Tailing pile question

mu50stang

Full Member
Mar 2, 2011
216
49
I had sent a raw sample rock out from a tailing pile that was located on my claim for assaying and received back the report showing

gold .038 oz per ton
silver .03 oz per ton
platinum .011 oz per ton.

cerium 17 ppm
lanthanum 5 ppm
gadolinium 1 ppm
holmium 1 ppm
lanthanum 5 ppm
neodymium 20 ppm
praseodymium 9 ppm
scandium 1 ppm

Are there any significant values here or should I just move on if anyone knows more about these minerals.
 

If you're getting $45/ton in gold, I'd say that is definitely worth pursuing, depending on the cost of recovery. It's possible the Platinum and silver will carry the overhead, leaving the gold for profit.
Jim
 

Have you cut any of your own samples?If they are someone elses tailing pile,how do you know what you may or may not have on your claim?Was this low grade ore that was previously stockpiled?
 

Have you cut any of your own samples?If they are someone elses tailing pile,how do you know what you may or may not have on your claim?Was this low grade ore that was previously stockpiled?

The entrance has collapsed so we haven't had a chance to look where they were taking the ore from. The pile that I am referencing is below the entrance as the entrance was higher up the side of a hill. Its possible that its a low grade ore pile. When I was talking to one of the locals that has lived in the area his whole life he stated that those hole were probably dug around the 20 or 30s.
 

I was there last week and ran a 5 gallon bucket through a rockcrusher. I then ran the powder through a gold cube. Panned it down but couldn't see any visible gold. I still need to screen it further down and take a magnifying glass to it and see if There is smaller gold there.
 

mu50stang,at least you know you have some yellow,somewhere.Obviously after you get inside and cut out samples from different places on the veins/vein you'll know more.See if you can get the mining reports from your area as to know what was previously done......and of couse,safety is the number one thing.
 

What was the assay method? How big was the sample? Did you pick the sample because it looked good or was it random?

Heavy Pans

I can call the assayer Monday and find out. Sample size was two football size ores. One had alot of visible pyrite on it and the other had a real smallseam running through the rock.
 

Tailing pile is not the place to get good samples. BUT

Rocks off tailing piles are even worse.

Take a 1/4 inch screen and screen out a 5 gal bucket full of fines from around the top edge of the dump around the last area they dumped rock out of the mine.

Pour this bucket on a flat smooth surface and split into 10 smaller piles.

Take two of the piles and send them in for assay.

This will give you the best run of the mine sample for the last mined area.

Since you can not pan any gold its likely going to be a hard mine ore to mill.

For a small miner your best ore will be ore you can crush and pan and see gold.
This is called free milling ore.
 

Last edited:
I can call the assayer Monday and find out. Sample size was two football size ores. One had alot of visible pyrite on it and the other had a real smallseam running through the rock.

It was a fire assay.
 

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