15 replies to this topic

[Shooter Jim]

Hi Folks,
Just getting into hunting gold and such - come from a family of miners in Sutter Creek, CA and after 2 generations of no gold, I am picking it up!
So far, built a nice sluice box/rocker, but was wondering something...

I was told (I forget who told me) that raw gold will glow a greenish-yellow color when you shine ultraviolet light on it.

So far, my rudimentary tests reveal that this doesn't work - but, I was wondering if the specific frequency of the light may matter?

Can anyone shed some "light" on this possible myth?

Thanks,
Jim

[grubstake]

I've put a black light on lots of nuggets, and they just turn purple, I don't think you could use a black light to find gold, other minerals yes, Like tungsten, which is associated with gold, like in the Rand district, they mined tungsten, and on those big piles out there, you can get gold.Maybe Reno chris or Jim Striaght could chime in on that. Grubstake

[adam]

In most cases the gold will only reflect the color of the UV Lamp used. Even if it did work , you would have to work stricktly at night, and the UV lamp would have to be extreemly powerful (watts). I think you would have better luck training a dog to sniff out nuggets.

I do think in shallow creeks however, that thermal imaging may be used to find deep spots or crevaces possibly. I would only asume that these areas would be colder, and show up on the screen as such. In theory anyway

Probably best to stick with the tried & true methods of gold extraction.

[wyndham]

Gold no but Diamonds will have florescence at the right wave length and diamonds have been found in west coast areas. But do you want to walking around in the dark in the mountain streams????? Wyndham

[clay diggins]

Gold does not fluoresce. You might as well take a flash light so at least you can see what you stumbled over while prospecting in the dark.

If you are near the Wickenburg area you CAN find some of the worlds finest fluorescing minerals. The hard rock mines above the bugle boy claims on the Hassayampa River are the main source. A good specimen with three or more strong colors in a pleasing pattern has almost as much value as gold. In daylight these rocks are about as ordinary looking as you will ever see so night hunting is your only option. This entire area is under claim so make sure you have written permission before hunting.

clay
MinerDiggins

[Ebonbetta]

Gold does not fluoresce. You might as well take a flash light so at least you can see what you stumbled over while prospecting in the dark.

If you are near the Wickenburg area you CAN find some of the worlds finest fluorescing minerals. The hard rock mines above the bugle boy claims on the Hassayampa River are the main source. A good specimen with three or more strong colors in a pleasing pattern has almost as much value as gold. In daylight these rocks are about as ordinary looking as you will ever see so night hunting is your only option. This entire area is under claim so make sure you have written permission before hunting.

clay
MinerDiggins

In rand schelite will fluoresce <sp> gold might be in larger concentrations where more schlite is but i'm not real sure on that.

[dave wiseman]

Shooter Jim,Must be lot's of great books on gold and minerals at the Main Library in Jackson from what I've heard.Down the road in Angels Camp.

[New Beeper]

Shooter Jim,

I saw a Gold Fever show about this. Tom was on Rt. 66 by Oatman or there abouts. During a mine tour they showed a couple of high powered black lights shining on the mine wall. I believe the gold was right next to the green glowing mineral in this mine. You might call GPAA to get the show name, purchase the DVD or get info.

New Beeper

[dutch john]

Just a thought... As usual Grubestake is in the know... He moves fast and
cannot be caught by any "I Gotcha's"

Scheelite fluoresces under a shortwave lamp. It also has a sp gravity of 6
and as a placer can be recovered drywashing or a concentating table.

For those in the know both placer gold and placer scheelite can be
recovered by drywashing. The placers can be traced by following the
scheelite fluorescene. This has been done in Arizona, Nevada, and
elsewhere on large scale operations.

Tailgate

[Shooter Jim]

To All:
Thanks so much for all the replies - you confirmed my gut instinct that gold, by itself, would not appear a different, glowing color.

It could be that the person who told me was eluding the idea of gold intermixed with quartz or other crystals that might show up with heavy UV as noted in the mine explanation by New Beeper.

I really appreciate your help and bits of information.

I do have a dog - maybe I can train him to sniff out the gold.

[i'm a Congress...man]

Hi Jim,
There is a fellow adventuer on youtube who has a bunch of videos doing all kinds of hunting.

His "Finding Gold" Series on youtube^-------video number 5 shows him lighting up some gemstones with a blacklight.....rubies, diamonds? Etc....no gold tho

He has some neat videos, one I like is in idaho or somewhere...found opal size of footballs!!!

Good hunting!

Paul

[Ebonbetta]

Just a thought... As usual Grubestake is in the know... He moves fast and
cannot be caught by any "I Gotcha's"

Scheelite fluoresces under a shortwave lamp. It also has a sp gravity of 6
and as a placer can be recovered drywashing or a concentating table.

For those in the know both placer gold and placer scheelite can be
recovered by drywashing. The placers can be traced by following the
scheelite fluorescene. This has been done in Arizona, Nevada, and
elsewhere on large scale operations.

Tailgate

my understanding is that it fluresces blue.

[Reno Chris]

Fluorescence is an interesting effect. As mentioned, gold does not fluoresce.

Scorpions fluoresce a green color.

Scheelite fluoresces a near white color - pale blue might be observed in some specimens.

Not all diamonds fluoresce - only some do.

A lot of radioactive minerals fluoresce, but not all.

Some forms of calcite, fluorite and halite do, but not all by any means.

Chris

[dutch john]

The color of scheelite can vary under a ultraviolet short-wave lamp. Both "Ebonbetta" and "Reno Chris" are correct. From blue to yellow and also white. As I mention in my latest book; "Three hours to gold from southern California" the scheelite that has beem mined both as hard rock and placer at Atolia (on pg 36) floresces white under the short wave.

Back a few years ago I was able to short-wave a number of core samples of scheelite from the Atolia tungsten mining district. Actually the scheelite at Atolia is known as being high-grade and was first mined during the "Great War" as WW-1 was known (1914-1918).

By the way, since this is being posted on Rob's forum; Rob is selling copies of "Three Hours to gold from southern california" on his website... The book is printed on a full color laser printer and the sub-title is "metal detecting for eoloian and eluvial placer using vlf and pi-type detectors within the randsburg quadrangle and outlying districts.

Jim Straight

[Ebonbetta]

The color of scheelite can vary under a ultraviolet short-wave lamp. Both "Ebonbetta" and "Reno Chris" are correct. From blue to yellow and also white. As I mention in my latest book; "Three hours to gold from southern California" the scheelite that has beem mined both as hard rock and placer at Atolia (on pg 36) floresces white under the short wave.

Back a few years ago I was able to short-wave a number of core samples of scheelite from the Atolia tungsten mining district. Actually the scheelite at Atolia is known as being high-grade and was first mined during the "Great War" as WW-1 was known (1914-1918).

By the way, since this is being posted on Rob's forum; Rob is selling copies of "Three Hours to gold from southern california" on his website... The book is printed on a full color laser printer and the sub-title is "metal detecting for eoloian and eluvial placer using vlf and pi-type detectors within the randsburg quadrangle and outlying districts.

Jim Straight

Any way to contack rob directly I want his book NOW . *-) by the way Ithink his site is down temproily unless I had the wrong link.

[clay diggins]

Any way to contack rob directly I want his book NOW . *-) by the way Ithink his site is down temproily unless I had the wrong link.

Contact Rob

Rob's Detector Sales
Surprise, AZ
Call Today - (623) 362-1459, Business - Message Line
Email - auplacers@yahoo.com

clay
MinerDiggins