Any other black heavy minerals in BS?

[Capt Nemo]

I'm finding a lot of magnetite in the blond sand tailings. Are there any other dark heavy minerals that could be present that might be pushing the magnetite out? I've seen magnetite that clumps and gets real light once magnetised, but I haven't ran a magnet in this stuff yet. I'm thinking there might be somthing running a high 5 to 6 SG which would displace the iron. I think sending a sample in for testing is in order. Would be cool to find something like uranium. It also seems to run slower on the miller table. The gold sits like normal, but the BS isn't moving as easily.

I do have a 1 gal sample of wild material I can send for the test.

 

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[rodoconnor]

Tungsten [ scheelite] is a possibiilty.

 

[Buckshotnc]

Here in Western North Carolina we have hematite along with the magnetite making up the heavy black sands.

 

[Capt Nemo]

I don't know of any tungsten deposits in Canada that could have come down with the glacier. I do know that some black specked granite that had uranium came down in a few large boulders. The black specks had the uranium. The one I know of tested 0.001% U. Still enough to drive a geiger counter wild. Then again, Canada has a lot of unexplored areas, so there's the possibility of an unknown deposit up there.

North and east of Superior there's gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, iron, manganese, cobalt, and nickel. At least that's what I know of.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Here in Western North Carolina we have hematite along with the magnetite making up the heavy black sands.

We have a ton of it here too. I normally find about 30% magnetite and 70% hematite in the sands. But hematite is a little lighter (-.1 to -.2) in SG if I remember correctly. So magnetite should be at the bottom of the pan with hematite at the top, or at least closely intermixed. I'm seeing the magnetite at the surface, so whatever it is must be heavier.

I've seen soft black sandstone pebbles that turn your fingers reddish purple when crushed. (manganese)

I really won't know till I get it tested.

 

[wildminer]

Not an expert here, but what about chromite? We have it here in areas that has manganese deposits.

 

[ClaimStake]

@capt nemo, that area just "west" of you between oshkosh and strongs prairie looks good for uranium. I would search particularly between and around big flats and hancock

remember the term gold wears an iron hat. if you aren't finding gold "in" the heavies look next to them.

if there's enough pressure the gold and iron will get separated too.

also pressure differences can occur horizontally (in layers).

for those that haven't read this;

the pangea supercontinent theory is easily proven wrong by simple logic in gravity. dirt is heavier than water. if all the land mass is on one side with the water on the other. that would make the planet unbalanced. the water would be uphill.
gravity is a push not a pull(shadowing theory);https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...not a pull

the landmass, water, atmosphere, everything. is being continuously accelerated from west to east. space is moving and it blows us along(that's an analogy it's way more complex than that) our solar system is like an over glorified electric motor.
also it travels faster at the equator than the polls. (usually) things get accelerated and decelerated over short distances.

as landmass is moving, what is ahead must move out the way. if it does not then the mass will be pushed to the polls and spun counter-clockwise "always no exceptions ever". if it can not, then it will lift and push into void(mountain building/volcanoes).

if there is a reduction in pressure you will get valleys, oceans, lakes, ponds, meadows eccetera.

also if you have areas that get spun up faster than the surrounding terrain like our northern valley here. notice the butte mountains are smack dab in the centre like a hub on a wheel.
you will often get a lot of pressure around such structures. think of a tire pealing out and the rooster tail behind it especially east. the central and southern valley is doing the same thing but in the shape of a chainsaw (elongated).

everything is in continuous motion. as the land moves so does the creeks, rivers, and glaciers. a river doesn't eat through the terrain. the terrain gets pushed apart.

everything is under pressure. if one thing tries to move it'll affect what's immediately around it.

think of a mountain as if it's sticking together. from the smallest grain of sand to the largest boulders. the position and movement of every part is dependent on every other part based on proximity.

if you are facing south and looking down hill. the ground in front of you at your feet will be moving faster to your left than the ground behind your feet. it will be hanging back.

if you are facing south and into the hill. the ground in front of your feet will be hanging back. while the ground behind you will be heading to your right.

whether or not the ground is traveling uphill or eroding down is dependent on the amount of pressure relative to velocity.

light materials will travel to areas that have high velocity and low pressure. heavy materials will travel to any area of low velocity regardless of pressure. the higher the pressure. the better gold is held in place and often the gold is bigger. low pressure gives you fine gold.
also the classification of materials is dependent on this as well. high pressure big things, low pressure small things. now you know what determines the size of gold.

