Questions about Electrum

HappyTrails55 · Jul 7, 2018

Off and on, I've been working a spot that I believe and has all of the earmarks of a Pocket Gold Mine. It's never been worked before, it's like a classic flat land pocket that Tom (T.H.) Bohmker speaks of in his Book The Elusive "POCKET GOLD" Of South Western Oregon, except this is in California, more specifically, on the Coast, San Luis Obispo County. So Yes, trace amounts of fly poop size gold on the surface of the IRON HAT or Gossan, Deep Red Soil Loaded with Pyrites, Saprolitic Rock of quartz, calcite, carbonate, some serpentine, etc.., it has Borders compared to the other soils on each side of which are of a lighter color, more brownish, I believe this is like a ribbon effect running through this area for some distance. (See Pic's). I do use my detector (Teknetics G-2 with a super snoop coil) but so far has not detected anything, however my Falcon does make the determination. I found this spot Dowsing....In the center of this "ribbon", I am now finding 100 mesh (or more) size Electrum, when I pan the concentrates, the electrum shows itself under the Iron Red Oxides.....There is NO Black Sands (Magnetite). Certainly this is Miller Table Concentrates, but apparently there is ALOT OF IT....So is this Electrum considered Gold-Gold as in weight, purity, market value price etc., even though the Silver content is present. How's that work ? I know I need to get a assay of it now, but I'm curious on the questions. In Bohmker's Book on page 48, 3rd paragraph, Estimating gold content, he relates in a test of material from 1/4 to 1/2 of a pound to pan, this works out to 75 to 150 of countable small colors being roughly equivalent to 1 ounce per ton (good quality ore). I did that and through my pocket loop magnifier got lost to the 500 plus pieces. Actually it looked like a thousand pieces or more. So I'm saying to myself, I wonder how much is here like this and is it going to be beneficial for me to save this ? Of course I will, but who buys Electrum ? Is it the same as regular Gold ? I know it is electrum, I've already tested it with the Purity Acid tests, Scratch, Falcon, etc....Any experts on this subject here ?....Thanks in advance

arizau · Jul 7, 2018

Virtually all free milling, or placer gold has some silver as well as several other metals/elements alloyed with it, all in varying percentages. If what you have is electrum then it is probably at least 50% gold and yes gold processors will pay for the gold contained and, if they are honest, also for the silver credits in most cases where there is a high percentage of it. A fire assay will give you a more accurate assessment of what you may expect percentage wise when you sell or have it processed but the final determination will be after processing.

Good luck.

Bonaro · Jul 8, 2018

Why dont you just drill it instead of messing around with dowsing rods and tons of shovel time?
a thousand pieces of gold visible under magnification is not useful info, oz/t is what you need to know.

HappyTrails55 · Jun 28, 2020

Found it ! It's a Quartz Vein with Diorite Rock Walls....The Diorite Rock is impregnated with the Electrum as well, in other words, it's "in the Melt" , here's some pic's ...

Reed Lukens · Jun 28, 2020

Have you assayed any yet? Looks good

IMAUDIGGER · Jun 28, 2020

What method did you use to dowse the location?

HappyTrails55 · Jun 28, 2020

Reed, I'm going to get a assay on it, I've used Reed Laboratories for years, so they will probably be my first pick, then there's a fella that does assays in Parumph Nevada that I've used too so I'll probably get a hold of him. Now I have done a preliminary that most of us use, I'll post a few pic's here. Initially after I found it I took 5 rocks and ground it up into fines and got just under a gram or 0.85 ....I've never seen anything like this before, I never ever knew that diorite could be part of the vein system or even closely associated with gold and silver yet it's all thru the melt of the diorite, so even if I can't see it I can grind up plain jane looking diorite rocks from this deposit and still get the electrum, I'm just blown away over it. I've been actively prospecting since I was 9 or 10 and I will be 70 in late July and I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS. However, after doing a little research I found a Online PDF file report from 1972 from the USGS, "Distribution of Gold in Igneous Rocks" by David Gottfried, Jack J. Rowe and Robert Tilling, A Geographical Survey Professional Paper 727. I can never get these links to work here for me but here it is anyhow <https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0727/report.pdf> so the critical part to read is on pages 6,7,8 ....Now I'm actively looking for a better crusher, I got a little air hammer one that I got from High Plains Prospectors a year or two ago, but am looking for something a little bit better.....My first grab sample was about 10 rocks, then I went back and got a bucket, then went back and got 7 buckets, my next trip will be double that, hee,hee ...My Dowsing was off about 50 yards (I've never said that I was a great dowser, but dowse I do cause I have had a minimal success in the past) , there was a wall of chapparal brush that is close to impenertable, after hacking my way through this nightmare there was a clearing about 12 X 20 feet where this rotting vein was found. Within this enclosure the diorite rocks are just EVERYWHERE and pieces of the quartz vein too, apparently the deposit just collapsed in on itself.....should be a pocket or two here the way I'm a thinking....By the way, I watch your channel on youtube, as well, VERY GOOD ! Okay a few pic's

