Using ultraviolet light to "see" gold?


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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

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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

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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. :lol:

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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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. :lol:

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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  • 4 years later...

:) :) :)... Gosh it is fun to find an old thread-post such as this... And a sneaky way to advertise that

that Rob carrys my books and Reno Chris Ralph advertises his wares.... jim

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Thanks Grubstake as you have been there and in the know. Scheelite an ore of tungsten has been found

in commercial quantities as both hardrock and placer at Atolia and in the Stringer district as narrow scheelite

placers associated with gold.

At Atolia the deposit occurs in an area about two miles long and 500/foot wide. The scheelite at Atolia fluoresces

white under the shortwave lamp. In some areas the placers were slangly known as "spuds" ie. (potato-size).

Both as placer, the gold and scheelite are associated and the values can be recovered by drywashers.

It is interesting to note that extensive alluvial arroyo stream channels have carried both placer scheelite and

gold values south-easterly across Hwy 395 outside the Stringer district onto the St Elmo claim.

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Hi all,

Thanks to my good friend Chris Ralph for the info on scorpions and black lights.

One other thing that he did overlook, 'cause I know he knows, was the fact that if you just happen to be
sitting around chatting with your friends, having a cold drink on a dark desert night,
combined with cracking salted peanuts in the shell, that dropping a peanut on the ground, you can locate it with your black light, IF you have one.

I am not sure how it all of these things correlate, but they seem to.

Kinda cool, this science stuff...

Largo

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Largo... Ultra-violet Products have a book relating to what can be seen on a black lamp. The long

wave and the short wave/one or both can be displayed and it is a wonderous world but must be in

a darkened world... As Reno Chris knows other bugs and insects are seen on a darkened night.

Largo... Great you have posted and I hope all is good with you and yours... tailgate

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Another interesting recent development is that they now have LEDs that emit ultraviolet light. In the old days when I first got into prospecting, Ultraviolet lamps were expensive, heavy things that had special batteries which were costly and not rechargeable. Now you can get a simple flashlight with UV LEDs that runs standard batteries and is cheap.

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That's true, Chris...unfortunately, they don't have a true short wave LED light.....only long wave. The good side of that is that most gems that respond to UV respond to LW light. The downside is that more general minerals respond to SW. I use a "Way Too Cool" 18 watt dual light uinit, and it is a heavy bugger when used on a wand. Have to use a shoulder harness with it.

Jim

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  • 2 weeks later...

Everyone have a safe Memorial Day... jim

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