Tailings, what distinct difference between silver and gold?

[Grumpie]

I haven't seen enough to know the difference. What are the dead giveaways to determine which is silver and which one is gold?

 

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[Johnnybravo300]

You shouldn't have either in your tailings. The tailings is the waste pile after running your material

 

[Goldwasher]

I think he is referring to the waste rock you see in front of hard rock portals.

 

[winners58]

might post under hardrock mining, alot of times they only worked the hi-grade with visible gold all the rest was waste

 

[kcm]

You can have both gold and silver in front of you, but together. It's called electrum.

Both gold and silver often alloy with other metals. One of the most common is copper. In order to really answer your question, I recommend reading the following book. It's available for free in .pdf format. It was written over a century ago but still has an amazing amount of great info in it. The book is called The Enrichment of Ore Deposits - Emmons, 1917:
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/b625

 

[Grumpie]

I found some tailing piles on a hillside and did some research of the area and found out that both gold and silver were mined in this area.
Is there a way to decipher which one is which?
There are quite a few. Im after the yellow shiny stuff

 

[Kenmitch]

I guess tailing would be considered ore. Maybe search Google for your specific location?

Gold ore

Photos of gold ores, quartz, telluride gold ore and gold specimens

Silver ore

Photos of Natural Silver Ore, Silver minerals, Crystal ores, rich Silver quartz specimens

If nothing else it's some decent miners porn. Some interesting examples on other links of above website.

 

[Jeff95531]

I found some tailing piles on a hillside and did some research of the area and found out that both gold and silver were mined in this area.
Is there a way to decipher which one is which?
There are quite a few. Im after the yellow shiny stuff

Everything you're looking for can be found here.

Welcome to Land Matters

It can be a bit complicated but that's because everything is available. Still confused Just ask!

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/435267-prospectors-research-tools.html

 

[kcm]

Thread Title: Tailings, what distinct difference between silver and gold?

You shouldn't have either in your tailings. The tailings is the waste pile after running your material

I found some tailing piles on a hillside and did some research of the area and found out that both gold and silver were mined in this area.
Is there a way to decipher which one is which?
There are quite a few. Im after the yellow shiny stuff

Hey Grumpie. I almost hesitate to write this post seeing as you have already chosen to tell the world that you're grumpie , but can't avoid the facts. And the fact is, you have MUCH reading and research to do!! As Johnny said, you're not going to find gold or silver in a "tailings" pile. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule - one is when a large dredge goes through an area and kicks out EVERYTHING larger than a certain size, and there happens to be a nugget that falls in this larger size range. Another exception is that modern methods of capturing gold are much more efficient than those of decades past. So "technically" it is possible to find gold in a "tailings pile". One final exception is something that happens even to this day - if there is a piece of gold that is attached to a piece of rock. The rock can sometimes offset the SG (Specific Gravity) of the piece as a whole, making the gold act like it's not really gold. Therefore, it can end up in a tailings pile. Usually the rock portion has to be quite a bit larger than the gold portion in order for this to happen.

There "IS" one more possible reason that one might find gold in a tailings pile, and that's because the people running the material didn't know what the heck they're doing and did not have their equipment set up properly. I refer you to season 1 of the Gold Rush series starring the Hoffman crew. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have gotten my hands on their tailings from that season!!

...What I'm trying to say is, there's more to prospecting/mining than simply finding a pile that has gold and/or silver in it. You then need to know an efficient means of separating the PM's (Precious Metals) from the waste material. I'm here to help people, and I write all of this to do just that - trying to help you. So please, do not take offense here. Your writing/wording suggests that you know precious little about prospecting. I'd hate to know that someone went out and threw away all of their working capital because I did not get this message across. Also keep in mind that, being a new member here, we know very little about you. Your info says Texas, but you write as though you're in California (or Colorado, maybe?). What knowledge and/or experience you have is also unknown to us. So going by your writing, I have to assume you're a noob with a lot to learn. We've all been there!! And while I know some about prospecting, I have no actual experience. My interest and research began long before that Gold Rush TV show was ever dreamed up, but there's still so very much that I can never learn without getting out there and experiencing it. (...working on that!) So please take some time and learn the basics. Read through Tnet's Gold Prospecting Forum archives, as well as checking out much of the other VAST information out there on the internet.



