Bright silver flakes in heavy black sands.

[Ohiogoldfever]

I understand that for most mineral identification information like streak tests, hardness and other perimeters are required but I?m really only asking for some opinions here, so with that outta the way...

In nearly all of my pans or sluice runs I find lots of bright silver flakes. It?s not mica as it?s heavy and not flittering in varied light. I doubt that it?s actually silver as it?s small and in a creek so almost certainly would be oxidized and gray if not black.

To me it almost has to be Rodium or another platinum group metal.

Thoughts? Anything I may not be considering?

 

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[RTR]

You got any pix. of them?

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

You got any pix. of them?

I’ll have to try and take some. Not extraordinary really. Just look like flat gold flakes but they are bright silver. Fairly heavy. Some of the last stuff standing when your pulling back a pan.

 

[Phil]

Palladium?

 

[flinthunter]

Following this thread. I'm in Illinois and I am finding what sounds like the same thing in some of my black sands.

 

[RTR]

Panned these a couple years ago. Their bigger than'flakes' but they are in the Platinum family

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Am I the only one who’s phone changes correctly spelled words into total nonsense? Lol I just re read my OP and found a few things to edit..... I often proof read as I’m going so if I’m past the word and it’s correct I suppose I shouldn’t assume it will stay that way. Sheesh.

 

[mikep691]

Could just be gold coated with HG. We hit pockets in our creek where a lot of mercury exists. Some is natural and some left by the old timers. Don't rule that out as a possibility.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Bright silver? That doesn't describe the platinum group metals as found in nature. PGMs are most often described as dark gray or a sometimes a dull gray steel color when relatively pure. Even pure Platinum (not found in nature) is much duller and more gray than refined silver.

I wouldn't be suspecting Platinum group metals (PGMs). The odds of finding free milling placer platinum are really minimal even in a known platinum mining district. Nuggets? rarer than hen's teeth. East of the Rockies in the United States? You might as well be hunting Chupacabra.

Silver? - native silver is black or gray not shiny. Silver placer deposits are even rarer than platinum.

Tin is a possibility - if you were in a tin producing region. It's heavy and is easily panned. Tin is selling for about $1 an ounce in refined bulk form.

Zircon - often looks like fine shiny metal particles. It's heavy but it's commercial value is around $1300 a ton (four cents an ounce).

The most likely possibility, considering your location, is that you are seeing weathered particles of tin plating (cans etc.) and Babbitt metal (bearings) or aluminum "slaw" from trash dumps and fire pits. There is a lot more of that type of alluvial metal found when panning than either silver or platinum.

Heavy Pans

 

[medusa]

We have found similar flakes and flour sized particles when drywashing in NW Arizona, along with other non magnetics in the final cons. We have never figured out what it is, but agree, it holds on until the very end of the pan.