More Black Gold Nuggets ....

[nuggethunting]

Hello All,

This weekend Doc, another partner and I were able to do some detecting. We managed to find these Black Gold nuggets from a place in Central, AZ. Black Nuggets like these are not real common and are coated with a Maganese Oxide. All nuggets were found with the Minelab GPX-4500's and Coiltek Goldstalker searchcoils. I have yet to find a real big Black Nugget, but hoping one of these days I can score a 1+ ounce one. Biggest to date is a 3.5 Dwter.

Here is a short Youtube video of the Black Nuggets -

Here is a picture of the Black Gold.

Take care,

Rob Allison

[chaderly]

Those black nuggets are really cool to see. I am sure it is only a matter of time before you guys find a 1+oz black nugget.

[adam]

Could you be a little more specific other than Central Arizona ?? Nice ones guys !

[nuggethunting]

Hey Guys,

Haderly - I just want to see what a big Black one would look like (did that sound right?).

Adam - How about Yavapai County?

Take care,

Rob Allison

[grubstake]

Hey Rob, just spray paint a one ozer black, that will give you a good ideal of what they look like. Ugly Grubstake

[Uncle Ron]

Yo Rob...Nice scores...The manganese comes off fairly easily with chemicals...We used to find them up Compressor Gulch off of Eddy Gulch off of the Salmon River in California....Most were fair sized and butt ugly... Lot of half and one ozers...But that was back in the day with big equipment and running 3,500 GPM on the Ross Box Sluice...Cheers, Unc

[AZNuggetBob]

Hey Rob, Nice finds. Dilute Sulfuric cleans off the black magnesium pretty good but why not leave it. Nice species. I've only found black coated nuggets in two places. both places in Az, once in Yavapai. best one was a 3/4 sittin on top of a boulder in a crevice with gravel, it was a looker but didn't see it until I swung over it. It was one of the few lookers (sun bakers) Ive found. All were found in granites not schist or gneiss, may have someting to do with the black coating? It was black on the sunny side and gold on the bottom. I cleaned it, probably should have left it the way it was? anyway Take care hope you find some big ones, AzNuggetBob

[FlakMagnet]

Very interesting...

Flak

[nuggethunting]

Hello Guys,

Yes, the "black" does come off pretty easy if you want it to. However, I prefer to keep the black on the gold. You don't find a bunch of black nuggets, so I prefer to keep them in their nature state more for a conversation piece(s). I have a Geologist friend that wants to figure out where the black gold is coming from.

Take care,

Rob Allison

[Terry Soloman]

You would think they would be more desirable as a collectable with the black coating. I've never seen one, and I think it is pretty cool! Thank's for sharing Rob! - Terry

Hello Guys,

Yes, the "black" does come off pretty easy if you want it to. However, I prefer to keep the black on the gold. You don't find a bunch of black nuggets, so I prefer to keep them in their nature state more for a conversation piece(s). I have a Geologist friend that wants to figure out where the black gold is coming from.

Take care,

Rob Allison

[~LARGO~]

You would think they would be more desirable as a collectable with the black coating. I've never seen one, and I think it is pretty cool! Thank's for sharing Rob! - Terry

Hi all, I agree with Terry and Ron, leaving them au naturale... After cleaning the one I found at Rye Patch, I then was sorry I had not cleaned half of it, or just a "window" so the gold within would show through. As it turned out, the piece was very nice, but one would never know how it looked beforehand.

~LARGO~

[wyndham]

Nice Nugs,

I seem to remember a show on TV about underwater hydro-thermal vents that put out minerals like Manganese as Black Smokers. This also made me think about the idea that some have about growing gold in this hydro/geo thingy. There was a fellow that had a gold mine in Southern Calif where Manganese is mined. After he died, BLM dozed the claim.

Just a few thoughts about the stuff. Wyndham

[nuggethunting]

Hello Wyndham,

These "Black Nuggets" are coming from a regional sringer vein in the immediate area. Actually, there are many "horsetail" stringer veins running across this hillside shedding nuggets, specimens and the

Black Gold.

If my memory serves me right, the "Lost Pegleg Placers" are in Southern California. The "Black Nuggets" are not real common, but I have found them in difference Arizona gold districts. This particular area seems to have much more than I have seen in any other district I have prospected.

Several months ago I had a GPX-4500 customer out in this area with me. He said he found a nice one around a Dwt or so, but didn't realize it was gold and tossed it back into the creek. We both tried to search for it, but neither of us were able to locate it. The customer (not knowing) tossed it back into an area loaded with iron rubbish.

Take care,

Rob Allison