so if everything rotates counter-clockwise. what happens when you put two gears together and try to rotate them in the same direction. they grind together.
now we're not dealing with gears. the terrain acts like clay or water on a planetary scale. materials will transfer back and forth "across" the waterway

think of washes and waterways as being the seams of the solid terrain structure where things are able to slide "more" freely, not entirely. they are low pressure at high velocity.

if you're standing in a creek. facing north, the hill you are looking at will be moving to your right. the hill behind you will be moving to your left. if some kinetic force is able to push the mountain in front or behind you across the creek, it'll scoop up the creek bed materials and create a low velocity area. now you know why bends and gravel bars hold gold. and why they form.

one last thing. look at all the objects in your environment including yourself, everything is made up of an endless mixture of basic fundamental shapes. circles, squares, triangles, eccetera. and those shapes are made up of two fundamental components. lines and curves.

look at the power symbol on most electronic components.

 

[smokeythecat]

Titanium, as in rutile. Also uraninite sands. However not likely in Wisconsin.

 

[Capt Nemo]

@capt nemo, that area just "west" of you between oshkosh and strongs prairie looks good for uranium. I would search particularly between and around big flats and hancock

That's where the uranium containing glacial boulders were found. Nothing worth mining though. 0.001% U in the black flakes of a granite. Did get the locals excited way back when, especially when they misread the decimal point. There might be some sands there with the boulders.

This sand is from Lake Superior. I took sand from various spots in the slick of black sand on the beach. It seems to be happening in one bucket and not the rest, so it's probably a small lens of something else laid down with the iron sand. But we are finding gold in it. I am checking a mineral guide, and there are a few possibilities there. I forget the name right now, but there was a Pb/Cu/Zn/Fe? mineral that is black with a SG of 7 or 8 that could be a possibility, but the guide says the formation is limited to the west. Most of these elements though are present locally so they're a good bet. I'll try posting a list when I get a little time.

 

[ClaimStake]

That's where the uranium containing glacial boulders were found. Nothing worth mining though. 0.001% U in the black flakes of a granite. Did get the locals excited way back when, especially when they misread the decimal point. There might be some sands there with the boulders.

if that's the case you just helped add more evidence to this theory.

million likes thanks.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Here's some of the possibilities.

Descloizite, 5.9-6.2 (Pb,Cu,Zn,V)
Uranitite, 6.5-10 (U)
Cassiterite, 6.8-7.1 (Sn)
Wolframite/Ferberite 7.12-7.51 (Fe,Mn,W/Fe,W)

Of these, we have copper, iron, and manganese in the area, so wolframite and descloizite might be possibilities. I do find small grains of lead every so often on the miller table. Whether these are natural or fragments of fishing tackle is unknown. Wolframite does weather to ferberite giving up it's manganese, and there's manganese staining of the Pictured Rocks cliffs to the west. The lake moves that material east to my location. I may be dealing with tungsten.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Not an expert here, but what about chromite? We have it here in areas that has manganese deposits.

Don't know about chromite, but cobaltite is another possibility coming down from Canada.

OMG! Just saw a 2001 price for .9999 tungsten powder at $2900 a pound! I might have 20 lbs of it in the bucket! That would pay for a trip.

Another weird thing with this material is that I can't get the very bottom of the pan to stratify properly. Every time I pour off into the concentrate bucket, I see a blond sand layer near the bottom of the pan. I think there's so much black sand above it pressing down that it locks up the bottom. I've not seen anything like this before. It makes me think there's something really heavy up top. If it's tungsten, there is!

The only thing I kinda dread would be finding it's uranium. I'm not using precautions for handling radioactives.

 

[ClaimStake]

where gloves and move the material around as you pan it down.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Blond sand at the bottom is likely a tin compound- quite dense. It's supposed to be at the bottom.

Don't sweat the uranium, it'll barely register on a detector since it's not properly concentrated (via centrifuge).

 

[Jason in Enid]

Titanium, as in rutile. Also uraninite sands. However not likely in Wisconsin.

Yeah, I have a spot where I find Ti/Ni in my heavies. It's strange seeing a "blond" that behaves just like BS

 

[rodoconnor]

Yeah, I have a spot where I find Ti/Ni in my heavies. It's strange seeing a "blond" that behaves just like BS

I almost married one