HappyTrails55 · Jul 5, 2020

Okay so, see I expect to get a pretty good assay out of this but not only for Gold & Silver but also for Platinum and maybe other PGM's. The reason why I say this is because of the GEOLOGY that supports it and it's location. If you just look up like Wikipedia or another source for the Bushveld Igneous Complex in Africa and read very carefully about the structures and the units and the upper zone, you'll find the geology of "Olivine Diorite" (and I have also Olivine Diorite). This Diorite Structure I found sits in the middle of a massive Greenstone Bed or BELT that runs Northwest, Southeast just west of the San Andreas Fault and is broken up with Cross Faults. From many of these rocks I have collected, I can see the SHEAR ZONE Structures in them and also the Olivine. Not to make this more confusing like what it seems. I offer this one attachment that explains a lot. It is from May 29th, 2014 and even though this is very LOWGRADE ORE FROM IT'S SOURCE, I did not pursue it cause I knew then that somewhere else was or would have to be HIGHGRADE, of which I believe this New Find is Highgrade, but of course the new Assay will tell me whether it is or is not. So this old assay was taken about 1/8th of a mile away from the new site.

IMAUDIGGER · Jul 6, 2020

Let us know when you get your results back.
This is interesting to follow.

Clay Diggins · Jul 6, 2020

Lots of mercury was mined in that area, it's well known for it's mercury mines. Not surprisingly much of that mercury was mined in diorite where the mercury accumulated in shear zones adjacent to and intermingled with quartz.

The acid in your test kit is not a valid method to determine the presence of gold or silver in their native form. Those kits are designed to ascertain the purity of refined jewelry metals. Putting these acids on native rock can produce some pretty nasty byproducts. Save the jewelry testing kit for testing jewelry.

Mercury does not react with dilute single acids. It does react with concentrated nitric acid and concentrated hydrochloric acid - just like high karat gold.

I would suggest getting a real fire assay before you assume either gold or silver are the only metals amalgamated in your deposit.

I hope you have found a natural electrum deposit. As you pointed out it's not normally expected in diorite but it is a possibility. There is no history of electrum being found in that region. There is however a long and well documented history of mercury mining. Occam's razor points to the high probability that your discovery may not be electrum.

Heavy Pans

HappyTrails55 · Jul 6, 2020

Well Clay, Respectively, a Fire Assay has been sent and it is True that many areas in this county has been mined for Mercury. The Geographical Locations for where the Mercury Mines are placed are well known. The Buena Vista Mine was the largest and Richest, North/West of Paso Robles in the Adelaida country. Others exist all up & down the Santa Lucia's coastal mountains, many in the Los Padres National Forest that ranges in Santa Barbara County, thru San Luis Obispo County & parts of Monterey County. However there are specific regions within the inner coastal mountains like La Panza (also Los Padres National Forest) where few if any documented Mercury Mines ever existed. Now with that said, I have found Mercury here but that's from the old timer's and for Cinnabar (wish I could spell) itself, I have never seen a example of it in this area (not to say that there isn't, I just haven't seen it). Now half way from La Panza (west) to San Luis Obispo on the other side of Pozo is the Rinconda (probably spelled wrong too) and that was a Mercury Operation as well, in Cinnabar. Being raised in this area since about 1960 on & off and first started prospecting in La Panza (also on & off) since about 1972, also being a member of the local Hysterical (Historical) Society of the North County since at least the mid 1980's and have visited almost every Historical Site and Mines and have accumulated vast Histories of the area and County, one of the Best Books I own is the Reprint by the Friends of the Adobes "The History of San Luis Obispo County of 1883 by Myron Angel (Founder of Cal Poly), Numerous other Books, Reports and Papers and a Major Contributor to the Bancroft Libraries and He specifically in this 1883 Book describes in detail all of the Known Mines of that time. I have broke off & handled Cinnabar from some of these mines, panned cinnabar and gladly threw it away. Let me tell you how I found this little Platinum deposit in 2014 (the one from the assay above). On our claim (I have claim partners too), working this creek for gold (it's also famous in local history), well there's lot's of other people that come out and shoot their guns at targets out there on this flat and finding shell casings and bullets or pieces of them is not unusual. Running material thru my sluice I started finding odd looking small pieces of metal that resembled lead at first, funny thing was I was digging in solid greenstone shale and well past the bullet zone. When I told my claim partners about this new find, they all Laughed at me. I talked to a Geologist from Cal Poly in San Luis and he told me "there was no such thing in these mountains". Then I told other prospectors about this and THEY ALL LAUGHED AT ME....Then I got a assay and guess what ? Nobody was laughing anymore. Now as a final note, before I got my assay, I had tested it with my Purity Test Kit and became convinced to send it off for a assay....I have a Motto...."NEVER, SAY NEVER", Respectifully of course .

