Road works exposing Quartz

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kemjak57 said:
DrDuck said:
I don't remember if it was on this forum or another one, but some years ago there was a story of some grader drivers who struck it rich in Queensland during a routine job.
I think that was in Weipa.
Yeah, yeah, it was nowhere down south at all ! :/
 
Phoenix76 said:
It's a very interesting topic. I believe that you can fossick, if that's the right description, along the sides of the road and cuttings. But you are NOT allowed to dig or otherwise interfere with the road edges.

The other interesting thing is, when they do roads, especially unsealed ones out in the bush, they get their base from wherever it is available. By that I mean, they get it from their depots, but the depots can get it from anywhere. You often find lots of quartz in road building, and just like Mandissa, never know what you will find. Also a good chance of picking up some good gemstone samples as well.

Cheers
Bill

Funny you should say tht. There is a location just north of New norcia (batty bog road) where they layed down alot of road base. All around there are terminated crystals, banded iron, other interesting rocks. I contacted the shire and they said they get it from local farmers.
 
Mandissa said:
Hmmm , I keep driving past quarts in sides of roads in local area , new road works that scrape the batters , ect ect , been prob exposed for years so I always thought if there was gold in it , it would be picked at ect. ,,,, , yet I took a random small sample and crushed it for fun !!!! 2 small specs , So. , is there gold exposed and we just ignore it and think the old timers got it all ! , Just makes me wonder each time I drive past exposed Quartz in sides of road in old gold areas , After the bushfires we had a lot of land slips and they exposed quarts , Could they have undiscovered gold :)

a lot of gold was found when they we're building the roads around the golden triangle sadly most of it is now under that sticky black stuff hahaha but yes its a good idea to check road cuttings and railway cuttings but watch for trains. ohh but just don't check airports hahaha.
 
Well i went to the location on Toodyay rd and had a good look and it sure looks good. Quarts between granite, black sand spots with iron staining etc but im pretty sure its pyrite. Not 100% sure but here are some pics....
2dgvuyt.jpg


dwdfu1.jpg
 
sorry guys, this piece i had turned out to be pyrite. I will go back and sample a few more bits as the guy who tested said there is all the ingregients there for gold
 
When the tracks/roads were being dug through and around Dargo the main problem facing the foreman of the road crews was finding gold and being left with no no workers. Ken.
 
tailormarc said:
sorry guys, this piece i had turned out to be pyrite. I will go back and sample a few more bits as the guy who tested said there is all the ingregients there for gold

What did you do with that rock after you got it tested?
It looks like gold to me :Y:
 
Recently spent 2 weeks in Perth and went to check out Toodyay rd cut and can definitely say that it's pyrite and not gold.Promising area though with a history of gold
 
From the pics it looks very much like gold. As far as using HCL acid to determine if its pyrite goes, Iron, and for that matter Arsenopyrite dos not desolve rapidly in HCL at the concentration you can buy it as brickies acid in Bunnings. Id be dollying the samples and washing down to concentrate the mineral and then heating to a dull red heat on Charcoal with a torch. If its Pyrite it will give of sulphurous fumes and turn a rusty red. Gold will not change or oxidize under the torch. (unless you get it hot enough to melt. (white hot). If its arsenopyrite It will give off the highly poisonous arsenic fumes of arsenic trioxide. dont breath it.
 
Phoenix76 said:
It's a very interesting topic. I believe that you can fossick, if that's the right description, along the sides of the road and cuttings. But you are NOT allowed to dig or otherwise interfere with the road edges.

The other interesting thing is, when they do roads, especially unsealed ones out in the bush, they get their base from wherever it is available. By that I mean, they get it from their depots, but the depots can get it from anywhere. You often find lots of quartz in road building, and just like Mandissa, never know what you will find. Also a good chance of picking up some good gemstone samples as well.

Cheers
Bill

The ex gf a few years ago fell off a horse that was spooked by a stupid driver being an idiot. She got a big gash in her hand and had to go to hospital to clean out the gravel. All of the staff were somewhat surprised after they pulled out a small picker among the rest of it.
I quickly ran a detector over the area and didn't find anymore, but it's clear there must be more gold in that gravel.
 
Gold was mined where the main street of Rutherglen now stands. I'm sure road workers must have uncovered some over the years.
 

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