rock identification help for a rock from butte montana

Dragontomb

Tenderfoot
May 21, 2015
9
7
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello I was wondering if I could get some help to identify this mineral from butte montana (specifically from the stewart mine area). The hardness is around 2.5 and density is around 7. My instincts tell me it isn't galena. Maybe another pb sulfosalt or silver mineral? Any ideas?
Thanks.
 

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Metallic looking, If you have a Geiger counter I would give it a pass over it just to be sure. Is it magnetic? There are several tests you can do to determine silver content. Nitric acid test:90 to 100% silver, the acid will show a creamy color. ,77-90% silver, the acid turns a gray color.,65-75% silver, then the acid will show a light green color.
 

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It does look like a weird piece of oxidized galena to me.
 

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Keep in mind I am no expert. I AM from Butte though. I'm wondering why your instincts tell you it isn't galena? I have some galena that looks just like that. (from here in fact..) Galena was present in the Stewart mine as well. Yours looks oxidized, hense the black coating all over it. Also, the hardness is right for galena, as it would be a mixture of lead and silver, being dead on at 2.5. I will try to post some pics of my galena, as soon as I can find it! I would rule out Enargite because of the hardness and density. I truly think that you do in fact have galena. (This is just my personal opinion) Being a mineral from the Stewart mine, it is a piece of history!
 

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Yeah now looking at it more and more definetly looks like galena.
 

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