Electronic Prospecting in Silver Country

[Jim Hemmingway]

Please click on the attached link to view an updated version of this report, located on the Canada sub-forum... thankyou... Jim.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/canada/282315-electronic-prospecting-silver-country.html

Jim.

 

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[TerryC]

Ok Jim, Just as easy to insert the pic than look for the post... just for you. Not big as you can see but MINE all mine! TTC

 

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[Jim Hemmingway]

Thanks Terry...wow...thats a beauty...good character! There's something about that yellow gold that catches the eye. Now you've made the breakthrough with your Goldbug2...I'll bet dimes to doughnuts it won't take long before we see another. WTG...you've certainly earned this success.

Jim.

 

[TerryC]

Thanks Terry...wow...thats a beauty...good character! There's something about that yellow gold that catches the eye. Now you've made the breakthrough with your Goldbug2...I'll bet dimes to doughnuts it won't take long before we see another. WTG...you've certainly earned this success.

Jim.

Tnx, my friend. TTC

 

[Matt (CA)]

Hey Jim this is really good information about prospecting silver etc. What I like most is that you give a lot of good tips AND its backed by pictures of your outstanding silver found. Congratulations on the big silver thats a real banner find. Keep writing Jim you do a great job.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Thanks Matt, most kind. As discussed above I saw ample evidence that many hobbyists encountered this year did not fare very well. That observation gave me an idea to present some information that might be useful to others. If you want to find silver in this area... these are very good methods to use. Possible future articles depend on whether I can gin-up any more ideas to write about... suggestions are welcome.

Lets put up another photo of a large silver specimen found this past autumn. It is very heavy for its size, the native silver is quite pure, but it is no beauty. Although the photo describes it as a ‘massive veinlets’ structure…that is based on surface appearance only. Veinlets do not account for the weight or a conductive readout in the zinc penny range. I'm certain there is massive, more solid silver immediately below the surface...it may well be subjected to an acid bath to reveal more silver.

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[Reg]

Hi Jim,

As always, your article is very interesting. Keep up the great work. Now, as for your mentioning that hunting for silver doesn't belong in the gold hunting forum, well, many of the signals you get mimic what one would get if they were hunting gold, so one shouldn't dismiss any of your valuable information.

BTW, I am curious what you and Jim E. do with all your silver specimen finds? I suspect there would be a great market if you two decide to sell some of them. If you do decide to sell some of them, let us know. What prompted this question was something I read on another forum where someone wanted a silver nugget because they couldn't afford a gold one. Anyway, it makes sense to me.

Reg

 

[old digger]

Hello Jim; My name is Dennis, and I live in Montana. Your specimens are awesome! Do you leave them as they are or do you process the ore into a refined finished product? I have been considering checking out an area of silver mining here in MT. This area produced lead and silver along with small traces of gold. If I am correct, you are getting a signal on the detector that registers between the pull tab range into the penny range? Now if there is lead also with the silver ore should I expect a signal range as the above? I appreciate your knowledge. Also; does silver ore associate it's self with quartz,
and is silver ore, when found in the natural elements not shiny but dull and drab coloured? Thank You for sharing your finds! Dennis.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Reg…thanks for taking a moment to comment…it’s good to see your name up on the board again. As a fellow member of today’s premiere treasure hunting forum serving our community…I’d like to see more of your posts here…

“Now, as for your mentioning that hunting for silver doesn't belong in the gold hunting forum, well, many of the signals you get mimic what one would get if they were hunting gold, so one shouldn't dismiss any of your valuable information”. Agreed, we know that but many others may not…I’d rather not risk offending anyone when it can easily be posted elsewhere.

As mentioned in the post below, most of the specimen quality silver occupies my display cabinets and that’s my preference over selling. If buyers could see the silver firsthand it would be a straightforward process to sell. You could haggle for a minute and make a deal. But occasionally trying to accommodate buyers at long distance using second-rate digital photos has been an exercise in futility for me.

A recent example Reg…a friend on another forum inquired about buying some silver in a certain size range…could I send along some photos? I replied that I wasn’t keen on selling silver but would do so for him. I spent the better part of a weekend ignoring my own priorities …sorting through boxes of stuff…cleaning and photographing samples. The photos were emailed with an honest description of what each photo represented. This individual selected two handsome specimens including a snappy-looking larger ‘character’ piece.

I named a reasonable price based on the formula…specimen weight X spot silver price X 80%. The character piece is an outstanding specimen that would attract much more on the open market. He made an offer that undercut my price by a third. I responded that he’d have to meet my price if he wants this silver…to which he replied he was no longer interested. The entire episode was a complete waste of my time for a purpose that did not interest me in the first place. The other aspect Reg is that the dollars for a typical sample means nothing to me…I’d much rather have the sample and the associated memories.

