What Do Real Gold Flakes Look Like

Gold look very different than most other minerals but many people still confuse it.

What do real gold flakes look like. Pyrite will usually break along crystal faces so it tends to be very blocky looking like tiny dice. Fool s gold and other minerals that look like gold will not produce a weight difference between the pieces of quartz. In this video you will learn about gold bearing rock identification. Most specimens of pyrite found in nature will have at least some tarnish on their surface.

If you look closely at the piece and see that its structure consists of what looks like small and sharp cubes then it is fool s gold. Gold will look either rounded or sometimes flat. 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. Most people have no idea what to look for and even if they do find gold they might throw it out accidentally.

Real gold in nature can come in many different forms not just as gold nuggets. Gold panning whether it s professional or recreational is supposed to yield gold flakes and nuggets washed out of the soil. If the grains are large enuf to see with a good. Nuggets or small flakes of gold are usually bright and untarnished.

What does gold ore really look like. I am using a light source to show the difference between gold which shines and pyrite which sparkles. Many of these flakes also show some riming or an icy coating. What does natural raw gold look like in rocks.

A new high speed three camera system developed at the university of utah made these pictures as the snowflakes fell. Pyrite has a brassy color. Gold has a golden to yellow color. If you look at this picture you will see a gold ring next a couple of different kinds of gold naturally occurring in their rock.

Placer gold roughly 75 to 95 percent real gold comes in a variety of shapes and sizes from small flakes to large bumpy nuggets. Most native gold is alloyed with silver and if the silver content is high enough the specimen will have a whitish yellow color. It can also be crystalline mixed with quartz fine flakes and dust. Real gold weighs about 1 5 times more than fool s gold or iron pyrite.

However just because it looks like gold and is in the same place as gold doesn t mean that it s gold.