Silver,Gold,Copper? Found in the wilderness

[silverspur]

I found this in the wilderness in a creek with my U-Max. It weighs a tad over 3lbs and theres plenty more where this came from. I dont know if its Gold, bearing copper ore, with iron or silver, but it has quartz mixed in with it. If I can find a geologist I will have him take a look at it. Nothing like getting away from the daily busy routine of life and blazing a trail into the wild. Check out the third photo down has a nice spot of what looks like gold.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Looks a lot like ore I have found in Leadville---galena, sphalerite, calcite, pyrite, chalcopyrite. and lots of brown iron staining. Probably lots of other minerals, also, but that is all I can recall off the top of my head. The white may be the calcite or could be quartz. Or dolomite. . Those can make you think you are rich! You have any history of mines in the area? Seems I remember some out there somewhere. And some lead drop towers from way back when. You know the territory.

Here are a couple of my yard rocks. Sorry, the pyrite didn't show up too well, but all those little "tarnished gold" spots are pyrite crystals.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Ok, here are 3 more, perhaps a little better. I wish I knew how to put circles and arrows on the photo, with a description for each one.

 

[silverspur]

Looks a lot like ore I have found in Leadville---galena, sphalerite, calcite, pyrite, chalcopyrite. and lots of brown iron staining. Probably lots of other minerals, also, but that is all I can recall off the top of my head. The white may be the calcite or could be quartz. Or dolomite. . Those can make you think you are rich! You have any history of mines in the area? Seems I remember some out there somewhere. And some lead drop towers from way back when. You know the territory.

Here are a couple of my yard rocks. Sorry, the pyrite didn't show up too well, but all those little "tarnished gold" spots are pyrite crystals.

Yeah we have the copperbasin in the area, and coker creek, I live really close to the NC and Georgia border right near the gold belt. Your yard rocks look really similar, do they pick up with your detector? Yes they do make you feel like maybe you found a nice mother load, it drives my wife nuts how much I pay attention to rocks.

 

[High Plains Digger]

I haven't taken a detector to them so I don't know what they will do. I do know they are VERY heavy from the galena in them, and the first one just about burned my hand off while I was photoing it. The metal in it just kept on cooking. So do these appear similar to yours? Like I said, especially the chalcopyrite makes it look like real mother lode. Leadville mined a lot of silver, but the veins of other metals made it tough to get to. There were enough veins of silver to make a lot of men rich.

 

[traderoftreasures]

where exactly did you find it?

 

[silverspur]

where exactly did you find it?

I'm a firm believer that we have an advantage on the old timers when it comes to finding gold, silver or treasure cache's. With the use of modern technology, research and time we can really up our chances of finding the goods. I said this to my uncle and his response was " Yeah, but let me tell you something the old timers knew where to find the gold." As he went on to tell me about his dads buddies who would go into the Blue Ridge Mtns and always come home with a handful of nuggets. I get his point, but still we have a real advantage if we will use the technology and wealth of information we have around us. With that being said, there is old documents of a lost silver patch in a creek in my state, it has been lost for over a hundred years, a few men knew its location and it produced very rich silver ore with gold and copper. There is enough clues if you do your homework to really narrow down your chances of finding it. Thats what I did, and thats what I went looking for and this is what I've found. Maybe its nothing, but then again, there's nothing like a good researched treasure hunt. As far as the location thats all I'm saying.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Black Cloud Mine talilings dump, Leadville Colo. I don't know about silver, but you definitely seem to have found an area of mineralization. There could be a vein of silver there somewhere. But silver and gold don't always look like silver and gold. There is a chunk of rock in the Denver Museum that a dozer driver found beside the road. I wouldn't have given it a second glance. Well, maybe a curious glance, but I would not have known what it was. But it has a composite of gold (I don't remember what exactly it is called, or it's chemistry) and like hundreds of ounces of gold. Was sitting beside the road for a number of years. Threw it in the back of his truck.

Good luck on the search. Someone should find it, may it be you.