What is this mineral

[salty_pirate]

It's heavy and left with my black sand and gold its white almost light grey

 

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[wvwildman]

silver maybe?

 

[Gold Maven]

is it mercury covered gold?

is this from a stream that was worked in the old days?

 

[smokeythecat]

Probably mercury covered gold, I've found it different places. Definately a keeper.

 

[salty_pirate]

Yes the creek was worked back in the day. so mercury layer over the gold? I'm new to this so Wouldn't know if its mercury but I will do some research on it now thanks!

 

[sagthegreat]

It could be platinum?

 

[DesertNuggets]

Does look like mercury covered gold.

 

[Gold Maven]

save them, but keep them separate from the clean gold.

 

[salty_pirate]

Cool I will take it into the gold pan shop to verify as its difficult to judge off a cell pic. Thanks for the suggestions my friend has claimed to find platinum around here so that's a possibility too. Ill post what it ends up being with a better picture when I find out.

 

[Fullpan]

If its mercury - it will be a micron-coating on a piece of gold. You can take one of the tiny pieces in the pic, put it into an old coffee cup or ceramic saucer
that you THROW AWAY afterward. A minute on the stove will burn off the mercury, leaving the yellow gold unfazed. This is just a test to see if its mercury.
If it is mercury, you can collect the pieces in a separate vial and when you accumulate several grams, find out how to process SAFELY. And remember to
NOT BREATH THE FUMES during your test.

 

[oldbrundogg]

Mercury and gold from the feather river.

OBD

 

[DizzyDigger]

Don't know where you are in the US, but here in W. Wash. I often get bits of lead
remaining with the gold, and it is a white/grey color.

Is it hard, or can you dent it with a fingernail?

 

[419GottaMinute]

Rub it against the bottim of your gold pan; if it leaves a streak its lead. DO NOT BURN INSIDE YOUR HOUSE, MERCURY FUMES CAN BE FATAL. An easier test is to put it in a vial with flour gold and leave it over night. Check the next day to see if the flour gold is now stuck to it. If so, its mercury. If not, could be lead, silver, platinum, etc.