quality of gold from Mineral Bar

[sactosluicer]

So my buddies and I been washing gravel out from the various bars in the park to get the float/flood gold...
We have actually been finding a good amount each day we go.

My question is...
The gold we find all looks very yellow out in the sluicebox, on the black mat, under the sunlight.

However, when we get home and bluebowl the cons, we get some grayish material in the cleanup.

The gray flakes look and act exactly like gold flakes in the sluice and the bluebowl, and like I said, it all looks yellow out in the sun on the river, and the gray comes in all the same shapes and sizes as the gold does.

I know alot of people prospect up there and we have probably even seen each other in passing... so howdy!

Do you guys find a lot of lead from that park or is this in fact gold with a covering of mercury??

Ill try to get a good pic of my vial from yesterday...


Thanks for lookin!

 

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[joshgoldbeans]

looks like lead from the pic. i have never been there but i have found plenty of lead. i have also found mercury covered flakes of gold. when i put some of the mercury covered flakes in a vial with water and yellow gold flakes it starts turning the yellow flakes silver. mercury shines and lead is more dull gray.

 

[joshgoldbeans]

hard to tell from the pic though....

 

[63bkpkr]

Howdy sactosluicer, welcome to Tnet! In My Experience = IMO IF you had mercury coated gold then it would be almost bright silver in color. To Me the grey looking material you have looks more like lead. So to really answer this question I would perform a little experiment on one of the larger pieces of grey material - once you have it out of the sample bottle place it on a smooth metal surface and tap on it (wear safety glasses please) with a clean hammer. If it is a malleable metal (gold, lead) it will flatten and thin out the longer you tap on it. The flattening and thinning should reveal the inner color of the metal. if it turns silver then it could be lead or silver. If of course the material shatters then it is not gold.

Is the grey material attracted to a magnet? If you have a torch handy and on top of a smooth metal surface, heat the grey object (wear safety glasses please) to see if it melts. If it melts quickly then it is likely lead, if it does not melt with a propane torch then it could be silver. These three test will help determine what the grey material is. Best of luck and be careful with your eyes......................63bkpkr

Oh if when it flattens out and the insides of it turn to a gold color then you most likely have mercury coated gold.

 

[NorCalPilot]

sacto, I was out sluicing downstream a few miles from you yesterday and yes, you will find the grey flakes alongside the black sands and gold. I've always wondered if it was possibly silver, platinum, or simply lead. I don't think it's lead because as you mention, it appears in flakes. Almost certain it's not mercury.

 

[Oakview2]

If I were you I would separate that stuff from your gold, lest all of it assume the same color.. You can always torch some pieces or put some acid on them in a open air space and see.

 

[sactosluicer]

If I were you I would separate that stuff from your gold, lest all of it assume the same color.. You can always torch some pieces or put some acid on them in a open air space and see.

Ok, so here is the [very] little I know about mercury and gold...

If there is enough mercury and/or it is liquid in form, it will bind to gold and keep attracting more until the mercury is too thin to hold any more.

Mercury can and will bind to single pieces of gold in a very thin layer only one atom thick.

I have also heard that the mercury will bind to more gold in a vial, but at the same time I heard that there must be a usable amount to make that happen.( which says to me that if the above 2 statements are true then this might NOT happen in every vial that contains mercury)

Anyway, thanks for the input so far everybody.
Im going to attempt to retrieve a few pieces of the gray stuff to examine under a microscope.

As a sidenote, I dont think i have enough yet to warrant acids or melting as both seem fairly toxic, but if we keep getting this stuff then maybe Ill look into it.Just wanted to see if those more knowledgable could spot it out.

Thanks guys!

 

[Oakview2]

"The gray flakes look and act exactly like gold flakes in the sluice and the bluebowl, and like I said, it all looks yellow out in the sun on the river, and the gray comes in all the same shapes and sizes as the gold does."

