hi Guys I'm new to the forum. I found this rock and need help identifying it. Its fairly large rock with silver like veins and it is slightly magnetic.
Yes the its magnetic. I don't have a metal detector(I want one). I found the rock while cleaning rocks off an old road in CA. It was large approx 40lb black rock with a rusty iron streaks on the outside. I crushed some small pieces with a hammer and panned it. the darker stuff sticks to the magnet like black sand and sliver/white pieces are heavier than the black sand stuff.
I don't know much about ore, or how to do different tests. But I don't think silver ore is necessarily silver color. If it's really heavy, it might be platinum, but I can't help you as far as testing goes.
If the "silver" material is a metal, it should flatten out when beaten with a hammer even if it's platinum, if it shatters/breaks up it's not a metal but some type of mineral.
It's not silver that for sure, native silver would be almost if not completely black due to it's propensity to tarnish.
Chances are if you took a blowtorch to the exposed "silver", the surrounding rock would shatter and pop like popcorn, I suspect micro silica in the matrix. Its definately an ore of some type.
Thanks Guys, It does crumble when smashed with the hammer. And I tried the blowtorch method on a piece the size of a quarter it glowed red And after it cooled it looked like metal slag and crumbled really easy. So is it just a really cool rock to look at or would it be worth having it tested?