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That must have been a hot fire!!! gold melts at 1947.52 degrees F and a camp fire burns at 500 - 1500 degrees F

Best wishes
Kurt Painter

Interesting Curt!
Perhaps calvanite ore, the gold teluride, as a lower melt point which releases the gold?

I had also heard that low tempture, like freezing,
can also release the gold

anyway its supposely to fairly easy to extract
harder to find

take care and take me rock hounding!
ed

Heating gold, (even if not to the point of melting it) will cause it to swell, and break the rock away from it. Freezing it will cause it to shrink, and can also cause it to be liberated from the surrounding rock.

Best,

Jim