Minerals and gold
One group of questions I was asked grouped around how to find gold using the rocks and minerals it associates with. That reminded me of a great place you need to bookmark for your own use.
Mindat.org is now home to the world’s largest database of rocks and minerals. Not bad considering it was only started back in 2000. Anyway as a prospector you should bookmark it and make a habit of checking our various minerals associated with gold.
I created this short video on this topic to show you a few gold related minerals that I find helpful. More importantly will be for you to try the site to look up a few of your own, for example in this video I didn’t even look at quartz, so after the video is over go check out quartz for yourself.
Oh, and try their message board too, there’s some pretty helpful folks ready to steer you in the right direction to identify mysterious minerals that you find.
The rocks and minerals I look for when prospecting vary from site to site. A few useful ones related to gold are: Gold (of course), Pyrite (Iron), Chalcopyrite (copper), Hematite, Magnetite, Quartz, Arsenopyrite, Serpentine, Garnet, possibly even Corundum or Diamonds depending on regional geology.
That’s Mindat exposed…
Prospector Jess
P.S. When you’re done watching the video go check it out at Mindat.org