# Need help identify this ore



## amon13 (Jun 2, 2014)

Need help identify this type ore There is not visible gold like you see in the picture.This ore came from a old factory producing metals which is not functioning about 50 years (Nobody can tell what kind of metals was producing there)
Rumors said that this ore contain 30 % metal -Copper,Silver and Gold -But i found out that when i crushed the ore- is magnetic .

Please if somebody recognized this types of ore on the pictures is it some chance to have some gold in it
So until now i done this:
1. I already crushed about 5 kilos of every type on the pictures
2. Panning and no visible result for gold
3. So i decided to Separating the powder from the crushed ore to test for micro gold present But all the powder is magnetic and also there is not visible gold 
What is your advice?


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## amon13 (Jun 2, 2014)

And a few more


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## amon13 (Jun 2, 2014)

And one last thing :
The bucket with the fine powder from the ore in the picture
With Neodymium magnet all that powder sticks and moving
I think that if i try to remove the magnetic piece of the powder
i will end with empty bucket without any powder left in it :roll:


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## butcher (Jun 2, 2014)

You need to get a professional assay of the ore, for metals and other compounds involved, that the ore may contain, like arsenates, selenides, tellurides, sulfides, this list goes on...

Then you will have a better idea if this ore is worth working, to educate yourself on the best approach, and what may be one of the better methods to concentration, pretreatments, or methods used to extract the values from it (more safely), you will also have more information to determine dangers which may be involved in these processes.

Without an assay at this point all you know is you have found a rock.

The red in your rock looks like an iron compound not all of the iron compounds in the ore will be magnetic, the green possibly a cooper compound.

At this point you have no idea what is in this rock, and neither do we from just looking at it.

Ore can be complicated and dangerous to try to extract values from, without knowing what the ore is composed of, you can easily put your self in danger by trying some treatment process, or extraction process, which may or may not be helpful to concentrate, or to prepare the ore for extraction of values, arsenic poisoning is one danger possible but not the only one.

Get an assay, and use that to study further, what the best approach, or your nest step will be.

You need an assay to determine if the ore is even worth pursuing, if the mine is even worth the trouble of making a legal claim to this ore, the cost of extracting the ore, selling the claim, or trying to set up a plant to extract the ore, ship, mill, floatation, roast and leach the ore, (or whatever process needed to get the value from this rock), or even to begin to determine the costs, or complications or its dangers 

You need an assay to determine if the ore is worth perusing, if the mine is even worth the trouble of making a legal claim to the ore, the cost of extracting the ore, selling the ore, or the claim, or in trying to set up a plant to mine, mill, floatation of sulfide to concentrate, roast and leach the ore, (or whatever process needed to get the value from this rock).

Anybody can find a rock which may contain value, but getting the values from that rock is not only complicated, but can be very costly, not an easy challenge for someone who found a pretty rock that he does not know anything about ore’s or mining in general, trying (to process without an understanding), can not only cost you an awful lot of money, but you put yourself in danger trying.

Get an assay, and educate yourself as much as possible, learn more about this rock and mining in general, to see if it is worth your trouble, and educate yourself so that you are not putting yourself in danger by some heat-treatment, or chemical treatment of this rock.

Anybody can find a rock, maybe even with gold, but not everyone is a miner, or will be one without education.
There is much more to mining than finding and digging up rocks. trying without an education can put you in harms way


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## shaftsinkerawc (Jun 2, 2014)

Several of the photo's look like furnace slag? Did you collect from a fresh dig or collect on the surface? Have you researched the land status of the area? Most old mines are still owned waiting for the next rise in prices or investor.


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## g_axelsson (Jun 2, 2014)

I agree with shaftsinkerawc, I think all the pictures shows slag. There is no reason to believe it will hold any significant amount of values any longer.

Göran


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## necromancer (Jun 2, 2014)

having no experience as a miner or geochemist what so ever, i have seen rock like that while in and around Lillooet B.C. Canada

"Standard Map"
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Li...2!3m1!1s0x54808a484a0afd9d:0xd7d653f9c69afa57

"Topographical Map"
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.6927733,-121.9422257,13z/data=!5m1!1e4

which was a one horse town, a logging camp & a old cowboy saloon, double swinging barnwood doors and all.
while walking in the mountains there was rock like that everywhere, looked like railroad slag but it was covering miles of the mountains.
most of the rocks were rounded as is they have fallen from space, my guess then (1988) was ancient volcanic rock, i did bring one small rock home with permission from a local (it's native land "Anishinaabe") i will get a photo of it & post it here.

my friend and I explored lots of cracks & crevices, i don't remember seeing any mines. here is the rough area i remember exploring.
the view from the side of the mountains 5 or 6 thousand feet above sea level was breathtaking !!!


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## amon13 (Jun 3, 2014)

butcher said:


> You need to get a professional assay of the ore, for metals and other compounds involved, that the ore may contain, like arsenates, selenides, tellurides, sulfides, this list goes on...
> 
> Then you will have a better idea if this ore is worth working, to educate yourself on the best approach, and what may be one of the better methods to concentration, pretreatments, or methods used to extract the values from it (more safely), you will also have more information to determine dangers which may be involved in these processes.
> 
> ...



