Gold is often found in pieces of quartz.
Gold was first found in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1849. Throughout the Appalachian region, gem hunters find gold embedded in quarts veins. Quartz is made when certain minerals reach a liquid state through heating, then re-form into crystals. Gold is a byproduct of quartz creation. Although the largest gold-in-quartz deposits in Maryland are typically not accessible to a novice, placer deposits can yield small quantities of gold and are easier to find. Placer deposits form as erosion occurs; quartz and gold are washed down into streams where they can be found.
Instructions
1. Learn to recognize the appearance of quartz. Quartz crystals can vary greatly in appearance, but are generally hexagonal prisms that are nearly or completely translucent.
2. Choose a location where gold finds have been reported by searching online or speaking to an expert. While most gold mines are no longer in production, you are more likely to find gold if you search in a location where hunters previously found gold in quartz. Reports of gold exist in the counties of Montgomery, Frederick, Carroll, Howard, Baltimore. Great Falls, Maryland and its surrounding area has the highest reported gold yield in the state.
3. Visit a site at the bottom of a hill or mountain that contains an outcropping of quartz. An example of a good location is one that has slow-moving water due to sandbars or large rocks. Gold that has eroded from the mountain above will wash downhill and settle into the bottom of the stream. Small streams such as Rock Run near Great Falls in Montgomery County are ideal locations for finding gold in quartz in a creek bed.
4. Pan for small pieces of gold attached to disintegrating pieces of quartz by using established panning techniques as taught by an expert or learned through research. You may also search the bed of the river and the surrounding ground for larger quartz rocks that have broken free from the mountain or hill. Break the quartz with a hammer to ascertain if it contains gold.
Tags: find gold, from mountain, Great Falls, location where, Montgomery County, pieces quartz
