Whats that under the black sand?

[Duckwalk]

S stated in the topic I get this silvery fine sand under my black sand in nearly every pan. Any idea what this is? Better yet, does it tend to hide gold? Sorry if the pics are rotated, doing this from my phone

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Really hard to tell from the photo. I suggest taking it to a local prospecting shop or club meeting to find someone with local experience. That said, if there was gold in there, you'd see it.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Could be:

Mercury?

Zircon?

Telluride?

Garnet?



Do you have a loupe? Can you look at it close up? Much more information needed before we can help you.

 

[golden sluice]

The grey heavy will be the local bedrock or mineral in that region in Georgia. If its hidding your gold, I would try drying the grey sand then mortar grinding it. Re pan it in water with a drop of jet dri, and check for flour gold.

 

[Duckwalk]

I'm just starting out so I didn't know a whole lot. I was wondering if it could be mercury. Doesn't gold bond with that and you have to split the gold from mercury? Assuming that's what it is

 

[KevinInColorado]

I'm just starting out so I didn't know a whole lot. I was wondering if it could be mercury. Doesn't gold bond with that and you have to split the gold from mercury? Assuming that's what it is

yes mercury will coat gold like paint but the coated flakes will clump together. More likely you have a mineral like Clay says. Up in Gilpin County Colorado I've run into tin oxide based minerals that are heavier than black sand just like what you have there...but that material was a yellowish/tan color.

 

[kevin1]

The grey heavy will be the local bedrock or mineral in that region in Georgia. If its hiding your gold, I would try drying the grey sand then mortar grinding it. Re pan it in water with a drop of jet dri, and check for flour gold.

I wonder if it could be platinum...?

I'm just sayin'...

 

[golden sluice]

Like gold, which gleems in your pan. Platnium will gleem in the pan too. Its going to be with the gold. You can pan out all the heavies and be left with gold. Just repeat your panning technique in a rubbermaid trough full of clean water with a little jet dri and use a small metal pan submerged and pan over it. The heavies will fall into the metal pan. And if they drift, you dont want them. This way you can practice and not worry about losing gold.

 

[huntsman53]

I get the same or similar stuff in every pan when prospedcting in North Carolina and Tennessee! I have often wondered if the material might be another heavy metal but don't have a way to test it or know where to get it tested.


Frank

 

[Duckwalk]

I also get it in every single pan no matter the amount of dirt and black sand. I have yet to try the bake and shake treatment tithe black sands. Maybe it will tell us something.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I get the same or similar stuff in every pan when prospedcting in North Carolina and Tennessee! I have often wondered if the material might be another heavy metal but don't have a way to test it or know where to get it tested. Frank

I save all the really heavy stuff, at least for a while to see what accumulates...too many stories of people finding out later that they'd been tossing out valuable minerals.

 

[Doug Watson]

Yes, like the story of all that nasty stuff that was messing up the gold recovery on the Comstock!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Exactly Doug! Similar stories from the Leadville boom days...nasty stuff made panning hard, turned out to be Lead and Silver oxides/sulphides.