All the research I have done about platinum in Arizona has resulted in my 'uniformed' opinion that there isn't any platinum in Arizona. Everything I can find on the subject indicates that nickel deposits tend to produce platinum deposits as they are related to each other on the atomic chart. The few mentions in knowledgable literature have indicated that 'IF' one finds platinum in Arizona, it is most likely to come from deposits washed in from distant sources. Now the problem:
Over the past few months I have encountered several people who have mentioned platinum locally (Northwest of Phoenix 50 miles). In one case, an acquaintance of mine told me a story about a well being drilled and small spherical pieces of a metal appearing in the sediments. Sent to ASU for analysis, the result came back platinum.
A second acquaintance questioned the validity of an assay that indicated platinum in the Congress area near here.
And just yesterday I had a veteran gold prospector who is working in the Congress area indicate that he has found some platinum there and wondered if my new sluice would work as well for platinum as it does gold. (no brainer of course it would. platinum is heavier).
I really never gave much further thought to it until yesterday, after this last guy left, I was panning out some fines that I had put through my new sluice to demonstrate it to him that came from a mine near here, when I found a piece of shiny silver-white metal that sat with the gold. Not lead. Too shiny and didn't dissolve in peroxide and vinegar. Not silver. Palladium? It wouldn't be shiny. The speck is very small so I can't do much with it but look at it under a jewelers loupe. But it is pretty hard. The other anomally I found in this material was some very pale gold that had a high hardness. I saw another piece of this a few weeks ago from material from the same place, and I just thought it might be regular old low-carat gold. But now I am wondering if it might not be a platinum-gold alloy or some other alloy. Again the flake of gold, like the silver metallic speck is very small so I find very little I can do with it.
It's on my list of 'things-i-gotta-do-that-i-prolly-won't-for-a-long-time-if-ever', but I thought that there may be some people on the forum that might actually have some first hand authoritative knowledge on this subject.
Anyone have any thoughts on platinum in Arizona or what this speck might turn out to be?
Over the past few months I have encountered several people who have mentioned platinum locally (Northwest of Phoenix 50 miles). In one case, an acquaintance of mine told me a story about a well being drilled and small spherical pieces of a metal appearing in the sediments. Sent to ASU for analysis, the result came back platinum.
A second acquaintance questioned the validity of an assay that indicated platinum in the Congress area near here.
And just yesterday I had a veteran gold prospector who is working in the Congress area indicate that he has found some platinum there and wondered if my new sluice would work as well for platinum as it does gold. (no brainer of course it would. platinum is heavier).
I really never gave much further thought to it until yesterday, after this last guy left, I was panning out some fines that I had put through my new sluice to demonstrate it to him that came from a mine near here, when I found a piece of shiny silver-white metal that sat with the gold. Not lead. Too shiny and didn't dissolve in peroxide and vinegar. Not silver. Palladium? It wouldn't be shiny. The speck is very small so I can't do much with it but look at it under a jewelers loupe. But it is pretty hard. The other anomally I found in this material was some very pale gold that had a high hardness. I saw another piece of this a few weeks ago from material from the same place, and I just thought it might be regular old low-carat gold. But now I am wondering if it might not be a platinum-gold alloy or some other alloy. Again the flake of gold, like the silver metallic speck is very small so I find very little I can do with it.
It's on my list of 'things-i-gotta-do-that-i-prolly-won't-for-a-long-time-if-ever', but I thought that there may be some people on the forum that might actually have some first hand authoritative knowledge on this subject.
Anyone have any thoughts on platinum in Arizona or what this speck might turn out to be?
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It is now becoming commercially available (I am in small quantity production currently.) It excels at recovery of fine gold missed by most sluices. And it will catch the big stuff too. It has 'wells' that create a gentle vortex action that keeps the well clear of light material and does not offer a solid bed for gold to move across. That's it in a nutshell basically. All the testing so far has proven it out to do extremely well leaving a whole lot less material at the end of the day to go through to get your gold out of. 10 minute end-of-day cleanup anyone? One of the guys using my sluice told me the other day that he wasn't used to seeing so much fine gold in his pan when he cleaned out his sluice. Going to take time to establish myself I am sure. I'm workin on it.