Now, you say you've found a pile of rock that you believe has gold and/or silver? AWESOME!! Is the material actually gold/silver or could it be mica? Mica is also very shiny, and many, MANY people throughout history have wasted much time trying to capture this all-but-worthless material. Mica is in great supply, and is very often found with PM's. So the first thing you need to do (besides learning) is crush up a little of the rock with the shiny stuff and then pan it out. As I have not experienced this pleasure, I can only repeat what so very many others have said before - that once you see how gold acts in your pan, you'll know how to recognize it in the future. So you could also, for practice, order some paydirt from online. Dirthogg Paydirt is a very good source!! ...Anyway, crush up some material, pan it out, and then post some pics so we can see what you have. Just keep in mind that without assaying your material, we actually have no way to know the exact makeup of your material; how much gold, silver, lead, copper, etc, and of what purity?

Also keep in mind that long, long ago, much material was dumped aside as waste material as back then, they had no way to get any of the PM's out of the rock. Here, I'm referring to the difference between sulfide and oxide ores. There's a lot to learn just on this subject alone! See, Mica is all but worthless, but if you have Mica in vast quantities, you might well be onto something good. Problem is, it takes more than crushing and panning to get the PM's. They must instead be treated through the use of heat (pyrometallurgy) or by using chemicals/acids. In addition to the oxides (free gold) and sulfides, there are also Tellurides that can be a bear to process!

I hope there's enough info in this post to help guide you in the direction you want to go. But again, I have to re-emphasize what I suggested before, to read that free online book (Post #5). That one book will answer most of what I've touched on here.

 

[winners58]

It's not so easy, could be the ore ran a percentage of both, could be gold was at one level and the silver 300y up the hill.
more likely than not its the same host rock, iron stains black, silver oxidizes black learning the differences could eliminate
searching areas with mostly silver ore's. keep searching the old records look for "open file reports", state geologist reports, assay's
the old miners couldn't see into the rocks, good ore could just be sitting there, a good metal detector will make different tones if you just want gold
here's a good read on the Nokta; Nokta Scores Spectacular Gold Specimen - Detector Prospector Blog

and testing the ore for the presence of free gold with a metal detector;
http://www.icmj.com/article-printing.php?id=2259&keywords=Detecting_at_the_Sixteen_to_One_Mine

if you have a subscription the Aug. 2016 ICMJ has an article "Can you recognize valuable ore's"
http://www.icmj.com/article.php?id=3493&keywords=Can_You_Recognize_Valuable_Ores?

 

[Grumpie]

It's not so easy, could be the ore ran a percentage of both, could be gold was at one level and the silver 300y up the hill.
more likely than not its the same host rock, iron stains black, silver oxidizes black learning the differences could eliminate
searching areas with mostly silver ore's. keep searching the old records look for "open file reports", state geologist reports, assay's
the old miners couldn't see into the rocks, good ore could just be sitting there, a good metal detector will make different tones if you just want gold
here's a good read on the Nokta; Nokta Scores Spectacular Gold Specimen - Detector Prospector Blog

and testing the ore for the presence of free gold with a metal detector;
Detecting at the Sixteen to One Mine - ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal

if you have a subscription the Aug. 2016 ICMJ has an article "Can you recognize valuable ore's"
http://www.icmj.com/article.php?id=3493&keywords=Can_You_Recognize_Valuable_Ores?

This is what I was trying to get at. There are so many tailing piles scattered in this area that it would be impossible to check them all in a life time with a metal detector. These are old tailings/ processed material from a sluice from some sort of "dry washing method". They are randomly scattered, and up on the hillsides above a valley.
Methods that were used back than, may not have been as thorough for collecting the gold as today. Just maybe something was left behind that my detector would find.

 

[dave wiseman]

might post under hardrock mining, alot of times they only worked the hi-grade with visible gold all the rest was waste

Not the case.in the California motherlode most of the well known mines had large deposits of low grade ore that could be worked at a profit,though in some mines the profits were marginal.In many of these mines they came across enrichments which occasionaly were stockpiled as to enrich the mill heads,likely to get more money from investors and stock holders.low grade ore might only be stockpiled if it didn't pay to process it,for whatever reasons.If it's not payable it isn't ore in my mind,regardless if it contains gold or silver.A mine can be very rich without any visable gold.All mines do not have highgrade or enrichments..If they only worked a mine showing visable gold there would have been very few gold mines opened up.Any and all scenarios for making a profit or loss in hardrock mining were/are possible....one foot from a million..a million feet from a dollar.....and yet one never knows what's beyond the point of a pick.

