Black Gold Nuggets - Non-Typical Deposit


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Research on Black Gold Nuggets

 

 

 

 

Hello All,

 

 

 

 

 

I might have posted some of these Black Gold Nuggets in the past. These are non-typical gold nuggets, coated with a manganese oxide type coating and combination with rare bacteria growing on them. Will be interesting to find out more at some point about them, but all the years I have hunted for gold, never found Black Gold Nuggets beyond the stories about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you're out there detecting, make sure you examine your finds good enough to make sure you're not tossing out Black Gold Nuggets!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Hunting,

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Allison

 

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I guess I've lead a sheltered life because this is a first for me to see anything like that. I will make note of nuggets can be another color other than gold . I've seen nuggets with some iron oxide but never covered up complete.

Thanks Rob for the heads up on this. It just shows we can always learn something new. I can't tell my wife about this because she thinks I know everything . If I do I'll let her down easy. Ha

Chuck Anders

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Hey Guys,

I just wanted to clarify these are not "gold in ironstone" specimens, these are solid gold nuggets coated in Manganese oxide. There is also a bacteria that is creating this coating I believe that is actually alive. I can't say too much more right now as the pieces are being researched. The bacteria only grown and thrives in non-light bearing areas that are damp.

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Man all the nuggies I have pulled I have yet to snag a coated one, plenty of iron specimens they should always grab a good penny though. I wouldn't mind buying a small one for my desk collection :)

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Rob there are old stories of a deposit of these black coated nuggets being found between Gila bend and yuma. the nuggets were discovered by accident as sun bakers, no detector. I have searched for this deposit several times in the past. and when tested they were reported to be coated with Manganese oxide and jet black on the outside. I found one at Rich Hill that weighed about 3/4 oz. the funny thing was it was sitting half exsposed (sun baker right on top of a 5' high 10' long birthing granite boulder) in a nitch with sand and gravel. I could see it but didn't realize it was gold until I flipped it over digging it. gold on the bottom half, black on the top? wish I had a photo. one thing I will say is I spent a lot of time trying to remove the black to sell it. live and learn. AzNuggetBob

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While on-tour in Western Australia a friend, Colin, found a black rock that was heavy but appeared to be iron stone...he started to give it a throw and I asked to see it...after handling for a bit I broke it open and inside was a solid gold nuggget...the iron stone was like an egg shell...he was sure happy that I broke the shell!!!

fred

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Here's a little bit, just 1 g, that I kept from that throw out heap. They find gold up to several ounces or more totally coated black in Qld at a field called Canoona. Mate found one there 2 ounces and his mate got one 10 ounces. Jet black. Sorry my pictures didn't come out as clear as I thought they looked.

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post-66415-0-70922400-1396228476_thumb.j

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Yeah Rob. I had a few of these, one was 11 g but I only kept that small one. The 11g was from a different spot but the same type of deposit. I got onto those spots years after detectors had been released so who knows how much of that stuff the old boys threw out and the first guys to detect them found. Im guessing a fair bit. I know the guys from QLD at Canoona found heaps of them.

Lime away, never heard of that one, im guessing its a good cleaner though!

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Rob there are old stories of a deposit of these black coated nuggets being found between Gila bend and yuma. the nuggets were discovered by accident as sun bakers, no detector. I have searched for this deposit several times in the past. and when tested they were reported to be coated with Manganese oxide and jet black on the outside. I found one at Rich Hill that weighed about 3/4 oz. the funny thing was it was sitting half exsposed (sun baker right on top of a 5' high 10' long birthing granite boulder) in a nitch with sand and gravel. I could see it but didn't realize it was gold until I flipped it over digging it. gold on the bottom half, black on the top? wish I had a photo. one thing I will say is I spent a lot of time trying to remove the black to sell it. live and learn. AzNuggetBob

Bob, i spent a fair amount of time around Yuma and Gila Bend looking for those black nuggets. That was 20 years ago. I never found them.

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Bob, i spent a fair amount of time around Yuma and Gila Bend looking for those black nuggets. That was 20 years ago. I never found them.

So did I Jim.

I never did find them either.
They were supposed to be laying on almost flat ground.
according to the stories they were reported to be very large and smooth. could be from ancient placers. I like to spend some of my time tracking down old stories of little known gold deposits. based on all the replies here black nuggets can be found worldwide. now if we can just figure out what causes them it may it a little easier to track them down. based on the info I found they are very, very old and may contain more mercury or be higher in magnesium than most nuggets on average. I know that some clean easily and some are very difficult to clean so they may be created by two completely different processes?
There are some great looking examples here on this thread. AzNuggetBob
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I have found some black nuggets, one in particular was pure black, I thought it was a hot rock, but good thing I scraped it off with my finger, and then I saw the gold. I soaked it in CLR, and it was nice and shiny. Here is a pic of a good day out in Gold Basin with meteorites, old coins, and gold. The nugget in the lower left corner is covered in black.

post-314-0-50435600-1396371930_thumb.jpg

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  • 7 years later...

Hello I don't know if anyone will respond back to me but worth a shot any way . So I was out on my property near baker city Oregon and I'm a rock hounder and gold seeker. So I decided to look up a geo map of water ways and river beds and I found an old one that ran through my property. So I started digging and when I dug about 8 inch down I found something black off shaped and heavy ..it was covered in a blackish burnt coating and when I heated it up it and took the heat off it it would display very vibrant colors. So after about 4 heat ups I noticed a gold color coming through ..and that's when I realized this looks exactly like gold. So after all said I have found a 29.5gram nugget and a 18.7 gram nugget and I was wondering what I might be worth 

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