Moesia · Jul 7, 2020

I hope you end up finding what you were looking for.
Best regards.

HappyTrails55 · Jul 18, 2020

Okay so, got the assay back, looks good, not as what I was expecting but I have a clearer picture now of what I'm following, the Numbers Went Up ! As for the Purity Acid Test Kit that I use, I cannot say enough about it but the matter of fact seems to be Yes you can use this on testing the rocks, True it might be used for Jewelry but so far I have not been skunked using it on rocks. So I will re-post the old assay from 2014 and then the New Assay from July 9, 2020 and you can compare the numbers and then I will post 2 more pic's of the Diorite Boulder Rocks I found with Quartz Vein rock I found close by and then a couple pic's of a solid chunk of quartz with the ore formation in it that I found with my metal detector.

BentFunky · Jul 20, 2020

HappyTrails55 said:
...As for the Purity Acid Test Kit that I use, I cannot say enough about it but the matter of fact seems to be Yes you can use this on testing the rocks, True it might be used for Jewelry but so far I have not been skunked using it on rocks.

Acid tests are legit in that they can help differentiate base metals from gold, platinum, etc. Absolutely.

(If I remember correctly, the weak acid is nitric and the stronger acids are various dilutions of aqua regia.)

However, I can see where @clay diggings is coming from WRT his comments. Might acid tests give you useful info in the field. Sure, but you'd need to be testing native metal not the ore/rock that the metal is in.

One concern that I'd have (beyond possibility of chemical burns) is that nitric and aqua regia can react badly with some non-metallic minerals and organic matter.

Moesia · Jul 21, 2020

I am confused, aren't your assay results in oz per ton (oz/ton). 0.327 in ounces would be around 10 grams per ton of gold (g/ton)?

HappyTrails55 · Jul 21, 2020

Moesia, well I'm not done yet and one assay is a good indicator but more assay's are needed, but there's a perspective I'm following here. It's quite possible that this site I found is just waste rock from a old mine or waste rock from a old spanish arrasta or something like that. I've got one really good example that I found with my metal detector that's in solid quartz which leads me to believe that, that is the main lode I'm a looking for. Now it's very true that there is old spanish mines here which has been concealed since they vacated California after the Mexicans took over (1821 to 1830) and although afterwards the Mexicans did mine in here as well (until about 1848) they are not responsible for all of the Old Spanish Rock Monuments (of which are many on the claim and outlying areas). There's many facets to trying to unravel where these Lost Mines are and to find them a guy has to prospect all of the possibilities. I was happy to see the gold and silver numbers go up, as far as the platinum is concerned, the Old Spanish didn't like or fool with the "platina", it was a hinderance, but they probably never went beyond separating it from the gold and silver. I'll post a few pic's of these spanish monuments for you all...I'm fairly positive now that I can make those Platinum numbers go up, there's a uplift not to far away from here that I found years ago that I confused with it being a black sand bed but now am more convinced than ever that it's something else, I have a assay for that just for Gold & Silver from Reed Laboratories and it was Positive though the numbers were low. So don't be too confused, (hee,hee), it's a Hunt to find Old Lost Spanish Gold Mines and they were Very Good with their Geology too. Spanish Monuments....Hearts mean = GOLD , Turtles mean = Mines or Treasure or Both (a Directional Monument), X's mean = Trail Markers, Indian Heads, Faces mean = The Royal Trail, ....I'm on other Threads here as well with a lot of this stuff, so don't be confused with that

Reed Lukens · Jul 22, 2020

Really great thread Darrell, now that you've connected the dots for me with the other pictures, it's all coming together :occasion14:

HappyTrails55 · Jul 23, 2020

Found a good Chunk of what appears to be Platinum yesterday, sings pretty good on the old detector, did my usual tests and the hydrogen peroxide fizz test, found it digging deeper on down at the site....

Goldwasher · Jul 24, 2020

Deja Vu

HappyTrails55 · Aug 22, 2020

Right before we had the Lightning Strike Storm that came in and started all of these California Fires, I was out at the claim and found me a couple of good size Diorite Boulders that appeared to be part of the same vein system or dike or reef, to big to bring back, I found a 7 1/2 pounder, checking out with my Falcon MD 20 and then breaking it up and panned some of it, sure enough it was carrying gold, silver and what looks like platinum. Now I sent off more assays, here's some pic's.