Questions about silver from a noob

[littlestoney406]

Hello folks. I know this is the gold panning section but I couldn't find anywhere else to go with it. I have recently started some excavating here at the house and when digging, I noticed what appears to be flakes of silver all through the soil. I live in eastern KY, up a holler and have heard old timers talk about a silver mine in the area, but always figured they were blowing smoke like most other stories since this doesn't really seem like the area for silver mining, but how knows. I guess the questions are, could I be mistaking this for some other type of mineral? Can silver be panned like gold? Is there any good way to determine if it is silver? And would it be worth the hassle of prospecting this if it is silver?

 

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[surfin]

Eastern Ky does have gold. I seen some come out of the Olive Hill area before and I know that south and east of there it gets better. Not a ton of gold in the region you better for gold in the glacier drift areas in North Eastern KY. Also it wouldn't be unrealistic to find garnets, diamonds and other precious stones. As for is it productive to look for silver. Hey any time your out side prospecting its more productive then being home......Maybe one of the silver miners can help you more specifically..

have fun

 

[riverrunner814]

The silver flakes may be mica ive seen some in NY. Most silver will have a tarnesh look to it like an old silver dollar check this site http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...8491294AC07AA21CC7BB3A230&FORM=IDFRIR#x0y1146 for pictures

 

[littlestoney406]

Thanks for the input guys. Its not tarnished looking. Its bright and shiny. I'm ordering panning supplies right now. When that comes in I'll try my hand at it and post some pics and see what you guys think. BTW I do live in North Eastern KY. Actually as far NE as you can go, where the Big Sandy dumps into the Ohio.

 

[B H Prospector]

If it is silver it will act much like gold in the pan and lag behind the rest of the material when swirled. If it is mica it will tumble away with the rest of the light material when swirled.

B H Prospector

 

[littlestoney406]

Thanks B H. I've found all kinds of info on panning gold, but nothing on silver. Probably didn't look hard enough. But I figured that is how it would work. Hopefully my pan and snuffer bottle will so up in the mail tomorrow and I can get started.

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND AFTER CLEANING AND SCUFFING YOUR PAN TRY PANNING A LITTLE BIT OF LEAD. CHIP SOME OFF OF A FISHING WEIGHT OF HAMMER A FEW "BBs" FLAT. LEAD IS ABOUT ONE HALF THE WEIGHT OF GOLD. I AM NOT SURE WHERE SILVER FITS ON THE SCALE BUT IT SHOULD ACT ABOUT THE SAME AS LEAD. ALSO YOU NEED TO CHECK FOR THE HARDNESS OF THE FLAKES. PLACE A FLAKE ON SOMETHING LIKE A CUTTING BOARD, WOOD OR PLASTIC, AND PRESS DOWN ON IT WITH A POCKETKNIFE BLADE. IF IT JUST DENTS THE FLAKE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT IT'S SILVER. IF IT CRACKS OR SHATTERS IT IS NOT LIKELY TO BE SILVER.
I MADE A MISTAKE WHEN I FIRST STARTED PANNING. I FOUND A HARDPACKED CREEK BANK AND DUG OUT WHAT I THOUGHT WAS SILVER AND THEN I FOUND SOME GOLDEN COLOR ON PEICES. I THOUGHT I HAD FOUND A SILVER MINE, PARTS WERE BRIGHT SILVER AND OTHERS WERE JUST GRAY. EVERY THING LOOKED LIKE SMALL NUGGETS. AS IT TURNED OUT I HAD FOUND A SPOT WHERE SOMEONE HAD BEEN TARGET SHOOTING INTO THE BANK.
I FELT LIKE A FOOL. I KEPT THE PEICES TO REMIND ME WHAT NOT TO LOOK FOR. I LATER PAINTED THEM METALIC GOLD AND USE THEM WHEN TEACHING KIDS HOW TO WORK A GOLD PAN. THEY KNOW THEY ARE FAKE BUT THEY KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND WHAT REAL NUGGETS LOOK LIKE. THEY HAVE FOOLED SOME EXPERIENCED PROSPECTORS AT A GLANCE.
I HOPE YOURS IS ALL SILVER AND GOLD. AND WELCOME TO THE FEVER!!!
GOOD LUCK AND HH

