The following rock sample was found by me in British Columbia and before I have it asssayed. Can anyone tell by looking at it if its Platinum(dear god that would be nice) or some other mineral like silver or something else. I made a short video about it so please have a look.
Platinum in it's host rock is a very rare thing,especially in this country.Have you ever heard or read of a hard rock platinum mine in the states?....good luck.
Yeah I hope it is as well. Thanks for all your responses. From the feedback I have been getting its looking more and more like it is platinum all the time.
Have it assayed. Make sure you tell them you want ALL of the Platinum in the rock if there is any. There is a large Platinum racket as most people don't request it in their report and the assayers will set it aside, selling it later to interested parties on the "black market".
HI: Check very carefully your assayer's certified ability to handle Pt. While many claim to be truly qualified, it is a complex refinning process and they fall down. I understand that there are only a handfull of qualified assayers.
Don Jose is correct. We Americans basicly knew nothing about how to fire assay for pgms'.
I still don't know how many assayers can handle assaying pgms. I was a member of the american society for applied technology. They did a lot of research on assaying for gold and pgms. There are also alot of conflicting assays when it comes to microfine gold. Back to the platinum, All crucibles and scorifying dishes must be pre-glazed.(tech. aid 920) from asat.
I suggest to anyone that is interested in mining or prospecting go online to (asat.volant.org). It is an old website, but shows their publications and videos that are available. There is an enormous amount of info to be had. I think the prices changed, so call. Their new # is 575-388-5654.
Good luck to everbody. You can thank me later. Jimmygoat
Thanks for all the replies I am still sitting on the rock sample. Not wanting to destroy it by asassy to confirm it as Platinum and keep it as a specimen. Have been back to the area where this was found and have yet to find a sample even close to this good but it had to have come from somewhere.When i find more I will take them in for assay. Hope you enjoyed the video.
Platinum will not dissolve easily into cold/roomtemp aqua regia it will in many hours if the solution is hot.....
And so it seems anything that does not dissolve is iridium, rhodium, inert ect....
All platinum and platinum group metals (platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, etc) are originally extraterrestrial in origin. Your rock doesn't look extraterrestrial as it is very angular. It does look metamorphic.
Platinum in hardrock mines are very atypical. The only platinum mine ever operated in the United States was on a tributary of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. The mine actually produced gold, but had a small seam of platinum on either side of the gold ore, which produced the bulk of the recovered metal. In this instance, platinum was in quartz next to a small gold deposit. While the vein was very long the gold and platinum-bearing vein was less than 3 inches across as I recall. Most platinum recovered in the world is a by-product of gold extraction.
Sorry. I don't believe this is platinum.
BTW, a simple electrical meter should help you determining that. Platinum conducts electricity even better than gold. A low-tech electrical current tester put on the suspected platinum should register pretty high if hooked up to a small battery. If your suspected platinum conducts electricity better than gold, it may well be either platinum or one of the platinum-group metals.
I found some good platinum (and pretty good gold) and the rock didn't look very impressive. It was quartz with some iron pyrite and some arsenopyrite. Luckily I decided to have this assayed and the results looked pretty good to me, see the assay below. This is one of the assays that I have from this location.
I'd love to find some rough 'n ready field tests for platinum that don't involve aqua regia & such. Found about 2 oz of what could be platinum a year ago. I chucked it somewhere in my camper and will probably dig it out one of these days. ..Willy.
Assay anything that you feel might have value. Trying to "eye-say" it doesn't get it done. If you're going to prospect, be prepared to spend money for analytical work. I do and it has paid off.
Check out some of the assays that I've posted lately. They are assays from real samples that I collected while prospecting.
Jim
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