Silver ore or wishful thinking? New pics added!

[treasure_lady]

I found this with my Garrett Ace 250 on my property down about 4 inches. I live in the high desert of the California Sierra Nevada mountains...lots of sage brush and rocky soil. It registers at silver at 25 cents, (more consistently at silver 50 cents to $1.00) with everything else discriminated out. When I look at it with my magifier I see several tiny specks of gold as well. Even though it might not show.. it's very textured on the top side and the bottom side has silver embedded into the rock at numerous places. I see the gold specks in a crevice on the back side. The color on the top is very silver and the back is a dull silver grey....except for the high silver embedded pieces and the gold specks. So do I have something or is it wishful thinking? Thanks for viewing and for your opinion?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[TOWcritter]

Re: Silver ore or wishful thinking?

Wow, Treasurelady. I don't quite know what that could be. But just bye where you live it would give ME goosebumps! Do any prospecting up there? Heard that with all the rain this year is going to be a good year for new gold washing down from the hills.

 

[treasure_lady]

Re: Silver ore or wishful thinking?

It feels heavy and doesn't stick to a magnet. I know for a fact that the mountains surrounding me have gold (copper too), that has been mined in the past..and gold has been found in the rivers and creeks here. Name of one area and creek is called Gold Run! Feather River isn't far from here, and gold has been found in Susan River also. I know Nevada is the place for silver but it's just over the mountains from here. Diamond Mountain which I can see from my house/land has claims on it as do the creeks. I have one booklet about gold mining in Lassen County/ Diamond Mt. Pretty interesting..it's from 1965 and put out by Lassen County Historical Society. Anyway thanks for the help guys! I'll see if I can locate someone around here that might know...or could test it for me. I'm sure there isn't enough gold in this sample to amount to anything but it would be interesting to find out if it is silver. Thanks!

 

[Chris in BC]

looks an aweful lot like lead to me, Chris

 

[Monty]

When I first started detecting I found a "nugget" very similar to this. It is very heavy, non magnetic and there are specks of gold shining on the surface. It's much harder than lead but not quite as hard as steel. You can scratch it very easily with a file. I don't know what the heck it is but I found it where some old foundary slag had been dumped. Everyone who has looked at it says they think it is silver but? I still have it put away with my many other treasures.

 

[Emperor Findus Cladius]

If nothing else have it assayed, you could have a strike on you hands!!!

 

[sherpa t]

I'd go to the goldbay site, Dave still has a service where he will check nuggets for you and give you his knowledge opinion of natural or man-made. Also, is there any possability a building ever burned down in the area, items used in electrical services will melt down and form nugget looking globs, or a campfire. Zinc would be possable having weight, ability to form smoother / shinier on top and display ground patters on the bottom.
I have some rock that by tumbling in water with gold flakes the gold is pounded into / on to the rock, so the flakes might also be from water action.
The chat on gold bay might be a source of info on what to look for in testing silver.
Good luck, please keep us informed of progress.

 

[Monty]

On my "nugget" I ground off one corner just to see if the pattern was consistent throughout and it was. After a couple of weeks it will begin to darken from gray to black if not surface polished. Do you have the link for goldbay, or is it just goldbay.com...??

 

[stoney56]

Just from the looks, I'd say it's propably a bit of silver ore. The gold flecks intrigues me. I'd definitely have it checked by a reputable company. It might be worthshile to ckeck the area more thoroughly to see if has washed out of the bank nearby.

 

[sherpa t]

goldbay.com should get you started.

 

[ozzysdad]

There is a company i have used in Trenton, New Jersey called PTL Testing Lab's. Look's similar to some i found in Missouri, mine turned out to have Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Paladium, and Rhodium and Ruthenium. I sent some to the USGS, and all i got for a reply was they wanted to know where i found it and that it was slighty radioactive.

 

[ozzysdad]

Another pic...

 

[ozzysdad]

I picked up a ton of it and packed it into wooden ammo crates. Tried to smelt some of it with a oxy-acetylene torch, it just kept melting back into itself ? I was able to plate some pennie's that came out like a really nice silver plating. The deposit i found was large, and had some other type rounded nugget's as well. But i couldn't match the crystal's to anything in the book. I still have some of it around, but the ton i have is still up in MO. in the crates. But, i can alway's get to it. if i could ever find someone that was able to refine it.

 

[bakergeol]

Treasure Lady
Silver in pure native form is not that common.? I have seen rare specimens of it in wire form but most of the silver ore I have is from Galena a lead sulfide. Galena does sound off on a detector. I suspect your detector is sounding off on lead.? It is always difficult to identify minerals from photos. Doesn't really look like a natural mineral specimen with the tiny holes in it?-any cubic silver looking galena crystals? Actually if those are tiny holes perhaps a furnace specimen of lead/silver?

ozzysdad
Most of those look like sedimentary nodules. Did you obtain them from a shale deposit? Are those cubic dull yellow pyrite crystals?

George

 

[spotz]

Hey there TL. You found it detecting, so it obviously is "TREASURE" for you. How is the move coming along? I'm in the middle of wedding preperations for my daughter. Nightmares for me! The women just tell me to keep my oponions to myself , pay the bills & stop complaining.

You have a nice "What's It" there. Spotz

 

[treasure_lady]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone. I'll just keep it and enjoy looking at it..no matter what it is. Spotz.. haven't moved yet.. still web surfing.. looking at potential cities to move to. Looking all over Texas.. haven't found the right spot yet. Still have time.. hubby will retire at the end of June. We do have to get this property ready to sell also though. Thanks for asking. Also good luck with your daughter's wedding plans. Good excuse to go out detecting more? So let the ladies do all the work!

 

[PCarroll]

It could be Galena a mineral comon here in the sierra nevada and has a town named after it near Reno. Ill try to find more info later

 

[PCarroll]

Bout galena and its similar minerals


http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/sulfides/galena/galena.htm

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color is lead to silver gray sometimes with a bluish tint.
Luster is metallic to dull in weathered faces.
Transparency crystals are opaque.
Crystal System is isometric; 4/m bar 3 2/m
Crystal Habits include the cube, octahedron and combinations of the two. Spinel twinning is possible forming flattened crystals. Also massive and granular.
Cleavage is perfect in four direction forming cubes.
Fracture is uneven and rarely seen because of the perfect cleavage.
Hardness is 2.5+
Specific Gravity is approximately 7.5+ (heavy even for metallic minerals)
Streak is lead gray
Associated Minerals are calcite, dolomite, sphalerite, pyrite and other sulfide minerals, also lead oxidation minerals such as cerussite and anglesite.
Other Characteristics: brighter metallic luster on cleavage surfaces than on crystal faces.
Notable Occurances include Texas-Oklahoma-Missouri area, USA; Germany, Peru, Mexico, Zambia, and England.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, cleavage and, perhaps most importantly, density.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It cold also be mostly lead

 

[treasure_lady]

Thanks for taking the time to post your lengthy reply!! I appreciate it!

 

[resq937]

http://www.minerals.net/resource/resource.htm

ANOTHER good site on minerals I used ot find out what my FUNNY ROCK LOOKING THING was it didnt help me much but a wealth of info there I vaguely remember seeing something there---not sure about galena as that usually has cube crystals in it(if i remember correctly) but i could be thinking of another one of the 100's i looked at