Under The Microscope - New Brunswick Placer Gold
Over the holidays, I've been lucky enough to obtain a small microscope which is capable of taking digital photos of placer gold - black sands and rocks in general. I've had some fun with it and have a few photos I'll to start things off. The photos below are of placer gold obtained in New Brunswicks streams, some of which show features that could lead the finder to believe that the source is close by. For reference the squares in the photo are 5mm x 5mm so each gold grain is between 2-4 mm in size.
As you can see above the gold grains differ in shape with the flatter gold indicating a further distance traveled. The middle grain with the hackly shape and relatively native surface indicates that the grain hasn't travelled as far as its partners. Below I've posted a couple more pictures of the grains for your enjoyment! I will get around to posting some more photos of grains and heavy mineral concentrates in the near future.
