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Native Silver Specimens for Refinement or Other Uses

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snowdog20

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
192
What I have available is native (lode) silver specimens, that still contains some sulfide. There is no silica or much iron. The area they originate from doesn't have large iron deposits, at least not at the elevation where these were at.

The pieces as you see them in the photos appear as cooled molted metal. It's very unmistakable. Being specimens, there will still be nominal sulfides hanging around, and some trace of base metals, which is typical for any native metal specimen.

The visitor to this ad can use their own judgment as to whether they are molten metal or not. Now why this matters is that there are very, very, few metals that occur naturally in pure form.

These are the metals that occur naturally in pure form;

Gold (Noble)
Silver
Copper
Platinum (Noble)
Iridosmine or Osmiridium (Noble)
Arsenic
Bismuth

You can learn more here - List Native Elements Minerals & Naturally Occurring Metals In Pure Form they also list minerals that occur in native form. However none of them fit the specimens you're seeing.

The specimens do collect tarnish in the form of sulfides readily. We smoke here, so it doesn't take much waiting to observe this. Use tarnish remover of your preference and they clean back up.

Arsenic does not melt as liquid like you see in these pieces. There's no evidence of Arsenic that I've noticed. And Bismuth when it cools, makes those cool looking crystals. It's also an area not known for native Bismuth. The area is however rich in gold and silver. Some lead is present, but not big amounts. Galena has not been mentioned there, just "lead contamination" in the silver and gold, but this is random. Use a cupel, you'll be fine.

I will sell them at 20% above spot for orders below $200. For orders at $200 or above, I'll sell for spot, however it will be rounded up to the nearest $1.00 I like dealing in whole numbers preferably.

I have melted one 4 ounce bar out of it. Problem is I can't source large crucibles at the moment. I'm trying an experiment with Plaster of Paris however to make some perhaps. If there any ideas, PM me!

I have only cleaned tarnish off of these. The brown you see is more tarnish. I have untarnished ones still, they look the same just ugly.

I do now have regular access to a chain mill crusher, but these don't like crushing. They do still have minerals present, so with enough force they can. But some won't. They are fairly easy to melt though as long as you can fit them in crucible. If you have to break them, one thing that works is to heat them up a bit. That'll weaken any minerals and possibly work. I have several though that still don't break.

Native metal specimens do contain other metals. Silver with gold, platinum, etc. These alloys can affect the properties of the metals contained in the specimen.

The specimens weigh from an ounce up to 13 ounces.

Alaska does not offer fire assay services, and thus I do not know any percentage of Silver vs Electrum (Natural Gold and Silver alloy).

For payments I'll do bankwires and CashApp. I am happy to verify who I am via ID, video meeting, virtual tour of my place, blah, blah, blah. I guarantee what I'm sending, but refunds will only be given if they're returned promptly at the buyer's expense.

I will ship internationally under the same rules, but we will determine shipping based on what I get quoted by shipping services. These pieces are worth it to ship to some countries depending on the rate.

Shipments will go out same (business) day if payment is verified. I live just outside the city of Palmer, Alaska. The Post Office is 10 minutes away. And we don't have traffic jams, so I don't have quick access problems.

Alaska is on Alaska Time Zone, we are one hour behind California, and I believe four behind New York. So you can estimate how much to time I have to ship that day. Makes it easy! Also if you call, take this into consideration. I won't answer typically before 9 am, if I do, I usually assume it's a solicitor and I'm mean. We all know the type I'm referring to.

See photos below. These are not my entire inventory. I will provide photos of specimens before sending a shipment for buyer approval if requested. I will ship for applicable fees. They will be shipped with Insurance for the sale amount, and signature confirmation of buyer only. I'm not doing it any other way, and tracking of course will be provided.

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Sometimes I see that I've been PM'ed here quckly, and sometimes I don't.

I can alternately be contacted by phone, text, or email. They are provided below. If I don't immediately answer your call, just text me and let me know your from this forum.

Sean
907.795.9091
[email protected]
 

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...im sorry, spot + 20%?..
Maybe -20%...?
Especially since you have absolutely no idea of the EXACT makeup of said silver stuffs

Looks like.. ..idk, dark for silver, being the whitest of white metals. But, I know nothing of ore, I imagine sulfides could/would drastically darken the specimen.

I guess I am overlooking aesthetics of it. Do people keep these to look at? Or paperweight, door jam? Hang it from a necklace maybe?
 
...im sorry, spot + 20%?..
Maybe -20%...?
Especially since you have absolutely no idea of the EXACT makeup of said silver stuffs

Looks like.. ..idk, dark for silver, being the whitest of white metals. But, I know nothing of ore, I imagine sulfides could/would drastically darken the specimen.

I guess I am overlooking aesthetics of it. Do people keep these to look at? Or paperweight, door jam? Hang it from a necklace maybe?
Hey, well visit Chris Ralph's page. They have the size and weight for a silver dominant ore. They originate from south of Anchorage from a historic creek that produced 5 million ounces of gold or so in it's heyday. These came from 5 miles beyond the Crow Creek mine in Girdwood. Just before the end of road and the mountain trail. I've been working to cook the sulfur out of a nice pile. I have little crucibles, so I'm going to have to do little buttons top add up for another 4 ozt bar. I don't know gold content.

