I am wondering if anyone can help me on this. I collected some black sand from a creek here in western Washington for testing. I separated off the magnetic sands and placed 4 grams of wet material in a beaker.
4 grams did not cover the bottom of a 50ml beaker. It's quite heavy.
I added just enough nitric to cover the sands and waited an hour. Nothing happened. I then added an equal part of water. I waited 2 more hours, nothing happened. Then I added about a quarter tsp of table salt. Over the next few minutes the solution turned a light green and still nothing happened.
I suppose the next step is to boil the sands in aqua regia?
I tested the solution at each step with stannous chloride and always get a negative reaction.
I really want to know what this material is. someone on another forum suggested REE's
I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on what insoluable materials I might want to research that resist acid attack. Yes perhaps I am asking prematurely, maybe the boiling AR will do the trick, but I have my doubts and I think I'll go prospecting today instead of sitting around watching acid boil (or not watching).
It's just on my mind , so I figured I'd ask.
4 grams did not cover the bottom of a 50ml beaker. It's quite heavy.
I added just enough nitric to cover the sands and waited an hour. Nothing happened. I then added an equal part of water. I waited 2 more hours, nothing happened. Then I added about a quarter tsp of table salt. Over the next few minutes the solution turned a light green and still nothing happened.
I suppose the next step is to boil the sands in aqua regia?
I tested the solution at each step with stannous chloride and always get a negative reaction.
I really want to know what this material is. someone on another forum suggested REE's
I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on what insoluable materials I might want to research that resist acid attack. Yes perhaps I am asking prematurely, maybe the boiling AR will do the trick, but I have my doubts and I think I'll go prospecting today instead of sitting around watching acid boil (or not watching).
It's just on my mind , so I figured I'd ask.