>>2355971Hard rock gold (free milling gold) is best searched for around auriferous quartz veins. Not every white quartz vein carried gold, but quick tell tale signs it might carry values are the following.
1) cavities or decomposed iron
gold is indestructible in nature, but the other minerals that it appears with often are not, look for cavities in the quartz, especially square ones or holes filled with rust. Visible pyrite or other metallic mineralization is also a good sign but not always an indicator for gold.
2) "Gold wears an iron cap"
Gold and iron sulfides often form together through the same processes, brought up in the same events. Finding an oxide "gauson" in your wanderings, often smelling of sulfur can be a sign of gold nearby. Often gold can be located in the oxidized red earth of a gauson.
These are the two simplest ways to look for gold to the lay person in rock, it gets very complicated quick otherwise.