From your own words it appears you have some HG amalgam with gold. It will continue to turn your gold this color if you don't separate. JMHO

 

[tertiaryjim]

Sluicer
Lead will be soft.
What you've got, the grey material, is almost certainly silver.
Silver will be somewhat hard and brittle.
Because it's oxidized, it's hard for mercury to adhere to it.
Have found it in the past.
If you were to use nitric acid on your cons the acid will dissolve the silver. Not a good idea for a couple reasons.

 

[sactosluicer]

Okay now.
Just seen some things that changes my whole perspective...

Bear with me here and Ill lay it out for ya....

Lets start with this pic.
It shows 2 larger flakes I tweezed out of the pile, taken with my phone within 6inches.
These flakes would not fit thru my 1/8" screen.


So I then got out my trusty USB microscope, which brings us to these next few pictures....

Here is the yellow gold flake at 20X magnification, this is the flake on the right in the above pic.
Note the teeny-tiny hole in the flake if you can.


And here is the grayish flake at 20x, it is very shiny and very difficult to get a clear pic of it so i did my best.


So I then switched to 400x magnification and here are the results.

Yellow flake


Gray flake


Okay so onto a few more interesting photos...

I stumbled across these 2 random specks that were together, the yellow gold speck is literally the size of a period(.) and the gray speck is invisible to my naked eye.

The 20x magnification barely picks them up, so I just unfocused a hair and got the shine so you could see the gray piece.


And here they are at 400x...


Some rummaging thru the pile is what leads me to change any assumptions I already have, as Id say that some of the grayish stuff is actually small pieces of gold still in some quartz.





In this pic, the really gray piece in the middle of the pic is the stuff I started this post over, it is bendable and I know that cause Ive bent it with tweezers.



So I dont know anymore.
Tell me what you think after seeing these photos.
Remember: everything looked yellow in the sluice/sun/river, everything acts like gold in the sluice and bluebowl(none of this stuff even moves in the BB), and most importantly... I do not claim to be an expert or even very knowledgeable on this matter.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Fullpan]

In the last three pics, did you crowd the separate pieces together, or are they "stuck together naturally"? Regardless, I see no mercury or lead, but i've never seen
400x pics of them either, so...?

 

[sactosluicer]

In the last three pics, did you crowd the separate pieces together, or are they "stuck together naturally"? Regardless, I see no mercury or lead, but i've never seen
400x pics of them either, so...?

I literally dumped out the vial from the original pic and dried up most of the water with a tissue, its just a pile of pieces, and the last 3 pics are 20x mag.

Thanks for your opinion on lead and mercury!

 

[calgeologist]

I have sluiced a lot just upstream at pennyweight and found insane amounts of lead. All of this lead is in flakes as it has been pounded by all the boulders year after year. If what you were looking at was Hg then you would know its Hg. It's just like gold (it always has pretty much the same appearance). Hg is really shiny and bright.

It is possible that it could be placer silver, but I would bet a few beers its lead.

Hope this helps and let me know of you have any other thoughts on it.

JD

 

[chris rizin]

Glad you posted this question! I find the same stuff at mineral bar, American river etc.. Always end up with it.. I actually have some nice sized flakes if that same material in a pan right now! Lol

 

[chris rizin]

Here's a couple quick pics..

 

[Alex Burke]

Ok I will guess Silver and lead (argentiferous galena) except I don't think it is found around here. The inclusions at 400x and colors are weird. 10X is highest I'm used to seeing. It would kind of suck to find out we've been recycling gold instead of lead by accident lol.

 

[Fullpan]

Might be time to step up and get a good analysis from a geochem lab for the benefit of the whole NFAR community. P.S. - most recent pics (on tip of finger)
DO look like fragments of lead - IDK?

 

[KevinInColorado]

I will have free access to a scanning electron microscope the first week of July. I will get it assessed if you like...just PM me for my address to mail the mystery sample to...

 

[sactosluicer]

I will have free access to a scanning electron microscope the first week of July. I will get it assessed if you like...just PM me for my address to mail the mystery sample to...

Might just do that
Thanks!

 

[63bkpkr]

Kevin, you are always coming up with something cool, scanning electron microscope who'd a thought!! Sactosluicer One little piece would tell the tale of what it really is, sounds like a good deal to me.......................63bkpkr