Anyone familiar with mining?

Question

I try to do a little prospecting in my spare time and think I may have actually found something worth further investigation.

I found some basalt with what looks like veins of other volcanic rock intruding. There is some quartz at the borders of this and a sample under 30X magnification showed very small specks of gold.

Can't put photos on here but I have placed three potos of the rock formation on a forum:

http://howto.netmorale.com/viewtopic.php?p=139#139

I am interested in what you think of this. If it is worth further exploration, I may stake a claim!

Answer 1

I don't see any photos on the url you provided. It would be unusual, but not impossible, to have gold-bearing quartz in basalt like you have described.

You would need to assay some samples for gold to be sure if you have gold or not. I'm not sure what part of the world you are in, but some of the better commercial labs are:

www.omaclabs.com
www.acmelab.com
www.chemex.com

Also you could try the geology department of your local university.

For staking claims, regulations vary greatly from country to country. First you need to find out if anybody else has mineral rights for your prospect, and you also need to assess if gold mining is possible in your area, things like public support, infrastructure, and environmental regulations. Then you need to estimate how much gold (assuming it is in fact gold) you've got, its called tons and grade in the mining industry. That will cost millions of dollars, so its probably a good idea to stake the claims and look for a mining company to invest their money and pay you a lease or a royalty.

Good luck!

Answer 2

If you can afford it, stake the claim now. If not, it might be worth talking to a consultant (rates ~$500+/day). To know if your site is profitable takes modeling, sampling, and lots of time/money.

The thing to do is get someone with experience out there and check it out.