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 Post subject: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:50 am 
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Posts: 9
Location: South Africa
Hi there,

I have a type of gold dust which we discovered here in my home town, it is the colour of gold, it is small gold flakes, if I heat the flakes nothing happens, if I apply 80% acid on the flakes also nothing happen.what also happen when I leave it in the 80% acid for 24 hrs no results.

It cannot be copper right? otherwise it would of melted when I applied 1300 c on it, so I am so confused don't know what it is and I have plenty of the flakes.

Regards
Alex


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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:14 am 
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Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:11 pm
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Location: Moncton, Canada
Gold melts at 1064 degrees C. So it should have melted into a button long before 1300 C.

Cheers
Hans Durstling
Moncton, Canada

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:19 am 
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Location: North Carolina
Then again, heating also probably eliminates pyrite/fool's gold: because if you heat that stuff hot enough, you'll likely know (and likely regret it--the smell is terrible).

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:06 pm 
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Muscovite Mica?

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:05 pm 
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Conny Forsberg wrote:
Muscovite Mica?

My thought as well, Conny.

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:18 pm 
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Mine too -- it fooled me similarly once long ago except it wouldn't settle nicely with the black sand in the bottom of the pan.

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:47 pm 
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Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:11 pm
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Location: Moncton, Canada
Same thought here. Mica is one of the few golden looking things that might come through fire unscathed.

Also - as an aside - I was going to mention that in my first post but hesitated thinking well maybe I might be wrong, don't wanna make a fool of myself...you know. :) So all those voices suggesting mica is a pleasant confirmation. Of course we might ALL be wrong.

Cheers all
Hansagain
in Moncton Canada

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 Post subject: Re: Gold dust
PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 3:54 pm 
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gold look alikes:

most common natural ones: mainly pyrite, chalcopyrite, mica (which might all occur in a gold deposit btw)

artificial: industrial waste material such as brass and bronze

differences: malleability, density, hardness, solubility in nitric acid (dangerous acid!)

let's note that pyrite and chalcopyrite usually do not contain any gold, however auriferous pyrite and auriferous chalcopyrite (which contain a little gold as an impurity) do exist and can be extracted as a gold ore (then requiring chemical refining to extract the gold out of it, but that means processing tons of ore to recover only a single gram of gold)


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