Small Gold Nuggets

[Xander]

Looking for advice. 

Would their be a method for testing if this is Gold? I have been offered 11 oz.

 

[Derv]

Aqua regia !?

[Xander]

1 minute ago, Derv said:

Aqua regia !?

Is it accurate. The only tester I have used is the sigma.  

[Derv]

It's more for melting as opposed to testing sorry

[Xander]

Just now, Derv said:

It's more for melting as opposed to testing sorry

Ok, no worries, I just have to be sure its genuine, the seller doesn't know himself.

[Derv]

I initially thought it had a pyrite look to it , pure guessing though. Colour looks ok 

[Derv]

Are we looking at 11oz in picture?

[Xander]

2 minutes ago, Derv said:

Are we looking at 11oz in picture?

No, that's a small sample magnified. 

[Notafront4adragon]

Nitric acid test a random small piece you don't wanna see any green. There are kits you can buy, definitely worth the £40 investment. You could also test using a ceramic plate, being nuggets I would test a few random ones. 

I believe you could also use vinegar and look for a colour change. 

Best test, if it's too cheap it's not real.

[Xander]

11 minutes ago, Notafront4adragon said:

You could also test using a ceramic plate,

How is this done? Thanks for your advice.

[Xander]

1 hour ago, Derv said:

I initially thought it had a pyrite look to it , pure guessing though. Colour looks ok 

I read up on pyrite, Scary, difficult to tell though. 

[Notafront4adragon]

29 minutes ago, Xander said:

How is this done? Thanks for your advice.

You run the gold across unglazed ceramic with a little pressure, it should leave a gold trail, not conclusive by any means just a quick test.

[Xander]

1 minute ago, Notafront4adragon said:

You run the gold across unglazed ceramic with a little pressure, it should leave a gold trail, not conclusive by any means just a quick test.

Sounds good, I'll give it a go. Cheers.

[dicker]

Hi Xander

Personally, I would want it melted into a bar and then  tested professionally.

I think the manner in which it is being offered and the price will also give you some indication about its genuineness....I think you have been around a long time but there are many convincing scams that use samples as bait.

I am not a nugget expert but those I have seen for sale are less angular than the ones in your pic.  
 

Best

Dicker. 

[cornishrich]

Could try panning them if possible like the old timers,  pyrite will wash away with no effort at all compared to gold,  bit of dish soap to break the water tension helps

[Xander]

2 hours ago, dicker said:

I am not a nugget expert but those I have seen for sale are less angular than the ones in your pic.  
 

When it comes to nuggets I'm also not much of an expert. My local jeweler is closed until further notice or I would have taken them to him, he's quite trustworthy.

Lots of good advice on the forum though.

Cheers.

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Added 0 minutes later...

7 minutes ago, cornishrich said:

Could try panning them if possible like the old timers,  pyrite will wash away with no effort at all compared to gold,  bit of dish soap to break the water tension helps

I'll give that a try. Thanks.

[CosmikDebris]

My local jeweller has an XRF machine, charges me £3 a coin or less if I take a few at once. You could find someone local to yourself. 

[Notafront4adragon]

How much are they asking per oz?

[DBCooper]

Just my two pennies worth.

Im not an expert on nuggets. But I have seen and brought and sold a fair bit of Raw gold in Australia the Philippines and West Africa over the years 

IMHO firstly the colour looks mighty wrong to me for pure raw Gold, way to light and silvery in colour. Although pictures can be deceptive? and raw gold can be mixed with other materials in deposits. Also gold recovered with the assistance of mercury in illegal artisan mining operations in the third world forms a solid Amalgamate with the mercury that is a similar colour to the material you are being offered. Although Amalgamate tends to be seen in soft rounded lumps or pock marked, stringy in structure much like a ball of chewing gum due to the physics of how the amalgamate forms during the recovery process.

A nugget by definition is gold that has come from a placer deposit which means that at some point in the preceding thousands / millions of years since it was formed in a reef. The gold has been weathered and washed out of the gold bearing quartz. Then moved by water/ ice  in some shape or form into a placer deposit. To be found as a nugget or a picker. Gold as we all know is soft and therefore when weathered and water washed has rounded edges and nuggets are usually very soft, rounded and splatter like in appearance . IMO Those lumps in your photos are way to sharp edged and angular to ever have been moved by water. therefore IF and its a mighty big IF they are actually gold rather than pyrite. The material in question must have been found somewhere in a gold bearing quartz reef during a hard rock mining operation. Although most!  reef gold also looks ribbon like feathery or stringy in structure, not sharp edged and lumpy like the above material.  For somebody to have 11 oz's of material from a hard rock mining operation freely for sale rather, than have found it in a placer deposit is possibly questionable ? although maybe not impossible ?

Pyrite crystals are often found in the same quartz bearing structures as gold, as well as in other many other Quartz rocks. Making pyrite about  ten thousand times more common than gold. Pyrite often forms square, angular shaped, sharp edged crystals very much like the above pictures  Most of the white quartz bearing Granite's that make up the Cairngorm's and other areas of the northern UK have lots and lots of pyrite formed in the Quartz  which in my limited experience looks very much like what you are being offered for sale.

The only way to be sure, is to get the material tested / assayed properly however I would be very very suspicious Just from the look of what you have.

I think it is pyrite crystals personally. 

As others have said few easy quick tests if you have the material to hand and you cant get it tested professionally

1 Chuck it in a gold pan with some other material dirt / black sand and or lead shot or small fishing weights and try panning it out carefully, pyrite is a lot lighter than gold, black sand or lead and will pan out ahead of any black sand or lead 

2 Try melting a sample gold melts fairly easily,  pyrite crystals tend to shatter when heat applied to them

3 Smack a sample hard with a heavy hammer on a solid metal plate, gold / amalgamate will flatten out as its soft and pliable where pyrite will tend to shatter.

4 Take a small thin flake and push a needle point into it  firmly Gold will deform around the needle point where pyrite will either resist the point or shatter.

 

Regards 

DB 

[Xander]

8 hours ago, Notafront4adragon said:

How much are they asking per oz?

I don't know yet. Holding out on me.

[Xander]

40 minutes ago, DBCooper said:

I think it is pyrite crystals personally 

Thanks for that detailed analysis, it answered a lot of questions. I would say that was fine expert advice.👍

[SilverSlug]

I'll second what @DBCooper said. Doubt it's gold. Iron pyrite most likely.

[dicker]

Great write up from @DBCooper

@Xander Are there any “telltale” signs that they might be dodgy?  I certainly don’t want to pry but there are so many good scams out there it might be interesting to know how the offer came  about.  
 

Best

Dicker

[Xander]

28 minutes ago, dicker said:

Great write up from @DBCooper

@Xander Are there any “telltale” signs that they might be dodgy?  I certainly don’t want to pry but there are so many good scams out there it might be interesting to know how the offer came  about.  
 

Best

Dicker

He just said he acquired it, that's the reason I asked for advice. It's one of those situations, will I wont I, I think I will pass on this occasion unless it can be 100% verified. 

I agree, that was great advice from DBCooper.

[Derv]

 

I suppose depending on what they are asking for it , and your measure of want (value) may determine if it's worth further pursuit. Is there not a basic math formula on gold for a given measurement and weight , obviously knowing the purity helps. Basic acid test as mentioned to determine purity first!?