Heavy White Sand - what is it?

[Sorehands]

I am working a very productive stream in Georgia.

The stream material has a lot of distinct colors.

Black- almost charred sand
Bright red
Yellowish orange
Very bright white sand.

During sluice clean-up, after tapping the gold to the side of the pan, the white sand is not as heavy as the gold, but is heavier than the black (magnetite) sand. It is very fine and quite heavy.

I have only been prospecting for about a year, has anyone come across this before.

Am wondering if it is valuable material.

Any advice is welcome.

 

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[johnedoe]

Any pics of the stuff?
Get enough collected and get an assay.
Is there any history of platinum in your area?

 

[Bluestar9]

Calling Doc........ Where are you?

 

[Hitndahed]

Interesting,,,
It COULD be neodymium Or any of these,,in just about any combination.
Of this total heavy mineral concentrate (THM), the components are typically
##Zircon, from 1% of THM to upwards of 50% of THM,
##Ilmenite, generally of 10% to 60% of THM
##Rutile, from 5% to 25% of THM
##Leucoxene, from 1% to 10% of THM
##Trash minerals, typically quartz, magnetite, garnet, chromite and kyanite, which usually account for the remaining bulk of the THM content
Simple "heavy white sands" Google search results
Heavy mineral sands ore deposits - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ONLY guaranteed identification would be an assayers analysis of course.

Hit

 

[Clay Diggins]

Not much to go on here but my WAG would be zircon or possibly tin. Either one could fit your description.

Heavy Pans

 

[socalal99]

Sometimes very white sand is scheelite tungsten ore, which is very heavy. It is almost snow white. Lots of in on the San Gabriel River, East Fork, in particular below CC bridge.

 

[bill-costa rica]

might be sheelite , check it with a black lite. if it glows it is a good chance it is.

bill

 

[Sorehands]

Thank you for all of the suggestions! I need to get a black-lite to check.
The next most likely is quartz/garnet dust - as I am in northern GA.

Oddly enough I found two pieces of metal/rock that pass all of the meteorite home tests, has density that is higher than lead, is an 8 on the Mohs scale, charred outside, nickel-like center, highly magnetic, etc. Sending them in for an Assay. We'll see, it is still low odds.

 

[jair]

Thank you for all of the suggestions! I need to get a black-lite to check.
The next most likely is quartz/garnet dust - as I am in northern GA.

Oddly enough I found two pieces of metal/rock that pass all of the meteorite home tests, has density that is higher than lead, is an 8 on the Mohs scale, charred outside, nickel-like center, highly magnetic, etc. Sending them in for an Assay. We'll see, it is still low odds.

I have 18 buckets I am crushing down and when panned has very fine corse gold and the gold and white Quartz seperate together with lesser of black sands .

 

[goldhog]

Best thing to do is buy one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QF0A1Y/

Cheaper than assay and usually answers your questions.
Plus.......... when you're bored... it's just fun.
But it also will TEACH you many things.
i.e. Understanding H.E. hydraulic equivalence.
That's a ball point pen in the pic below.
It's just cool to look.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Best thing to do is buy one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QF0A1Y/

Cheaper than assay and usually answers your questions.
Plus.......... when you're bored... it's just fun.
But it also will TEACH you many things.
i.e. Understanding H.E. hydraulic equivalence.
That's a ball point pen in the pic below.
It's just cool to look.


View attachment 1132937

Thanks Doc I just looked at yours and then after reading the reviews and looking at a bunch of them, I found this one on sale also.
300x should work great for selling pickers
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Micro...r_1_10?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1426710663&sr=1-10

 

[goldhog]

Thanks Doc I just looked at yours and then after reading the reviews and looking at a bunch of them, I found this one on sale also.
300x should work great for selling pickers
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Micro...r_1_10?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1426710663&sr=1-10

I always have to bring the pics in and change the white balance in photoshop just so you know.
Also, use a WHITE piece of paper to shoot them. It helps as the lights are LED.

 

[Sorehands]

All:

I sent the above question a while ago - where I have been finding heavy white sand that seems to be mixed in with the gold. Now I am starting to find slightly bigger pieces - beyond the white sand. I will probably just have to have it assayed to be sure, but it is hard to stump this group:

1. So the silver-slightly reflective pieces are heavy - they stay in the bottom of the sluice-box - just like the gold does
2. The material is malleable but not as much as gold - has a slight brittleness
3. It does not interact with a magnet (though it was a great way to get rid of some of the black sand!)
4. It dissolves completely in concentrated nitrite acid (I have not ordered the specialized acid testing kits yet)
5. It turned a bronzish/brown as it dissolved, but the testing stone I was using was less than optimal
6. I am attaching a couple of pictures - also not super-clear.
7. From the looks of the edges - this is very very fresh - not been in the stream for long so I am curious what it is and if I should focus on locating where it is concetrated


The stream is a decent gold producer and is located just north of Atlanta GA

Any ideas are welcome.

 

[arizau]

Sometimes very white sand is scheelite tungsten ore, which is very heavy. It is almost snow white. Lots of in on the San Gabriel River, East Fork, in particular below CC bridge.

I know this response is to an older post in this thread but......An old prospecting friend of mine told me 40 plus years ago that he, his dad and others actually panned scheelite or some other tungsten minerals and sold them for the war effort back in the early 1940's. I think I remember that they were panning in the Arivaca area of AZ. Probably still has value but with non commercial quantities the problem would be to find buyers.

Sorehands......I have no clue what the silvery material is but check this link for silver possibilities. https://www.google.com/webhp?source...ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what dissolves silver

 

[KevinInColorado]

Could be tin or tin compounds. Tend to be white and heavy.

 

[Sorehands]

Kevin:

I think you have nailed it. Thank you - as always. Germanium seems to be quite close - white heavy sand-like appearance (when pulverized). Larger pieces are white/silver in color, metal-like appearance though somewhat brittle. It is supposed to be diamagnetic (I will have to try that out).

It is good to have a solid/likely description of what it probably is..... the bummer is that it is priced at about $1.15 per gram. I had better find a lot of it! I wonder if I could wish it into Palladium....