Rawsons Pass on the slopes of Mt Kosciuszko is famous for being the highest toilet in Australia.

The path leading to the toilet block is paved with non-local stones, many of which are very interesting. They look as though they’ve been collected from all over the Snowy Mountains.

I photographed this one.

The flecks that look like gold are about 3 mm across. I was wondering if it may have come from the Kiandra area which used to be a gold-mining town.

mollwollfumble said:

The flecks that look like gold are about 3 mm across. I was wondering if it may have come from the Kiandra area which used to be a gold-mining town.

ie, the image is larger than life-size. The height of the image is about 20 mm in real life.

mollwollfumble said:

Rawsons Pass on the slopes of Mt Kosciuszko is famous for being the highest toilet in Australia.

The path leading to the toilet block is paved with non-local stones, many of which are very interesting. They look as though they’ve been collected from all over the Snowy Mountains.

I photographed this one.
!http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o162/DavidPaterson/SSSF/PavedWithGold_zps848397a8.jpg

The flecks that look like gold are about 3 mm across. I was wondering if it may have come from the Kiandra area which used to be a gold-mining town.

Unfortunately the image is out of focus, making identification more difficult than usual. (Minerals are difficult enough to identify by photograph alone, because physical characteristics are very important in mineral ID.) That said, the colour is not golden – it appears to be brassy. Also, the minerals appear to have an angular form. Both these things severely discount the likelihood of the mineral being gold. It is probably pyrite.

Did you bring a specimen home? That is, could you perform a simple physical check?

Kiandra was mainly alluvial from my family memories. There should still be a photo here somewhere of a trommel that was used there.

Yes. Deep lead (fossil alluvial under basalt) and minor recent alluvials derived from the deep leads.

Michael V said:

Yes. Deep lead (fossil alluvial under basalt) and minor recent alluvials derived from the deep leads.

I covered the sandy access track to the house with 3/4” crushed rock and Pyrite on these rocks is quite common, some attractively glint in the sun.

> Minerals are difficult enough to identify by photograph alone, because physical characteristics are very important in mineral ID

I had difficulty telling whether the rock was igneous or metamorphic. Dark colour and large crystals suggests gabbro or peridotite. If metamorphic then the distortion is small (perhaps crystals flattened) and cooling slow.

The image blurring is due to the magnification.