??? Brittle, gray & as heavy as gold

[PYRATE]

Can anyone help ID?

I deal with some extremely fine annoying "gray sands" that make my gold difficult to clean - have speculated (ok guessed) it is platinum or palladium from catalytic converters.

Observations: Definitely not hematite - acts more like gold than lead shot - less plentiful than both gold and lead shot - acts like gold walking across the pan as I tap it, but so much finer that I can't really compare the two until now...

This is the first time I've have a piece large enough to actually play with - it acted identical to gold of the same size, but when I pressed it with a fingernail it crumbled. Way too easily...

For the remnant see the the center of the first pic - it was initially twice as long. Note that it walked along like gold just as the bigger piece did.

2nd pic shows how fine the gold is and how much finer the dust is. (Cleaning is a snuffer bottle game....)

Location: Neighborhood creek in Charlotte, near a busy street

 

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[Kray Gelder]

So annoying. Platinum in my pan at $929/oz and that so very irritating Palladium, dismissed at $1771. Good luck with your mystery.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Platinum group metals are not brittle and they are very rare in nugget form.

My first thought when I read your description was arsenopyrite. It common to find it associated with gold and it's heavy, gray and brittle.

Try a streak test. Arsenopyrite will streak gray/black.

Heavy Pans

 

[PYRATE]

So annoying. Platinum in my pan at $929/oz and that so very irritating Palladium, dismissed at $1771. Good luck with your mystery.

There ain't much lol - if it was all palladium, I might have 42 cents worth.

 

[Boarteats]

Platinum group metals are not brittle and they are very rare in nugget

Ruthenium is vanishingly scarce as nuggets but is brittle, I believe.

 

[alaskaseeker]

Galena......

 

[Capt Nemo]

Too dark for reidite. (compressed zircon, SG 7)

 

[trdking]

You guys are above my pay grade. All I hear is Lala lala lala

 

[augoldminer]

heavy, gray and brittle. possible gold amalgam

i have found gold amalgam many times in streams below old stamp mills in calif.

others have thrown the gray metal away thinking it was not gold. being a mill man i retorted it and found it was gold.

hit it with nitric acid and if you get a gold or brown powder it maybe gold.

super fine gold powder is brown.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

Silver

 

[N-Lionberger]

Codys Lab on Youtube made a video where he prospected platinum from the side of a highway.