Hot rocks. Worth keeping and crushing?

Just wondering if it is worth keeping, crushing then panning hot rocks just in case they contain gold or is it a waste of time? Seems a sin not to keep something that gives a good signal.

Sorry Ive posted this topic in the wrong section. :N: can it be moved?

Only one way to find out. Crush it, pan it

Pan for sure.

Thanks for the advice. Better make a dolly pot out of something then.

Instead of keeping them the easiest way to tell if they have gold (with no gold visible) is give them a whack with the back of your pick head when you find one that gives a signal.
You'll find that when smashed into smaller bits the signal will disappear or if one section contains gold a good solid signal will remain in a specific bit.
IMO unless there are visible gold specks or pickers encased in it then you'd need to take home a truckload of hot rocks to make crushing & panning off fine gold worthwhile. The vast majority only signal due to their other metallic mineral content not due to gold.

Hi mbasko beg to differ. Depends on area you are in. Found 1 Rock size of a football. Couldn't see gold , sdc only made a little change. The only reason I stopped. Then crushed it got 10 grams of 30mesh down to 100mesh So it's worth having couple beers banging away to see a result. Ward69.

Sounds more like a piece of throwaway gold bearing reef not what most would call a "hotrock" as such? Nice find though & well worth taking home to crush up :Y:
Mate of mine had also found a large lump of quartz that gave a faint signal & had it in his garden. He got several grams out of it to from memory & I've found a heap of fist sized or bigger rocks + quartz that had signals with no visible gold that I've had various yields from but I never thought to classify them in with "hotrocks". Have seen good gold come out of large lumps of conglomerate too.
Maybe I've got a different interpretation of what a hotrock is? I'd more class then as nuisance or problematic rocks known to an area (commonly ironstone can cause problems & in some areas basalts & so on). Some hotrocks can contain gold & I've found a lot of ironstone/gold speccis so never dismiss them entirely. I wouldn't class a football sized piece of rock a hotrock unless the area I was detecting had a common occurrence of them causing nuisance signals. Certainly a one off find like that wouldn't come under hotrocks but I might be wrong in my thinking.

Guess it depends on what area you are in?
I kept about 10 or so hotrocks from my area, from cricket ball size to 5c piece size.
They were all similar in color, all gave a reasonable signal, none contained any gold.

If it sticks to your magnet its a hot rock and throw it away..If a rock needs the coil to be almost touching it to get a signal it will be a hot rock , just check how loud even the smallest is in comparison and you will realise that there aint not gold there..Usually you can see the gold in a speci..

I've had ironstone speccis that were mildly magnetic but have seen others stuck on:
http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/938-hot-rock-gold-or-both/
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17150
A lot of speccis I've found had no visible gold until I smashed 'em up. Don't throw anything until you at least give it a whack & re-check it.

Thanks for all the input everyone. When the day comes that Im home for work before dark Ill be outside with the hammer.

A hot rock is a highly mineralised rock that does not contain any gold.

A specimen is a host rock that contains gold.

So you cannot have a hot rock that has gold in it end of story.

And all this time I thought 'hot rocks' were what was happening to me every time I got chatting with the cutie at the tobacco shop.
(The thought of them being crushed makes my eyes water.)

LOL Mike. And Peko you sound right as does everyone else. It seems to me after reading everyones input that the only way to be sure it doesnt contain gold is to crack it and see.

Try this on your detector

you should get a signal while pushing gold to the coil but not drawing it away quickly
A hot rock will not give a signal pushing to the coil but will signal when drawing away quickly
This works for me on the gm1000 and whites tdi sl
Certainly saves smashing rocks all day!

Smash em and see what you get :Y: It's all part of the learning process