 

[dave wiseman]

This is what I was trying to get at. There are so many tailing piles scattered in this area that it would be impossible to check them all in a life time with a metal detector. These are old tailings/ processed material from a sluice from some sort of "dry washing method". They are randomly scattered, and up on the hillsides above a valley.
Methods that were used back than, may not have been as thorough for collecting the gold as today. Just maybe something was left behind that my detector would find.

....A mine may have shut down for whatever reason leaving some stockpiled material.Alot of the waste rock or even piles of ore were used by county ot state road crews as base material or by private contractors from the 1940's to whenever.It dosen't hurt to give it your best shot.

 

[Goldwasher]

This is what I was trying to get at. There are so many tailing piles scattered in this area that it would be impossible to check them all in a life time with a metal detector. These are old tailings/ processed material from a sluice from some sort of "dry washing method". They are randomly scattered, and up on the hillsides above a valley.
Methods that were used back than, may not have been as thorough for collecting the gold as today. Just maybe something was left behind that my detector would find.

You need to understand that they were not processing that material up on that hillside. If you study the reports on the area in question you can find out where the mill(s) was/were. And also what the head wall and foot wall material was. So yo can identify what your looking at. Keeping in mind that if the prospect only goes a couple feet it was for a reason(at the time) I would be more interested in the float below the portal then the pile of waste rock they dumped out of the hole.

Where are you If these mine are in Texas you must be near big Bend, Turlingua? Mainly silver out there and cinnabar.

 

[arizau]

This is what I was trying to get at. There are so many tailing piles scattered in this area that it would be impossible to check them all in a life time with a metal detector. These are old tailings/ processed material from a sluice from some sort of "dry washing method". They are randomly scattered, and up on the hillsides above a valley.
Methods that were used back than, may not have been as thorough for collecting the gold as today. Just maybe something was left behind that my detector would find.

If what you are looking at are drywasher piles then they are more likely to contain particles of fine gold rather than gold of a size that is detectable but even those may be found in some cases. If you can find the piles where they screened off the oversized material then there is a better chance there may be gold of a size that is detectable contained in them. Rake these piles out and have at it.
Drywashing or sluicing old drywasher piles is often at least a little productive since any clods that may have contained gold and had been rejected in the original process may have broken down over time and freed the gold they contained and now are more amenable to recovery.
As to gold or silver: All native gold (that found in nature whether lode or placer) is not pure and usually has some silver and copper as well as several other elements all in varying, usually minor, percentages. I don't recall ever reading about anyone drywashing for silver and silver recovery usually entails a chemical process or maybe some pyro process making a dore bar.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

There are places that have nice gold in the tailings such as cache creek but that was all hydraulic washed and sluiced and they missed alot of gold.
If a hard rock miner lost rich ore then youd have to crush samples and pan it to see what comes out. There can easily be gold that you can't see in the rock and once you crush some you can determine whether it's cost effective to do. Making a heavy duty mortar and pestle is easy and cheap and is the easiest way to tell whats in your rock. That's where I'd start. Crush a few pieces and see if any gold pans out?

 

[txlj]

Terlingua has both silver and gold mines. By far quick silver was the most mined, but both silver and gold have been found in the Bend. Shafter is a current silver mine, but closed do to the lower price.

 

[rodoconnor]

Terlingua has both silver and gold mines. By far quick silver was the most mined, but both silver and gold have been found in the Bend. Shafter is a current silver mine, but closed do to the lower price.

That's interesting.I didn't know there was any gold in that area.Just some strange lights.

 

[Grumpie]

You need to understand that they were not processing that material up on that hillside. If you study the reports on the area in question you can find out where the mill(s) was/were. And also what the head wall and foot wall material was. So yo can identify what your looking at. Keeping in mind that if the prospect only goes a couple feet it was for a reason(at the time) I would be more interested in the float below the portal then the pile of waste rock they dumped out of the hole.

Where are you If these mine are in Texas you must be near big Bend, Turlingua? Mainly silver out there and cinnabar.

Calif my friend

 

[Grumpie]

No it's not in TX. Calif in Mono county