Look here How to assay and evaluate silver, copper and lead ores

I have in my view some Acanthite/Stephanite/Polybasite. They all form together. Polybasite is the least amount of Silver at like 60% by weight. If you refine hit me up I'll work something out with and I can get most sulfides out up here. You can't have an exact of specimens. And no don't say XRF. They suck. Like snake oil.
 
Snodog20,

You stated:

"Alaska does not offer fire assay services, and thus I do not know any percentage of Silver vs Electrum (Natural Gold and Silver alloy)."

I found that statement a little strange considering the amount of PM mining in Alaska. So, I did a quick Google search for fire assayers in Alaska, and on the 1st page of results, I found this company:

GBA Assaying & Refining

Why not let them do at least an XRF analysis on your ore?

Peace and health,
James
 
I think the point is more along the lines of asking, are you selling a mineral specimen for collecting, or are you trying to sell as precious metal recovery items. Because as pm recovery items, asking 20% above spot leaves us questioning what we are missing because we so often take a hit of at least a few percent selling on assay.

Is it normal to ask >spot for native specimens because of recoverable gold content?
 
Doesn't look like any silver ore, at least not a rich ore. The pictures looks like natural staining on weathered rocks.

Show us pictures of a fresh surface after you crack a stone, ground up ore and the resulting silver button you created.

Göran
 
Snodog20,

You stated:

"Alaska does not offer fire assay services, and thus I do not know any percentage of Silver vs Electrum (Natural Gold and Silver alloy)."

I found that statement a little strange considering the amount of PM mining in Alaska. So, I did a quick Google search for fire assayers in Alaska, and on the 1st page of results, I found this company:

GBA Assaying & Refining

Why not let them do at least an XRF analysis on your ore?

Peace and health,
James
I went there last April to do that, and they do it selectively. They won't do it say if you want to know what is present in a sample of anything.
XRF is a fraud. A pinprick analysis? Useless overpriced garbage. I have a blast furnace, I've poured a 4 Oz bar, and can cupel too. I can work that out on my own.
My friend is a 20 + year Silver miner here in Alaska, and he won't go to anyone here, because they are completely inept. The industry we once had is long gone.
 
The photos look like Andesite that has a high iron and magnesium content. This type of material is known to have high silver content, and in some cases reasonable amounts of Palladium and Platinum. Palladium especially due to Magnesium being a transitional element that will transition into Palladium with naturally occurring neutron bombardment from nearby granitic rocks containing radioactive metals or radioactive minerals.

We hope that this has been helpful.

Rick & Carrie
 
The photos look like Andesite that has a high iron and magnesium content. This type of material is known to have high silver content, and in some cases reasonable amounts of Palladium and Platinum. Palladium especially due to Magnesium being a transitional element that will transition into Palladium with naturally occurring neutron bombardment from nearby granitic rocks containing radioactive metals or radioactive minerals.
Rick not helpful at all, I just spit out my second coffee.

Are you trying to tell us we have the neutron fluxes here on earth to make reasonable amounts of palladium from magnesium?
 
The photos look like Andesite that has a high iron and magnesium content. This type of material is known to have high silver content, and in some cases reasonable amounts of Palladium and Platinum. Palladium especially due to Magnesium being a transitional element that will transition into Palladium with naturally occurring neutron bombardment from nearby granitic rocks containing radioactive metals or radioactive minerals.

We hope that this has been helpful.

Rick & Carrie
This will take quite a lot of neutrons to accomplish. And not sure from where the protons will come to make it all the way to the palladium.
It will require awful lot of alpha particles to fill the nucleus of magnesium all the way to the palladium :) in the rock, i doubt this could be possible, alpha particles cannot travel far through the rock.
Another possibility would be fusion, but... No :)

Some few nuclei transition is all possible, but I doubt this could happen to that extent we could actually measure the paladium content.
 
The Probability to pass from magnesium to palladium in a natural ore is almost zero, I don't even know if someone tried to do it in laboratory
 
Rick not helpful at all, I just spit out my second coffee.

Are you trying to tell us we have the neutron fluxes here on earth to make reasonable amounts of palladium from magnesium?
Lol. I didn't mean for you to lose your coffee.

It's easy to replicate inside of a nuclear reactor.
 
I didn't mean to confound anyone's thinking or cause argument or debate on the topic. I am just relaying the knowledge I gained with research I made on the net back in 2012. To bad I don't remember where I read all that about Magnesium and it's ability to transition from one metal to another, and the end product being Palladium.
 
I didn't mean to confound anyone's thinking or cause argument or debate on the topic. I am just relaying the knowledge I gained with research I made on the net back in 2012. To bad I don't remember where I read all that about Magnesium and it's ability to transition from one metal to another, and the end product being Palladium.
It is of no consequence for us anyway.
It happens within nano seconds in supernovae or in the spans of million of years in nature.

What we have here on the planet at this time is what will be here, the next milennias anyway.
So it will have to be processed by the values it have now or not processes at all.
 
Those look like pieces of hematite in broken botryoidal form. Have you tested them for magnetism? We find pieces that look very similar to those all the time. Pictures don't tell the composition. Only an assay , AA, or ICP will tell the real story. I know , there are a bunch of other tests, but get a pro analysis. They may be worth more as specimens than being sold for refining.
 
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