rock with gold or copper ?

hey there when i was up looking at an old mine shaft i came across many rocks like these im sure its gold but i would like to get another opinion i can see some copper in the rock as-well and on close inspection i can also see some veins of quarts would it be worth crushing these rocks and try to extract the gold out of them if so what would be the best way to crush the rocks. i have thought a large hammer in a big bucket but i don't want crap flying everywhere im sure the rock is iron stone as a magnet sticks to it in some places and the rock is heavy for its size and ideas on what it is would be greatly appreciated
thanks for your time

Adam

* if this post is in the wrong place please feel free to move it admin

Cheers

Adam

not entirely sure adam, it looks like a piece of siltstone with magnetite and gold traces. The little red spots are cuprite. Not sure how youd go extracting the gold from it. Perhaps someone else on here can give you a better metalurgic opinion.

hi there the green wanderer thanks for your reply i think that there would be a couple of tones of this type of rock where i found it

Unforynatley it looks like chalcopyrite mate, not gold. You can tell b the slight tarnishing in spots. Nice specimen. I could be wrong but dont think so.
If that was gold a chunk that size would be worth over $100k.

DD

Looks like reasonably high grade copper ore Adam

don't hold me to that though

Cheers

Col

ohh well lol might put it on top of the liquor cabinet as it looks nice thanks anyway guys

doesnt copper tarnish when exposed to air ? it goes a brown colour

gold wont tarnish

take it for an acid test at a jewellers

google search for "dolly pot" they are easy to make if you want to crush it up

wear safety glasses and a respirator to protect your lungs from silicosis from the airborne silica

if you crush it up try bending the gold coloured stuff to see if its malleable ( soft )

If its soft and bendy then do a specific gravity test by weighing some , then drop it into a graduated flask part filled with water to check its volume

weight / volume should equal around 19 grams per cubic centimetre if its gold

hi heads up the rock was outside for a few weeks after i picked it up i also thought that if it was copper it would of tarnished and turned green. the parts on the rock are not soft at all almost like pyrite so it maybe that?

if you scratch it with a sharp pointy knife can you gouge it or scrape slivers off , or does it chip away like rock ?

Chalcopyrite doesn't tarnish like copper. Here is a pic of some.



As I said before if it was gold a chunk that big would be worth hundreds of thousands and it wouldn't be laying around all over the place.

DD

chips away i think digger dude hit the nail on the head thanks any way mate

Hey DD I was just about to put up the same pic

Cheers

Col

for sale one Garrett metal detector lol