Panning dirt from your yard

[dipstick]

I know am a newbie when it comes to posting. Over the years I have mostly read what everybody else has had to say. The few post i have made has had little response. Anyhow I have a question about black sand. In one of my gardens I have what I always thought was a big rock or something. I hit it with the tiller and it dont move. Ive seen pieces of quartz there so I dug down and got a plastic coffee can full of dirt to pan out. After panning it I was amazed at how much black sand was in the pan, at least a couple of tablespoons full. It reminded me of the bag of dirt I got from Thermal City which by the way is only a few miles from me. It has some course sand, was able to pick a piece up that look like a gold colored spot on it and it stuck to a magnet. Is it normal to find this much black sand in dirt. Thanks for your reply. Steve

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[TerryC]

Steve. Welcome to THE net. Stick a magnet into the black sands. Most will be magnetite, a common mineral. It contains both Ferrous and ferric iron ions. That means in air, it is often coated with Hematite. Without getting too technical, the black sands are often associated with gold but not always. Check well. Use a mineral or low powered microscope. TTC

[dipstick]

TerryC. What type of microscope do you use. I bought a Carson 60-100x power led lighted but its not to clear possibly to strong. I will wave a magnet through it and see how much it picks up. Seems to have some silver color. Thanks Steve