw 7~8 years ago I saw on the Web.

Thanks

Brown coloured mineral is a ' type ' of rare gold that can't be see with the naked eye

Would it be gold sulphide you are talking about? I could be wrong and probably am but that is what it sounds like to me

G'day kinzogan. Welcome to the Forum.

Let me get this straight.I'm a little bit stunned here. A stream that contains small 24k gold nuggets? In other words your telling us,natural small,alluvial gold nuggets found in a creek with a purity of 24k or 100% pure gold content? I've heard of fine alluvial,river,flower gold reaching a gold purity of between 97 and 99% but never 100%. Can that sort of gold purity exist in its natural state?

Cheers kon61.

G'Day Kone61,

Thats what the sapporo rock museum book says in japanese.

Shivan Hi thanks for your input re the gold Sulphide ; I couldn't recall all the detail I read re this mineral & its association with Gold & Platinum , but seem to recall a little more after reading for a few hours on the web the Gold sulphide articles. What is clear is the very high costs these mineral samples like mine sold for in Europe on a web auction at the time. The geologist stated that all of this Brown coloured or chocolate syrupy looking stone is essentially gold sulphide, & the same types of metallic flake stones that are Black in colour also a syrupy looking mineral have Higher Platinum group elements in them & less gold content.
At the time of reading about this on the Web I was more than a bit sceptic........but I went back to the article a few times & re read it trying to get my head around it. I kept a copy on an old Mac clone pc that clapped out on me after submersion via a vase of water ~!~ , kids eh..........and I lost the pc data.

I can't load pictures on this forum just yet .........Pal take a look at my web page on Facebook { Gold Prospecting Tours Japan } , go into the photos and take look at some of the pictures from the book.
Its crystalline gold & maybe as you say 99% ..........? in the streams and some of the rivers.

On my Facebook pages you can see a picture of the 24k gold Menuki thats Edo Period 1600 ~ 1868 , that particular gold was only available to the Shogun & his direct family Members as it came from Shodoshima gold mine.
The color of the gold & its purity are remarkable, and you can see other golds from Japan that are also spectacular in the pictures.

*I will load a couple of pictures of the specimens on my Facebook pages Gold Prospecting Tours Japan so forum members can see them.

I deal in samurai antiques and have sold plenty of solid gold samurai antiques & the history of gold in japan is quite unlike that of other countries I feel & the silver history here too is quite remarkable.
Some pictures on my web page of nuggets from japan I have seen selling in china for $15,000 ~ $25,000 oz .
There are reasons these special nuggets sell for so much in china , there are only two known locations in the world you can find them, and the fact they look like Praying mantis front legs or mandibles , the superstitious chinese believe they bring great fortune and good luck to their owners.

Hope thats straightened things out for you Kone61.

Another interesting location for prospecting for gold in PNG, back in the 1970's we lived in PNG & prior to PNG in Vatakola gold mine in Fiji for 2 years.........so I got the gold fever young.
The gold being found in Australia today with detectors is impressive & WA seems to be on the Hot location list for big nuggets.