Gold in Biotite ( a form of mica ) NOW WITH PHOTO'S

G'day to all on the forum, A question for you, Have any members found gold in biotite ( a form of mica ), or seen it or heard of it occuring. I am referring to pure Biotite and not rocks that have a small amount of biotite in them as part of their composition. All replies gratefully received.
Cheers
Ashley

I wouldn't call it a direct indicator because gold is often found where there is no biotite but by the same token if there is reef gold in the area then where biotite cuts across the reefs you may often find gold

I found gold with biotite nearby probably something like Adrian ss said.

It was a small stream ( dry in hot season ) where old timers found heaps of gold.
Biotite on leftside and quartz on the other side.

Thanks for the replies guys, I asked as i am lucky enough to have detected a small tin that was buried under the larger tree roots that was full of Biotite that has gold all through it . When my pick went through this rusty ol tin i cursed, On scooping the rusted tin & dirt up out of the hole i noticed this trail of gold through the dirt. Had to bucket up all the dirt and sort through it to retrieve the gold laden biotite. The largest piece weighs in at 40 grams and its full of long stringy gold. I will post up photos as soon as i can when i am finished sorting the material. A very interesting find & i can only wonder at the story behind this little treasure cache.
Cheers
Ashley

Pity about the pick but it will be interesting to see the photo.s.
Now all you have to do is find out where the biotite came from

Sorry for the delay but finally got these pics posted, Photo 1 is of the larger remnants of the tin, only the lid was pretty much intact, Photo 2 is of the gold & gold in Biotite that was in the tin, Photo 3 is of the centre-piece of my tin hoarde find, approx 5cm long & 2.5cm round in a cone shape, weighs in at 41.1g. I have more biotit with gold in it & so far another 3.3g of flake gold from the buckets of dirt i am sorting through. to date i have just over 64g of gold & still counting the fines. I found a group of mines in the area that have Biotite in them so can only guess it came from one of them. Why the tin was left where it was for me to find i can only speculate !

P.S. if a mod reads this could you please move this story over to the finds

Cheers
Ashley

very nice find there ash,

never seen gold in this form before so thanks very much for sharing.

UB

Hi folks, Hi Ashley, an old buried tin of gold in beautifull biotite specimen!!! are you kidding me? how good is that ? !!!!, that's a real bonus for any treasure hunter/ gatherer/ scrounger, talk about two birds with one stone!! I would be ecstatic!!! probobly need sedation!! any chance of some more macro shots of the detail in them, thanks for sharing this.
Regards
Wayne.

Thanks for the replies, Figured it had to be a rarity to see gold in this form, I will be keeping it the way it is, Cant clean it anymore than i have as it can come apart quite easily, Yes i was ecstatic with the find, Still pinching myself for such a lucky find. I will try for some more photo's on macro.
Cheers
Ashley

Wow Thanks immensely for sharing, you must be absolutely stoked. I like your thinking in not cleaning, for such a rarity it would almost be criminal to alter from its natural state. The closest I've seen is gold and tourmaline specimens from the Halls Creek area - flattish nuggets smeared with bottle green/black tourmaline.

Cheers Cal

Tourmaline and gold!!! Drool! Drool! does it get any better?
Regards
Wayne.

What a rare find, I would be over the moon. As has been said before, always check those old tins and guess we could speculate forever as to whom put it there and why.

Thanks for time taken with the photos Ash.

Ash - very awesome find mate
Beats swinging the Sov. Down the beach I reckon , maybe just

Very well done

Hey Ash
That is an absolutly awesome find there mate, looks like the deposit from which it came looks like it was quite rich, I would be doing alot more research as to where it may have come from, if you know the general area the pan may help you out.
NICE
Lee

That is awesome Ashley You found the holy grail mate well done! No one will ever know what's behind the story of this little stash

Ren...

Hi Ashley. Great find and unusual gold. I have seen some gold that was kinked and layered in rock like you have. The host rock was schist, which is very layered with kinks and zig zag folds. Weathered Schist contains a lot of mica in many cases is a little soapy and smooth when you rub it. Your gold could be in weathered schist.

Tributer

Thanks all for the replies, ttrash you are correct, sure beats the beach with finds like this, Lee I have pretty much found the mines that it's most likely come from, Had to use the pan for the fines. Tributer yes the biotite is soapy/slippery to feel, The cone shape piece as pictured seems to have some other rock/dirt as the host rather than the biotite laced gold pieces in the collection pic, maybe as you have suggested, Schist., Intriguing !
Cheers
Ashley

On further enquiry i have loosely narrowed down the Tin Hoarde Find time frame, The Caley's Sweets tin it was found in is from the 1930's, Anyone know a tin collector who might be able to shed some more light on it ?
Cheers
Ashley