Identify these white sands?

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danec

Active member
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
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42
So a lot of times after I burn off the Pirates and sulfides in my concentrates pan them out I will notice this line of white material. It acts just like black sand and even heavier than Blacksand sometimes. When I look at it under a eye loupe it appears to be grains of sand but that doesn't really make sense it seems it would wash away really easy. So I'm just wondering does burning off the sulfites and pyrites perhaps turn some of the Blacksand into a white color depending on what it was coated with. That kind of doesn't make sense either because it does look like just a basic white sand crystals. Any help would be great thanks
 

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Not sure about that.when I'm just panning out concentrates I don't see anything like this unless I burn off the sulfides and pyrites then pan.so something is changed or cleaned in the process?
 
Some minerals do change color when heat treated. In general, color is a very lousy way to identify minerals, small inclusions can change the color to almost anything. (Gold is one notable exception to that rule. :D )

Scheelite and zircon are two heavy minerals, both fluoresce in UV-light.

Göran
 
It could be silver. Try nitric acid and table salt for a test?. Tin is another possibility. Is it metallic or ceramic?.
 
Mineral oxides can turn colour according to their oxidation state and crystal habit iron oxides are a good example. Burning would raise oxidation state and could alter crystal lattice pattern changing colour.

Im pretty sure ive observed similar when incinerating my black sand il check and try id mine.

If its calcite vinegar dissolves it slowly. Its probably to sense for calcite though.

Is your blacksand beach river or hardrock deposit?

Mine im pretty sure is lead oxide mainly. Bit of silver oxide also. Just checked.

Just be aware you might have mercury contamination if your downstream of old hardrock mines it may be mercury oxide
 
It's from a small gulch that drains down from abuch of hard rock mines.seasonal creek.i actually soaked everything in nitric and no more of the white heavy sands.and did recover back some of my gold I couldn't see.
 
danec said:
It's from a small gulch that drains down from abuch of hard rock mines.seasonal creek.i actually soaked everything in nitric and no more of the white heavy sands.and did recover back some of my gold I couldn't see.
Nice. It's probably is some complex sulfide of gold/silver. After you roast it, it becomes metallic, after the nitric acid treatment the silver color dissappears. Keep digging!. :G
 
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