Anyone have any success detecting for raw Silver?
Is Silver something worth seeking with a metal detector?
Hi Goldfynger… we’ve had some success hunting native silver up here in northeastern Ontario. From discussions with other hobbyists over the years, apparently there are a number of areas around the continent that produced detectable native silver.
Reviewing websites with native silver samples for sale, it would seem that specimen value has little direct relationship to bullion value. Attractive dendritic silver or any structurally appealing silver in a light-hued calcite matrix is highly prized by collectors, and therefore quite valuable. Moreover, there is a ready market for slabs of very ordinary, non-descript silver and mixed ore samples containing small amounts of silver.
It should go without saying that we only post photos of attractive / photogenic specimens, and readers don’t see the excessive quantities of rusty iron and modern day trash that we detect and usually must dig for one reason or another. Such trash comprises the bulk of our metal detecting recoveries and it is tedious hard work to remove it.
Our silver producing areas in Ontario have seen intensive detecting pressure for some 40+ years. Much of the detectable surface material has long since been removed. For the casual hobbyist, specimen-grade silver is much more difficult to find nowadays. We frequently resort to removing surface material, for example raking productive sites, sinking exploratory testholes, and trenching where indications look promising. It’s a lot of work that often produces no worthwhile results, but these tiresome techniques do account for much of our success in this area.
Hope this information helps to answer your questions and provide a quick overview of what is involved with successful silver recovery. Below are some nice examples of more commonly found small silver that we’ve detected over the years using either ground-balancing PI or suitable prospecting-capable VLF metal detectors………………. Jim.
