Is this Gold? Newbie here =)

Hi, im a newbie and went out for my first day detecting and panning. Came accross some nice flakes in the creek but didnt have much luck with the detector. One thing i did come accross with a very strong signal was this rock in the pictures attached. After cracking it open, i found the shiny gold inside. Now im not sure if it is gold or not, and was wondering if anyone knows what it is? or how can i tell if its gold or not?..

Thanks =)

hi,the easy way to tell is scrape some off the rock and try and crush a little of it with a knife..if it crushes it is not gold,it will either be one of many things like MICA or PYRITE etc.If it is gold it will be MALLABLE .just like a very hard PLASTICENE ,you can cut gold with a knife very easily but gold DOES NOT CRUSH...hope that helps you with some basic info.........
cheers......................Trev....

G'day luv_fishn

All of what Trev says in the post above, plus if it's giving a signal on your detector, its either heavy mineralisation or metal/gold.

Did the piece you broke off this rock in the pic also give a signal? If not and the one in the pic does, keep breaking bits off and keep checking for a signal, if one bit keeps giving a signal and the other bits don't then it is most probably metal/gold perhaps in the remaining piece.

cheers dave

Hi Trev,
I tried what you said and scratched off a little bit, then tried crushing it with a knife and it cracked into small pieces and seemed rather brittle instead of mallable. Therefore it must'nt be gold, damn! lol

Hi Dave
The other bits which broke apart all contained the gold substance and its quite hard to seperate. In the last pic, the darker brown colour is only a very thin layer, and when i scrape it with a knife it has that gold colour underneath. I may try breaking it into small pieces to test out but as trev said Gold should be mallable and this isnt.

Oh well looks like ill keep at it then hey Theres definetly gold in the area! Thanks for the info gents, much appreciated!

@luvfishn
Hi Trev,
I tried what you said and scratched off a little bit, then tried crushing it with a knife and it cracked into small pieces and seemed rather brittle instead of mallable. Therefore it must'nt be gold, damn! lol
..
thats just the way it goes with things sometimes,Better luck on the next lot ,and wish you well..
cheers ...........Trev....

Obviously its pyrite
fools gold


Bob

Alaskan bob wrote:Obviously its pyrite
fools gold
Bob

X two

Peter

Thanks for the info Trev, much appreciated mate!!

Bob and Peter, you guys are legends X two