Found some silver like dust? anyone?

[jvan]

I am new to panning, and I live in placerville, ca I was panning and came across tons of black sand and below the black sand was much of this silver like shine dust... Does anyone know what this could be? any guesses?

also tons of mica, don't know if that helps to know what kind of minerals are around here

 

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[Oakview2]

Fire with a torch in a well ventilated area, mercury burns off at low temps, if it is still there it should be assayed. Seccond pic is some gold from our claim with mercury, first pic is some platinum from the same claim. Fire assay came up with 7 ozs per ton from magnetics black sands

 

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[TravyLeigh]

7 oz per ton is very good. You could run 2000 pounds pretty easily

 

[Oakview2]

You must collect 2000 lbs of magnetic cons before you can run anything, not and easy task under the current conditions.

 

[TravyLeigh]

Ohhhh 7 ounces per ton of CONCENTRATE

 

[Bonaro]

Identifying minerals with pictures is like diagnosing car problems over the phone....kinda hit and miss
If the following is true:
you panned correctly
it is heavier than black sand
It is silver in color

then: it has to be Mercury or Platinum

Do you own a microscope or strong loupe?

 

[lyco panner]

I was in the North Carolina a couple of days ago on business and managed to get out for a little while and do some highbanking and while doing some clean up the black sand is mixed with silver like specs any idea ?