Gold from Colorado Quartz mine, Mariposa County, California, USA

Gold is an element, a metal, and a mineral. There's no words to describe how important the #79 element is. As one of the inertest elements, gold does not easily react with simple acid or alkali but can be transported by complexion of halogenid, or, dissolved into arsenic pyrite and arsenopyrite.

Gold is hard to well-crystallize, but once it does, product one of the most desirable and adorable specimens. They occur as polycrystalline dendrites, wires, plates, sheets and nuggets. Many of these are exquisite forms and are a result of twinning controlled by the {111} 60° twin law.

Mother Load type of gold deposits clusters of low-sulfide gold-quartz vein deposits have formed near major fault zones in tectonically active metamorphic complexes on all continents from the Archean to the Cenozoic. Colorado Quartz Mine is the most representative one that is formed after the regional pervasive deformation of the Nevadan compressional event.

It hasn't been chemically cleaned but water, a great example for pocket gold that gives the highest lustrous.

About 6cm long, Colorado Mine, Mariposa County, California, USA

Jingnan Zhang Coll (Ex), and Photo. Now in a private collection.