PROSPECTORMIKEL

 

[littlestoney406]

Thanks for the advice Mike. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[highdesertranger]

prospector mikel dont feel bad thats all i find with my detector haha. plus cans, pull tabs, fishhooks, square nails, nails, bottle caps, nuts and bolts. keep trying. highdesertranger

 

[littlestoney406]

Ok. Finally got my pan and snuffer bottle (seller decided to wait 4 business days after I paid to ship), got a little bit of dirt that had what I was talking about and some time to try my hand at it. So now, all the silver? that I panned out stayed in the pan and didn't come out with the dirt but there is plenty of sand in the dirt and the flakes or dust is the same size as the sand and I can't get them to separate. The silver? stays with the sand as I more the pan around. Should silver do this? If so, how can I separate it in the pan?

 

[Gramps43]

Iit's black sand you try a magnet. If you have a tall pill bottle, about an inch or so in dia., and a magnet that will fit inside you could go with this. Punch a hole in the top, tie the magnet a chunk of string and pass the string through the hole and tie a ring to the free end.

Now with the black sand and silver all dried out and in a small plastic container, you'll need 3 or 4 of these, put the mag. in the bottle and secure the cap. Run the bottom of the bottle back & forth through the cons several times, lift the bottle straight up out of that contnr. and into the first empty contnr. and pull the mag. to the top of the bottle. The black sand will drop into the contnr., you're not done yet though. Let the mag. drop and do it all over again with the second cont. and repeat with the third contnr..

What you end up with in the forth container should be nothing but black sand and the other three contnrs. will have a few non-magnetics and the object of attraction.

Gramps

 

[littlestoney406]

Thanks for the advice gramps, but it's not black sand it's regular old sand.

This is from a piece of dirt little bigger than the size of a golf ball.

 

[Gramps43]

Ah-ha well then I reckon it's just a matter of real carefull panning. On second thought have you tried something like a Henry's poop Tube or a piece of 4" X 4' PVC cut in half lengthwise and lined with ribbed mat set at about 25° with a small pump in a recirc. sys..

Gramps

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

YOU HAVE A GOOD PHOTO THERE... IT SHOWS ONE OF THE POSSIBLE PROBLEMS.
YOU NEED TO GET ALL OF YOUR DIRT DOWN TO THE SIZE OF YOUR POSSIBLE SILVER SPECKS.
IT TAKES ABOUT THE SAME WATER FORCE TO MOVE THE LARGER PEICES OF DIRT AS IT TAKES
TO MOVE THE SMALLER HEAVIER SPECKS. THE SIMPLEST FIX IS TO RUN IT THRU A SCREEN
FINE ENOUGH TO REMOVE ALL OF THE SMALL PEBBLES AND COURSE SAND, THEN CAREFULLY
PAN THESE CONS TO GET A CLEAR SEPERATION. WHEN YOU GET DOWN TO THE POINT THAT YOU CAN SEE THE LIGHTER MATERIAL MOVE AND THE HEAVY PARTICLES STAY STILL YOU CAN
SEE THAT THERE IS A CLEAR DIFFERENCE IN THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF YOUR MATERIAL.

IT IS CLEAR IN THE PHOTO THAT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO TELL IF IT IS
SILVER OR NOT.

THE FACT THAT YOU CAN GET THAT MUCH SEPPERATION WITH THE DIFFERENT SIZE PARTICLES
IS A GOOD SIGN THAT THEY ARE HEAVY.

HERE IN NW ARK. IT IS EASY TO GET, WHAT I HAVE BEEN TOLD ARE "SAND DIAMONDS".
I HAVE PICKED UP A FEW SPECKS OF GOLD MIXED WITH THESE TINY SPECKS. THEY ARE
MICROSCOPIC, TO THE POINT THAT I HAVE USED MY HAND HELD 60X - 100X MICROSCOPE TO
COUNT THE GOLD PARTICLES AND THE SAND DIAMONDS, YOU CAN GET 25 TO 35 SPECKS IN THE EYE OF A NEEDLE, AND MAYBE ONE SPECK OF GOLD, AND AT THAT RATIO THE SAND DIAMONDS REFLECT THE COLOR OF THE GOLD.

