Assay Question

[AUddicted]

Tungsten is very hard wouldn't dent so easily.

Tellurium perhaps? But you did say it was very heavy. Hmmm

[mn90403]

I go to a coin dealer and they xrf my finds from the beach.

[boulder dash]

I thought tungsten also. I sent some of the concentrates to a tungsten refinery (niagra tungsten) and they said no tungsten, no silver. Also scheelite and wolframite (tungsten ore) have a lower spacific gravity. This stuff is really heavy And is literally next to the gold on the shaker table.

[azblackbird]

If it's metal, chances are it was commercially mined at one point in time. What's the history/geology of your prospects? There were a lot of weird/exotic metals mined in AZ back in the day.

[Reno Chris]

It cannot be tungsten, the meting point of tungsten is more than a thousand degrees higher than the maximum an electric furnace can reach. The heating elements would melt before the tungsten.

Sulfides come off next to gold on the shaker table.

If you didn't get it fully roasted, add nails or plenty of some other reducing agent like flour or charcoal, its sulfides. Put it on an anvil and hit it harder with something heavier than a rock hammer. Its not a nugget that has specimen value. Try sawing it with a hack saw - sulfides will be really hard compared to metals.

Sulfide matte does look like a metal.

Roasting ores within a closed electric furnace does not allow enough oxygen to roast a concentrate that is mostly sulfides. Roasting is not a heating process, its a burning process. Just as things do not burn without oxygen, sulfides will not oxidize without oxygen.

If you are using a book that tells you how to do an assay, look at testing high sulfide ores.

[boulder dash]

All assays were done by a older gentleman with over 30 years of assaying experience. He was entirely stumped and had no idea what it could be. Ill try hitting a smaller button with a sledgehammer to see if I can get it to shatter.

[Reno Chris]

If you get an 18 gram button in a 30 gram assay ton sample, It has to be be something that makes up a large part of either the Flux or the concentrate. The Flux has a lot of lead, the cons appear to be largely sulfides. It has to be something where there is at least 18 grams of it in the Flux and sample mix being put in to the crucible.

Try cutting it with a hacksaw. Pyrite is harder than the hacksaw blade, so if it's sulfides you won't make much progress sawing it.

[boulder dash]

Forgot to mention it's non magnetic, even to a rare earth super magnet. I'll try the hacksaw when I get a chance.

[El Dorado]

Check this out

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/jwd/4936554225.html

[NuggetBob]

Well shuck my corn! Maybe the assayer did not perform the assay right. Dagnabit, even the most experienced folks make mistakes. I once saw a blind squirrel find a nut too.