Popular Post Reno Chris Posted November 8, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted November 8, 2016 I've never found any native silver before and its one of the things I've always wanted to do. I was researching through some old reports and came across a reference to an old silver mine that supposedly produced nice silver specimens when it was worked in the 1800s. I think I will give it a try in 2017 when the weather warms. I saw this specimen at the Tucson Gem and mineral show a few years back. Native silver can be pretty big and spectacular. This piece weighs nearly 20 pounds and was found with a metal detector a few years back. I hunted in the Serrita Mountains once, but all I got was a green turd (a local name for cuprite specimens). Easy to see why its called the Silver Dog. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyLundy Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Silver Dog Doug, the founder of that chunk is and old Family friend. He brought it over to my house to show and it's and anchor of a double arm full of Wowness! He was detecting the middle of a wash when he heard this hub cap target! It's a great find to a dedicated detectorist like him. LuckyLundy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brogansown Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Virginia City is synonymous with silver. Chris, was there any native silver found in those mines? I think I've read that before the silver discoveries there, prospectors were looking for gold and as they worked up the wash towards Virginia City they encountered that "pesky blue stuff" in their sluices. That material wasn't native silver, but a very pure form of the ore. