Flour SILVER????

[goldenIrishman]

Ok... I've been working some materials from our wash here in Arizona and after sluicing it down and cleaning up the concentrates I'm finding a lot of what looks like flour silver in the black sands. Now I know that some of the gold here is very light colored because of the amount of silver mixed up in it but this stuff does not have any golden tint to it at all.

Is it possible that it's silver?

 

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[AzViper]

Maybe Mercury covered gold... Lots of Mercury was used to recover gold.

 

[pmgsourdough]

Have to agree with Viper. Amalgamation is a beautiful thing! If you are going to attempt seperation, then please be cautious.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Natural, free silver would be black from oxidation.

 

[goldenIrishman]

I don't think it's mercury but that is a possibility as there was a lot of Cinnabar mined not to far from here. Hard to believe that there would be THAT much natural mercury running around though. I'm starting to think that it might be a good investment to pick up a small microscope so I can get a close-up view of this stuff. It's so small that even with my glasses on and using a strong magnifying glass it's hard to get a clear view of it. (No... My eyes aren't THAT bad. It's that small!)

What about using something like Tarn-X on a small sample of it to see if that cleans it up? I know it won't effect mercury but if it is oxidized silver I would think that would cause some kind of change.

 

[kazcoro]

I think you should throw it out and concentrate on gold. If you have a ton of it, that would be a different animal entirely.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

If it's heavy enough to end up with the gold it might be Platinum. I find very fine flour platinum after I take the bigger gold out of the pan. It is heaver than gold, but I've only seen very fine flour platinum.

 

[kazcoro]

Don't get me wrong, it would be cool to have a sliver of silver in a vial, but you would have to have a bucket full to make any money. If it is platinum on the other hand......

 

[goldenIrishman]

Already have some silver in a vial Kaz. That's what had me wondering. We've decided to send a sample off for analysis this week and I'll let ya'll know what we find out when the results come back. If nothing else it will be educational to say the least.

 

[chowe]

I would keep it,it adds up overtime.I find alot of it ranging from weathered to crystalline.

 

[Hoser John]

Just take a torch of any kind to it,if it melts it's silver--turns yellow gold --just looks at ya it's a member of the pt group-all good,some MUCH better-John

 

[Goldwasher]

be ABSOLUTELY sure it is not Mercury on gold before you use a torch.

 

[Hoser John]

ain't nuttn' there LOOK at the pic hahahaha-John

 

[chowe]

What pic you talking about john?

 

[goldenIrishman]

be ABSOLUTELY sure it is not Mercury on gold before you use a torch.

Trust me I will. I worked as a lab tech with a lot of dangerous stuff and I have NO interest in going "Mad as a Hatter" (Not that it would be all that much of a difference mind you) The sample is going out to the lab within the next day or two and I'll let them figure out what the heck it is and if it's worth saving.