Thank you butcher for the reasonable reply
My enthusiasm bring me up here.
In this great forum i learned for recovering and refining gold from Electronics.
And i made some great buttons of gold which i'm proud and greatful all members in the forum which helped
My thoughts was to check for gold present in this ore before i take further steps.
Because profesional assaying cost money like you say
Best regards


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## butcher (Jun 3, 2014)

An assay is almost nothing considering the cost of mining, processing and extracting values.


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## Reno Chris (Jun 3, 2014)

Some of your "ore" is slag from a smelting operation. It is material that has already been processed. Some has small copper values (the blue / green material). 
Your own tests seem to indicate that if gold is present, it is not present in large and easily extractable quantities.


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## amon13 (Jun 3, 2014)

shaftsinkerawc said:


> Several of the photo's look like furnace slag? Did you collect from a fresh dig or collect on the surface? Have you researched the land status of the area? Most old mines are still owned waiting for the next rise in prices or investor.



Thank you shaftsinkeraw
I think you are right 
Its look like slag and probably it is because 
the material came from very old factory producing metals like i said in my first post - nobody can tell what kind of metals was recovered in there because the factory is no functional more than 50 years.
Anyway like g_axelsson said :
Maybe there is no reason to believe it will hold any significant amount of values any longer.

Based on internet research:

"The smelting of copper and lead in non-ferrous smelting, for instance, is designed to remove the iron and silica that often occurs with those ores, and separates them as iron-silicate-based slags." 

But i still wonder is it possible this slag to contain any values of gold inside and how to test for gold present in this magnetic powder .


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## Reno Chris (Jun 3, 2014)

> But i still wonder is it possible this slag to contain any values of gold inside and how to test for gold present in this magnetic powder .



It is very unlikely that it would contain gold in amounts more than tiny traces in the parts per billion range. Sorry, but your own tests, and the nature of the material all seem to point to the conclusion that no significant values remain behind.


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## dorutzu (Jun 4, 2014)

Depends on the technology it was used. Here in Romania we call it copper matte. I'v seen many types of this material but the % are very variable. The Cu % is from 5-6% to 14-15% (the green one) after ball mill. The highest Au % i'v seen in this type of material is 1-3g/to but it depends. If the plant was closed in the 50 we can presume that the copper recovery % was not 100% and my guess that in that area they refine also the gold. So it can be viable but after analysis. With xrf usually the error is high but it can tell if the gold exist or not.
Here is some examples of analysis results:
SLAG ,
a Fe -40% Cu 8-12 % Ag 1- 2 %
b Fe 14.29% Cu 8.78% Pb 8.87%
c Fe 21.28 Cu 6.18%-12% Au 1-3g/to

We sell in China, this type of slag, ball milled for copper starting from 5-6%. If the gold is over 4% they pay the gold also. So here is a idea for this material.
* They have some restriction for import for As, F, Hg, Cd and P.
In the last pictures is another type of material; is a slag from gold smelting. The color is blue-greysh and sparkling. This has Au 5-6g/to, Fe 41.43,S 45.93, *As 0.34*. We will try this material to run thru a wet shaking table 2-3 times and see the final results.
Maybe you spot this material in the area.
I hope this help you

Some Photo


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## shaftsinkerawc (Jun 4, 2014)

As for slag containing significant amounts of Au or other valuable comodity it depends on who produced it, an assay would give you valuable information. I was shown a sample a couple months back that was said to contain Au but looked like obsidian and that was my initial quess. Gentleman came back to our booth later and I put it under a microscope for a closer look and found it to be full of balls of golden colored metalics and it was determined to be slag. The gentleman that brought it in found a bucket of the stuff at a dumpster site. Needless to say I left him my info as I wanted to acquire some from him but have not heard back. How did you crush your sample? Possible metalics stuck to crushing device/sieve. Did you pan into running water or a container? Was there a visible scum/suds on the surface?


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## amon13 (Jun 4, 2014)

shaftsinkerawc said:


> As for slag containing significant amounts of Au or other valuable comodity it depends on who produced it, an assay would give you valuable information. I was shown a sample a couple months back that was said to contain Au but looked like obsidian and that was my initial quess. Gentleman came back to our booth later and I put it under a microscope for a closer look and found it to be full of balls of golden colored metalics and it was determined to be slag. The gentleman that brought it in found a bucket of the stuff at a dumpster site. Needless to say I left him my info as I wanted to acquire some from him but have not heard back. How did you crush your sample? Possible metalics stuck to crushing device/sieve. Did you pan into running water or a container? Was there a visible scum/suds on the surface?


Thank you for the reply
I crashed the material in a big closed pipe and panning in a container with no visible gold in it the material is magnetic


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## AUJack (Jun 13, 2014)

The green/blue rock is chrysicolla. Its a copper ore. It can be associated with silver and gold. Panning ore from rock can be difficult after crushing as the gold is commonly 100 mesh minus. If you are still attempting to sample this on your own without an assay, I would suggest classifying the material to at a minimum of 50 mesh minus before attempting to pan.As mentioned above, there can be other dangerous minerals included. Don't burn any of it. When panning such small particles be very gentle with the water, and patient. If you plan to mine this I'd suggest a jaw crusher- to impact mill run over a shaker table or a spiral chute gravity separator.


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## AUJack (Jun 14, 2014)

California Chrysicolla. A sample from one of my spots in the desert. Some 50 mesh minus gold from the same area. Much of which is 100 mesh minus.


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