what is this in my pan

[155gunner]

I have been panning in one of the local creeks here and something strange is showing up in my pan. It dull silver in color and is in very very small spheres. It is very heavy and is the last thing in the pan to move. And that takes alot of trying. It will hide behind the smallest sratch in my pan. It will amalgumate with mercury. My first thought is platnium, but I thought platinum was larger than that. Any input as to what it is and how to process it would be appreciated.

regards

Larry

 

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[155gunner]

I let some of this stuff sit in some nitric acid for several hours and it did not affect it at all. I am going to try and accumilate enough of the material in a vial so that maybe I can take a better photo of it. As I said before this stuff will not join with each other. Under a micriscope they are perfectly round little silver balls.

Larry

 

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[ChuckNC]

Ok, It's not mercury. What tesing items and chemicals do you have at your disposal? Do you have a small furnace?
Chuck

 

[155gunner]

Hello ChuckNC

As far as testing chemicals, about all I have are the nitric and muratic acids. No furnace but a torch with all size tips. Problem with a torch is that just the gas/flame coming out would probably blow the small pellets away. I guess I could make a carbon cruicable and try to melt it that way. I do have blenty of carbon blocks. In one of my earlier post I stated that the mercury I had in my pan picked the stuff right up. Well' I retorted the mercury and got it all back in the same size pellets/balls. I did some sample panning in another stream a few miles away and so far haven't observed any of the stuff, not that it is not there. I would think as far as kentucky goes you pretty much ought to find things uniform over a pretty broad area. Most of my end of the state is sedimentary from a few million years ago with scattered upheavals from earthquake action.

Larry

 

[Functional]

155gunner;
(aka: Larry)

Its kind of hard to tell from pictures and written clues, but if its not mercury and unlikely to be silver due to the lack of reaction with nitric acid, then that leaves platinum as the only other option I can think of. I'm not sure what part of NC your finding this in, but small amounts of platinum are known to have been found in Rutherford and Burke Counties. If you think this is a possibility and you want a cheap way to test what you have, you can order the acid for testing this online from: www.wholesale-scales.com
Here's a direct link to the test kits and individual bottles:
http://www.wholesale-scales.com/ind...ath=14&zenid=47fef13ff813683fb18c09d4d6e31835

Until such time as you know for certain what you have, I'd suggest holding onto your black sands. I've found platinum before and would have suggested the possibility that what you have was platinum sooner, but the stuff I've found was usually slightly larger in size and not as shiny looking as yours. But I don't know that the lighting was like when you took your pictures, or if you used a flash or not, so I might still have it wrong. If you need specific info on the traits of platinum or other minerals, check here:
http://www.minerals.net/mineral/elements/platinum/platinum.htm

Just thought I'd include this. Another person found a good sized nugget in NC and posted for information here:
http://www.finishing.com/439/83.shtml

If you still can't find out what you've got from others on TNet, you might want to try the forum on this site:
http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/


F.

 

[155gunner]

Hi Functional

Actually I am in western Kentucky and not NC. Thanks for the added info, and links. all suggestions are appreciated.

 

[wpareig]

Maybe someone on here can give you a simple method to test for "ZINC"..... Many occurances of Zinc as well as Galena have been noted in W.Ky reciently, since you tested w/ Nitric Acid that leaves out galina so you may have found an occurance of Zinc..... In that abondance it would have to be alloyed with another mineral such as alunimum, brass, or other mineral or as zinc-sphalerite, franklinite, willemite, hydrozincite or other zinc compound.... I would have to research your area to see which, if any of these compounds exist as I am not too familiar with that area....

Something to look into though.

 

[155gunner]

Thanks for the input about the zinc. I am not a chemist so I am unfamiliar with all the metals and etc. I guess my biggest question is , is there any metal that in it's natural state that would be in almost perfect little shpheres? Something other than mercury. And as I have said before this material is microscopic and it takes a lot of them to make you realize there is something there. It leaves just the slighest little trail at he tail of the black sand. If you keep swirling and swirling it eventually starts to make enough of a showing that you realize you have something. Earlier someone thought it was the reflective material out of reflective paint. Two things that make me think it is not is that the area this drains only has one road and it is not striped. the other reason is that all the reflective material I am familiar with is in fact glass beads. This stuff can be picked up by mercury. Glass wouldn't do that. It has been suggested by several people that it might be platinum. Maybe I just need to send the stuff to a lab somewhere. I have been dealing with some family issues for a few weeks so I haven't had a lot of time to play with this stuff. Hopefully in the near future I can work with it.

Regards

larry

 

[EggyOG]

I'm really going out on a limb on this one, but how about ferromanganese? It has been found in core samples in Kentucky, I believe it has some affinity for mercury, and its crystalline structure can be spherical. I don't know enough about it to determine the probability of it being what you have, a geologist more familiar with the compound and the area would be able to help you with that. About all we can do at this point is give you likely (or unlikely) identification leads, but we would all like to hear the answer when you get it tested.

 

[surfin]

Why not just take a sample of it to whom ever you sell your gold to? I would think that they would be able to identify it quick. This way you dont put a bunch of time and effort into it. Just my 2 cents.

Ian

 

[lgadbois]

If you have an accurate scale, you can check the specific gravity of the material. You will need enough material so that the paper/cloth/etc you use to contain it won't be much of the weight.

Weigh the material carefully. Then, suspending the contents in water, weigh it again. You can calculate the specific gravity.

If you can melt the material with a soldering iron it is lead. Platinum has a very high melting temperature and it can not be melted with a soldering iron.