While the builder was excavating our basement he uncovered some granite boulders with veins of quartz. When I washed off the boulders to use in landscaping I can see what appears to be gold in and around the quartz vein. Some of the gold is as large as my thumbnail. We live in an area of GA that is famous for the first gold strike in the United States. The boulders are quite heavy and are mostly granite.
2007-08-11 04:59:17 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Remove a small bit with a rock hammer or something similar and take it to your local jeweler. For about $5 to $10 s/he can tell you if it's gold and about how pure it is. Then you can worry about getting to the rest of it in the granite. It'd recommend a sledge hammer and forceps.
2007-08-11 05:07:20 · answer #1 · answered by Entropy 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Use a rock hammer to remove some. Take the sample in and have it tested. Then, assuming you do have gold, make darn sure you own the mineral right to the property your house sits on. Because if you dont and you sell the gold you can be sued for the money you make.
2007-08-11 16:48:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like iron pyrite.
Before spending any great effort, flake off a sample of the 'gold` with a cold chisel or something, put it on a hard surface and whack it with a hammer.
Gold will deform, pyrite will shatter.
( Eye Protection please.)
If it's pyrite, it will still look real nice in the garden.
2007-08-11 21:00:26 · answer #3 · answered by Irv S 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The most efficient way for your situation, though certainly the most dangerous and environmentaly unfriendly, is to crush it and use mercury to adhere to the gold and then boil off the mercury. NOT RECOMMENDED! Probably illegal.
2007-08-12 10:24:59 · answer #4 · answered by Keith G 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