Real gold weighs about 1. 5 times more than fool’s gold, or iron pyrite. Fool’s gold and other minerals that look like gold will not produce a weight difference between the pieces of quartz. In fact, the piece with gold-colored particles inside may even be lighter than your other piece of quartz if the gold is not real.
Refrigerator magnets may not be strong enough for the gold test. Purchase a stronger magnet, or earth magnet, at a home improvement store.
You can use any piece of broken glass or mirror for this test. Just be sure to use something that you don’t mind scratching. Real gold is extremely soft; in fact, it’s soft enough that it can be turned into a foil. [4] X Expert Source Sam Lagor, MScGeologist Expert Interview. 7 October 2021.
Try the back of a loose bathroom or kitchen tile for this test. Most ceramic dishes are glazed, so they won’t work for testing the gold.
Real gold will not be affected by the acid, but other gold-look alike materials will dissolve or become damaged. You can use more potent acids which may work faster, but these would require extra caution and safety measures. Vinegar is a safe acid to use at home.
The crushing and panning method will destroy your piece of quartz. Make sure you’re okay with destroying your quartz before starting crushing and panning.
If you end up breaking off larger pieces that are only quartz, you can separate these out and focus only on the areas that have gold-colored particles.
Empty the water with lighter quartz powders into a different container by tipping the gold pan slightly and set this aside to dispose of later. You may have to repeat this step multiple times to get the gold to settle at the bottom. Have patience! If the gold-colored dust never settles to the bottom, and instead rises to the top of the gold pan with the other quartz powder, unfortunately it was not real gold to begin with.
If you have other pieces of black sand in the bottom of your pan mixed with your gold dust, use a strong magnet to separate those out from the gold before putting the gold into a vial.
Gold has been historically mined in certain areas of the U. S. west coast and Rocky Mountains, Australia, South America, and central Europe.
If you find gold in quartz in nature, use a geology hammer and sledge to break open the quartz and potential gold bearing rocks. [13] X Research source Be sure you have permission from the land owner to remove rocks from the property before doing this. Don’t trespass on land without written permission by the owner.
Some metal detectors have a specific gold setting, so if you’re looking to buy a metal detector specifically for gold, try to find one that has this setting built in.