Jim.

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Dennis…thanks for taking a moment to comment here.

Specimen grade silver ores line my display cabinets. They are more valuable to me than dollars, and have attached memories as noted in the above post. Other non-specimen grade samples have been accumulating for many years and I have been considering processing them into silver bars. I have not decided if that is feasible in a subdivision setting…but I doubt it is a good idea.

The bulk of silver ores found by hobbyists are low conductives that target ID from low foil to mid-pulltab range. The maximum conductivity of natural silver in this area is at the silver dime level. The percentage of ores that fall into higher conductive ranges above pulltab level dramatically declines as conductivity increases. It was happenstance that the specimens presented in the article were mostly higher conductives.

I’m not familiar with lead presumably in the form of galena alloyed to or otherwise associated with silver. My guess is that it would pull the conductivity way down. If Reg happens by again…he may be able to shed more light on this subject. He has discussed this subject before on this sub-forum.

Most silver is found predominately in association with carbonate veins, for example calcite and dolomite. The vast majority of my samples are silver in a calcite matrix but I suspect some are in dolomite as observed by a reluctance to react with cold hydrochloric acid to nearly the same extent as does calcite. Otherwise I don’t distinguish between these two similar materials. Quartz is a common gangue mineral according to my research, but I have no quartz and silver samples after 26 years at this pursuit. And I do check my samples closely each evening back at camp. I think if quartz had been present in any amount that I would have noticed it. At least that’s my observation Dennis. We’re not discussing a handful of samples either… but rather many hundreds of specimens found and examined over the entire trip this past autumn.

Lets put-up another specimen found this year…a low conductive specimen. The handsome silver ore below was recovered at the excavation site described in the article. It is rich with native silver…but isn’t all that photogenic. Many such ores ranging between a few ounces and several pounds were recovered at that site…a very productive deposit and certainly worth the time and effort required to sample and excavate.

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[old digger]

Thank You! for the info and responding to my post! Dennis.

 

[Reg]

Hi Jim,

Sorry you had to go through the hassle you mentioned. The only way to sell any native silver item that you find is so simply place a price on the specimen and if someone wants it they will pay that price.

I just remembered when I first ran some tests for Jim Eckert on some silver he sent me. I didn't realize how long ago that was. WOW, that was 2008 or so. Boy, time really flies. After I finished the tests, rather than sending the pieces back, I ended up buying those pieces of silver from him at the price he set for them. I felt that was fair.

BTW, I really did and still do appreciate the silver specimens you sent me. I still look at them periodically but I am no geologist by any means, but your different specimens clearly indicate one has a wide variety of potential objects to find.

What Jim E sent was some pieces of silver in somewhat of a sheet form. They appear to be quite drab in color but my guess is they are primarily silver in mass even though the conductivity signal as registered on a detector is quite low for silver. I just assumed that type of silver he sent was quite common and what one might be more likely what one would find. Again, this stuff is somewhat heavy and drab in physical nature but still unique and interesting.

What you sent is really a different variety and covers a very wide of range of potential types of silver targets one might find.

Are the silver finds that Jim E sent more common?

Thanks again for your information and the time you have put into your posts. They really do help those wanting more information.

Reg

 

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi Reg…

Yes I sent you a variety of silver conductivities as I recollect…seems like a long time ago. I don’t know if I sent you any plate silver, so it’s just as well that our mutual friend apparently did so. Most surface finds are likely to be low conductives in the foil to mid-pulltab range and comparatively small. I missed the early highly productive years for metal detecting in the area when quality larger surface finds were more commonplace. Now as a rule…one must go deeper to find larger stuff. My observation is that there seems to be a correlation or trend to high conductive silver with increasing depth as compared to present-day surface finds.

Are the silver finds that Jim E sent more common? I haven’t seen them and can’t comment. But I can say that the samples I sent you are representative of typical surface recoveries by hobbyists. The samples from JE may not have been cleaned as were the samples I sent you. It is likely that his samples are more realistic looking “raw” silver specimens. Most silver recovered is field-dirty, some surface silver may be grayed or blackened with sulfides or possibly other materials, and much of it is hidden within the rock structure. In the field to get a quick look at surface silver I rub my leather glove palm over it several times briskly to expose the silver. Later at camp all samples are scrubbed with a nylon brush and rinsed in lakewater prior to checking them over. So, it comes down to personal preference…I also have a large quantity of silver in a raw state. Below is another small silver in calcite sample representative of many modest finds made this trip…Jim.

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