WHEN I FIRST DISCOVERED THIS, I THOUGHT THAT IT WAS ALL FLOUR GOLD. IT TOOK THE
MICROSCOPE TO SHOW THE DIFFERENCE. YOU CAN GET ONE OF THESE POCKET MICROSCOPES AT RADIO SHACK, FOR ABOUT $10, THEY ARE VERY HANDY IN CASES SUCH AS THESE.

WITH THE PRICE OF SILVER AROUND $40 PER OZ. YOU MAY FIND ENOUGH SILVER OR GOLD TO
GET YOUR MONEY BACK IN JUST A FEW YEARS. THAT IS ABOUT THE TIME IT TOOK FOR ME TO RECOVER MY INVESTMENT... THE SAND DIAMONDS ARE WORTHLESS, THEY JUST GET IN THE WAY.

YOUR SPECKS ARE MUCH BIGGER THAN THE SAND DIAMONDS AND THE GOLD SPECKS THAT I FOUND.

I HOPE YOU CAN FIND SOMETHING IN ALL OF THIS THAT HELPS.

HAPPY HUNTING (HH)

PROSPECTORMIKEL

 

[littlestoney406]

That is a good idea Gramps. It's kinda funny that you called it a poop tube, because I was installing the septic system for my new place when I found this.

And Mike, it take me long to realize that I need a classifier. I have gathered some more dirt, and I'll try to make me some type of classifier. From what I have seen from the ones for sell online, a 2x4 box and some window screen would probably do a decent job. That and my panning needs some work, I never done this before, but I did watch some videos on YouTube.

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

QUICK,CHEAP FIX....TEA STRAINER OR FLOUR SIFTER...
FILL THE GOLD PAN WITH WATER AND ONE DROP OF SOAP.
PUT MATERIAL IN THE SIFTER AND DIP INTO WATER REPEATEDLY, THE SMALL STUFF WILL
MAKE ITS WAY THRU.
SAVE THE STUFF IN THE SIFTER IN ANOTHER PAN, JUST IN CASE THERE ARE LARGER PARTICLES
OF "SILVER" IN THE SIFTER.... PAN THE LARGER STUFF SEPERATLY.

THAT IS HOW I RUN MY CONS THRU MY HOME MADE BLUE BOWL.

GOOD LUCK.

MIKEL

 

[Gramps43]

I made three classifiers with three ice cream buckets from the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I cut them off about three inches from the bottom and then cut out the bottom leaving about a ½". Then pop rivited some 1/4" - 1/8" and 1/16" (window screen) with washers as backing. They work great and nest inside of each for compact stowage.

Gramps

 

[PROSPECTORMIKEL]

WELL, LITTLESTONEY,

I'M INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT BETWEEN THE HALF DOZEN OF US THAT HAVE PUT OUR HEADS TOGETHER HERE AND THE FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY, PLUS THAT HAVE VIEWED YOUR THREAD, YOU MIGHT HAVE TO REMOVE YOUR TITLE AS A "NOOBY".

GRAMPS, THAT SOUNDS LIKE A REALLY GOOD SET OF CLASSIFIERS... SMALLER THAN A GOLD PAN AND NESTING TO BOOT. A FELLA CAN PUT ALL OF THAT AND A FEW SMALL DIGGIN' TOOLS TOGETHER IN A BACK PACK AND STILL HAVE ROOM FOR SOME BOTTLED WATER AND A CAN OF BEENIE-WEENIES. A RECIPIE FOR PRODUCTIVE FUN.

I AM ALSO INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT YOU MAY JUST HAVE FOUND SOME SILVER SCRAPINGS.
JUST LIKE GOLD, SILVER CAN BE SCRAPED OFF OF IT'S "MOTHERLOAD" AND TURNED INTO FLAKES AND EVEN DUST. IT ALSO MAY BE PLATINUM, IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE ABOUT THE SAME SPECIFIC GRAVITY AS GOLD.... THAT BEING SAID, DON'T FAIL TO LOOK UP STREAM TO FIND WHERE IT CAME FROM.

GOOD LUCK AND "GOD BLESS".

MIKEL