What the???

[SGTDirk]

Okay so my wife and I bought some land in Laurens county South Carolina. 5 acres with two creeks. So I had to go and try a little prospecting. Okay this is where I'm a bit confused. I did find a little color, not much but I was doing some exploring so I'm pleased. When I got home I ran my consentrates through my blue bowl after all the black sands where washed out there was something shiny and silver in the bowl. Now I know it isn't gold, but what would it be? I know a picture would help, but I didn't take one. I'm headed back out in like 10 min, so I will get a pic of it. I was just wondering if anyone would know what it might be.

Rob

 

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[DesertNuggets]

Could be silver, lead, slag, to name a few.

A pic might help.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Mercury

 

[wvwildman]

cool hope you find some good gold happy hunting

 

[Peyton Manning]

used to use mercury to attract the gold. dispose of it if it is

 

[Oldyoungtimer]

Could be platinum

 

[Peyton Manning]

yeah, what's the chance of that?

 

[Oldyoungtimer]

Platinum is heavier than gold so if that's what's left after concentrating it I wouldn't rule it out. But a picture would help.

 

[oldbrundogg]

My guess would be mercury over gold if the area has been worked commercially before.

 

[SGTDirk]

Okay the top pic should be the black sands I get, not very black, that is after getting all the blonds out. No clue why it isn't black.

Second pic is hard to see but there should be a flake or two shining. I know it isn't mercury. But no clue.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Actually I take back what I said about Mercury, unless you were near Rabon Creek. There was a couple old hard rocks mines in Laurens which used mercury for gold recovery near Rabon creek and that's the first thing I thought of initially, such as at :

Raeburn Creek Prospect (Rabon Prospect), Laurens Co., South Carolina, USA

However the vermiculite district there in Laurens is both large and well known; and furthermore vermiculite is an alteration product of ultramafic rocks which can be a source of platinum (weathering of mafic and ultramafic rocks and then secondary concentration of the platinum in river placers).

One reason you don't have many black sands is because there are so many other heavier minerals present in that area. Laurens Co., South Carolina, USA Monazite, ilmenite, zircon and chromite for example are all very heavy minerals, heavier then iron oxides, and many of those will be present in your concentrates depending on where you are at in that area. We call the white/red monazite sand the white devil cause its very hard to separate from gold. You will also see a very bright sparkly grey metallic looking mineral that will hang up in your first riffles, however on closer inspection or under the microscope you will see its not metallic at all but rather little crystals of zircon that sparkle because they are translucent.

 

[kuger]

used to use mercury to attract the gold. dispose of it if it is

not really....."attract",really isnt the word......mercury attaches to gold,and throw it away and likely throw gold away as well

 

[SGTDirk]

Thanks for the help, still no clue what the silver stuff is, but got the rest sorted. You guys try the phone app. For treasurenet? Man this is nice.

 

[LinkHylian]

Damn, Astrobouncer knows his minerals!!! Good for you bro!! You should believe him....especially cuz I'm so darn colorblind myself!!

 

[DesertNuggets]

Thanks for the help, still no clue what the silver stuff is, but got the rest sorted. You guys try the phone app. For treasurenet? Man this is nice.

Yup. All I really use now.

 

[Oldyoungtimer]

Its what i use only trouble is on my Droid razor max it doesn't like to show all the pictures posted only like half i get to see

 

[DesertNuggets]

Its what i use only trouble is on my Droid razor max it doesn't like to show all the pictures posted only like half i get to see

Click More... And enable the remote thumbnailer option. Might help.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

Could be platinum

What he said, there's always the chance with platinum. Usually shows up like fine flour, but it's heavier than gold. I get it in my pan out here in California. Most of the time it's so fine and so little that I don't even worry about it. It fetches a higher price than gold right now. you need take some in and have assayed.

 

[Goldwasher]

used to use mercury to attract the gold. dispose of it if it is

Mercury has an "affinity" to Gold.....and if it was Mercury "disposing" it would be more hazardous then storing it properly.