Can you identify this mineral?

[Ohiogoldfever]

Howdy.

I’m an Ohio prospector. Everything of value here was once part of Canada and was kindly deposited here by glaciers. That being said it’s a real hodge podge of stuff. Anywho I often find the small iridescent blue flakes in my pans in pretty high amounts. I’m sorry the pictures don’t do it much justice, I figured I’d ask here in the off chance someone recognizes it.

Iridescent gunmetal gray / blue
Breaks in flat planes though thick chunks, not thin like mica
Very heavy, one of the last things to wash out.
Non magnetic

Thoughts? Galena? Maybe calco? Thanks gents!

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Usually hardness and streak tests are the first thing to look at.

Does it appear to to behave heavier than the gold?

If it’s laying in the same band as gold, I’d say look into the possibility of platinum.
Those pieces look pretty angular which would be odd for a soft metal like platinum.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Thanks Imaudigger.

I’ll have to get a streak test kit. Not one of my tools yet.

I’d say it acts about like the gold though it’s always much larger than the gold I get around here so not really apples to apples. I’m not familiar with platinum, not finding it anyhow. I can say it looks more like fragments off a large chunk, not nugget like. I guess I’d assume platinum would act more like a rounded nugget and less like a sharper, brittle mineral, or stone?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I don't know. Just going off your description "gunmetal grey and very heavy, one of the last things out of the pan".

Not many metals with S.G. near gold.

What happens if you press a razor blade on it? Does it fracture or dent the piece?

 

[Madmox]

Thanks Imaudigger.

I’ll have to get a streak test kit. Not one of my tools yet.

I’d say it acts about like the gold though it’s always much larger than the gold I get around here so not really apples to apples. I’m not familiar with platinum, not finding it anyhow. I can say it looks more like fragments off a large chunk, not nugget like. I guess I’d assume platinum would act more like a rounded nugget and less like a sharper, brittle mineral, or stone?

Platinum in nugget form is exceedingly rare. Given it’s a long way from you but there is a tiny little backwater of a town here in CA where platinum nuggets have been found. A place called Platina no less. Not to hijack your thread but my Dads best friends father worked behind the gold dredges on the Sacramento River for platinum as they would discard it as they didn’t consider it to be particularly valuable back then. I concur with IAMAUDIGGER about the razor blade test. Galena does seem possible. That was my first thought.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Also less than 100 miles north of Plantina there are platinum nuggets, rare...but found.

The angular flat shape is probably an indicator.

 

[Madmox]

Also less than 100 miles north of Plantina there are platinum nuggets, rare...but found.

The angular flat shape is probably an indicator.

100 miles north of Platina.... is that like Doris or Etna? Hah

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Dorris...no valuable mineral deposits within 34,000 square miles of there, as far as I know.
Blow sand and lava rock.

Point being there was platinum occasionally found along the California gold belt and up into southern Oregon. Also it comes from space as well apparently.

Not saying that’s what it is...
I’m no expert. Let’s hear the razor test results and a streak test on the bottom of the ceramic toilet lid.

 

[russau]

Thanks Imaudigger.

I’ll have to get a streak test kit. Not one of my tools yet.

I’d say it acts about like the gold though it’s always much larger than the gold I get around here so not really apples to apples. I’m not familiar with platinum, not finding it anyhow. I can say it looks more like fragments off a large chunk, not nugget like. I guess I’d assume platinum would act more like a rounded nugget and less like a sharper, brittle mineral, or stone?

A Streak test is nothing more than a piece of unglazed tile (the rear side of glazed tile) and you have a known mineral and scratch it on the unglazed side of the tile several times to get a good color and then right next to your known mark ,scratch a equal amount of your specimen and compare the two to see if it's what you think it is. Good luck on your potential fortune ! I would think every prospector has one of these mineral I.D. kits !!

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I’ll give it a scratch when I get home from work tonight and post up the results.

I hear ya, I’m getting good at finding the golden stuff, but hell all this other stuff in here too! Not enough to make any real pocket change around here but plenty to wet ones appetite and boots.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Good fun! There are some interesting things that show up in concentrates.
I've always just tossed everything but gold.

Be interesting to see if your able to ID it.
Maybe one of those fancy XRF gadgets that the jewelry shop gold buyers use?

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Ok. So it’s hard as hell. It takes a great deal of force on a razor to bust it in two. The streak is black, brownish black.

After looking around I’m thinking I may have found it?

 

[smokeythecat]

What state was it found in? That makes all the difference.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Maybe...

Looks like the most likely culprit.

Ontario has a ton of silver. That’s my first (hope) I have my smelting stuff nearly together so I’m hoping to amass enough silver sulfides to get a few buttons of electrum.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

The first four words are. I’m an Ohio prospector. Lol

I only as of now prospect around home. I am fortunate that we have a fair number of gold barring creeks pretty close to home. Lots and lots of heavy minerals as well. Lots of garnet and magnetite. Working to sort out some of the others.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I suppose while reading it’s possible to be a couple other options as well. They all seem to have pretty similar properties. The mystery continues.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I suppose while reading it’s possible to be a couple other options as well. They all seem to have pretty similar properties. The mystery continues.

 

[Capt Nemo]

I picked up a few silvery flakes on Superior that held better than the gold in the pan. Thought they might be platinum, but in the bottle they turned black over time, so they're silver.

 

[winners58]

could be silver, lead, platinum or a form of iron, found pieces like that turned out to be Babbitt,
also found a chunk of smatter? turns out they used cars from the 20s & 30s
to keep the river bank from washing out, they used to use a lead alloy to fill the cracks between where they connected the finders on as a filler.
could be galena, antimony or a natural alloy like electrum but more silver or bismuth.
hardness and streak might help identify it. My Dad would take slivers and a blowtorch on a carbon block and could tell what it was from the stain left.
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/process-used-to-identify-minerals

 

[Reed Lukens]

Take some in and get it identified, you just never know