In the rock is a hard place to find gold.

I

Idclare

Guest
Found some ore a couple years back. I excavated about 2000 lb. I've had two Assays dun. One reads. .056 gold, 5.518 silver and 0 platinum. This is with a fire assay The other one reads .0050 gold, 1.628 silver dun by Super leach . Spectrographic reads. 5% iron calcium and zinc. 1 to 5% copper and manganese. I will take any and all incites as to what value I have in the 2000 lbs I have? Is it worth processing??????????
 

Chris in BC

Full Member
Mar 19, 2003
155
38
Langley
Detector(s) used
Minelab X-Terra 705
Keene 5" dredge
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
What size was the assay sample, was it pulverized by yourself, or bulk sampled by assayer?I dont understand the numbers you are quoting unless this is PPm or PPB, gotta clear these things up before anyone could begin to guess what you are looking at, 2000 lbs is not alot of material unless it all assays fantastically. Chris
 

Upvote 0

bakergeol

Bronze Member
Feb 4, 2004
1,268
176
Colorado
Detector(s) used
GS5 X-5 GMT
I assume the assayer's values and the leach results are in oz/ton. Even worst if g/ton. Either way No you don't have anything worth processing here. Even at oz/ton you have what?$40+ of silver in your rock pile. I assume you probably collected these at an old mine dump? Further investigation would be warranted if this was a new discovery.

However,I do recommend that you run a single frequency VLF over them looking for specimen gold in your samples. I use an X-5 over mine dumps.

George
 

Upvote 0
OP
OP
I

Idclare

Guest
It was a one pound sample. And yes my numbers are in tons.
I found this ore in a wash just below a highway. It was bulldozed there when they made the road. But they also put a culvert right there in that spot. Which made the dry wash. There doesn?t seem to be anything in ether direction of the highway. Just there. Below it was a well worked shaft. What is a single frequency VLF? This is intriguing to me because I am finding wire and what looks like leafing. What kind of cost am I looking at for one. I have a couple samples that?s waits range from 150 to 200 lb. So I have allot that can be broke up to find unoxidized samples.
 

Upvote 0

bakergeol

Bronze Member
Feb 4, 2004
1,268
176
Colorado
Detector(s) used
GS5 X-5 GMT
When the assayer takes your sample he only uses about 30 grams for a fire assay.

Appears your samples are from an old mine at that location. You mentioned some wire and leaf specimens-Are we talking about gold specimens or silver.?My guess is that you probably have some thin silver bearing galena as veinlets in your samples?Cubic, gray to silver/gray colored crystals?.

Show these specimens to somebody knowledgeable. Geologist, prospecting club. I imagine you live in the west where a lot of detector dealers are old nugget hunters and they could tell you what the samples are. Only if these turn out to be gold should you consider a metal detector(VLF) purchase. Good wire gold specimens are quite valuable. If they turn out to be gold- visit a detector dealer to see which gold detectors will detect these. Gold Bug2, Tesoro SLT, Whites GMT are a few VLFs you should look at. Here is a link for gold detector selection. I have seen quite a few used ones for $400
http://bb.bbboy.net/alaskagoldforum-viewthread?forum=2&thread=349

Again if you have some silver(commonly occurs with galena which is a lead sulfide)) specimens odds are they won't be valuable unless they were native silver or spectacular in appearance. Being from Colorado I have lots of silver specimens which mainly take up space.

By the way VLF means very low frequency. Not discussing Minelabs EX11 and Sov- metal detectors(coin, relic and gold) are either VLFs or PIs( pulse Induction used in prospecting, beach. underwater)
George
 

Upvote 0
OP
OP
I

Idclare

Guest
bakergeol said:
When the assayer takes your sample he only uses about 30 grams for a fire assay.

Appears your samples are from an old mine at that location. You mentioned some wire and leaf specimens-Are we talking about gold specimens or silver.?My guess is that you probably have some thin silver bearing galena as veinlets in your samples?Cubic, gray to silver/gray colored crystals?.

Show these specimens to somebody knowledgeable. Geologist, prospecting club. I imagine you live in the west where a lot of detector dealers are old nugget hunters and they could tell you what the samples are. Only if these turn out to be gold should you consider a metal detector(VLF) purchase. Good wire gold specimens are quite valuable. If they turn out to be gold- visit a detector dealer to see which gold detectors will detect these. Gold Bug2, Tesoro SLT, Whites GMT are a few VLFs you should look at. Here is a link for gold detector selection. I have seen quite a few used ones for $400
http://bb.bbboy.net/alaskagoldforum-viewthread?forum=2&thread=349

Again if you have some silver(commonly occurs with galena which is a lead sulfide)) specimens odds are they won't be valuable unless they were native silver or spectacular in appearance. Being from Colorado I have lots of silver specimens which mainly take up space.

By the way VLF means very low frequency. Not discussing Minelabs EX11 and Sov- metal detectors(coin, relic and gold) are either VLFs or PIs( pulse Induction used in prospecting, beach. underwater)
George
Thanks for the info George.
 

Upvote 0

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top