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Gold can be placed in the pores of Iron Pyrite, as it is in this gold formation at the Hidee Mine near Central City, Colorado, with visable copper To the non-scientific person, how gold is deposited can be a mystery waiting to be unlocked. An oversimplified attempt will be made to get your curiosity going to better sources. Not all gold is placed in its matrix (background rock) under molten conditions. Most of it is put into matrix fortmations using super heated steam and hot water solutions with sulphur, as it is at many of the mines in the Idaho Springs, Co. area. It can be placed in the pores of iron pyrite with a hot water solution, grow into massive crystaline structures in or with quartz , or shot into the rock in a super heated steam solution creating small crystalized gold formations in granite and quartz. Don't know about you, but those two concepts opened up a world of questions waiting to be answered. ______________________________ Those of you who take our newsletter have already been enjoying some of the pictures of different gold formations that we took at the Tuscon show this February as we were sizing the pictures of the gold and getting all of them ready to publish, in stages, to the website. There are about 20 in all that came out rather good, and some are down right astonishing! We took pictures of BIG gold, cases of gold, crystal gold formations, huge lumps of gold and even heard stories of the million dollar specimens of gold that were sold before the show they were to be at even opened. There were gold formation displays from all over, and everyone was very cooperative in letting us snap away. ___________________________ ___________________________ |
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AUSTRALIAN BIG BOY Gold "Nugget" courtesy of GOLD NUGGET EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIA This MASSIVE piece of gold is from down under in Australia. These gold formations that come from Australian often run 22 Karats in the gold content and is some of the most prized gold in the world as specimen pieces. Yes, that's me and the camera in the background. The mirrors that they used in this display made a great reflection of the back of the gold. I did get to catch an image of one of their pieces with the reflection of the back, underside, and sides that will be up at another time. Very impressive picture, if I do say so myself. Many of the gold formations in Australia come from what are know as "dikes" of quartz. As they weather away on the surface, the contained gold "floats" away and down the hill or mountain, just as it does anywhere else. When the "float" is located, a propsector then tries to locate the source of gold uphill from the float. After a dike is located, the prospector can spend several years chipping out the quartz to get to the gold still locked up in the formation. Needless to say, anyone who comes across one of these keeps the information pretty close to the vest. _____________________ |
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Huge Crystal Gold "Nugget" courtesy of GOLD NUGGET EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIA Can you imagine finding a piece like this with a metal detector? Any of you who are detectorists knows what I mean! Do ya think you might overload the coil? That's me and the camera in the backgorund snapping a picture of this piece of gold formed into crystals. You can use my fingers as a size reference. The owners of Gold Nugget Exports do their own hunting and had some wonderful stories of finding big nuggets in the outback. __________________________ |
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THE DRAGON! Some of the rarest forms of gold come in wires and crystaline shapes. Both types of gold can be substantial or feather light in their formation. Wires can be long and slender, stout or delicate enough to break apart at a touch. Crystaline forms can be pyramidal in shape or delicate wisps of glitter. The DRAGON! One of the most famous pieces from the Museum of Natural and Science in Houston, Tx., is a prime and magnificent example of crystal gold shown in all of its natural glory. Oddly enough, these crystaline shapes of gold are formed under geothermal conditions and not molten magma. "Geothermal" is hot and superheated water and steam where the gold has been dissolved in the water and then deposited into the rock as any other crystal is formed. Hot springs can often be found near these areas. ________________________
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Collection case of specimens from all over. This case gave us some reflection, but it contains so many different examples of gold formations, that we could not resist overloading the lens. It shows formations of crystal, wire, leaf, and massive nuggets of gold. The specimens were not all in the same matrix material, either, but were mainly out of quartz and granite. We have also seen gold run in limonite, blue limestone, sphalerite, as well as the more common quartz and granite. Greenstone is a common carrier of gold, and Canada has some gold in some very dense rocks as well. We took several of these pictures of different cases loaded with gold and will change them out every month or so until you have seen them all and we have more new pictres to share with you. __________________________
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COLLECTORS EDGE showed many of these large pieces of crystal gold from California Now here is a prime example of some of the very fine crystal gold that comes from California. Displayed by the Collectors Edge , they are showcased to take your breath away with the beauty of the formation. If this piece looks massive, it was. The hardest part of photographing these was to eliminate as much of the reflection of the light off the crystals so that you could actually see the gold. We do not use flash when we photograph as the gold reflects so much light it washes the piece out, and even so it was difficult to get the right amount of light in the lens to show the peice. The crystals in this piece are very large, with several types running in the same piece. You can see the begining of the pyramidal shape on the right side, ribs running along the middle, and the color or the gold is outstanding. __________________________ Copyright 2006. www.hookedongold.com Shirley Weilnau Join me for some fun and information on gold and prospecting in Colorado. If you are interested in using any of the copy on these pages or the pictures, use the taglines, and keep them in place. |
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Have you heard? about the crystalline gold (up to 4 kilos!) found in Latin America growing in the upper one or two feet of topsoil? It seems the trees take up the gold in the water they absorb from their roots and deposit it back into the soil when they die and decompose, leaving the gold to crystallize in the soft earth. SOOOO how much topsoil have YOU thrown off? |
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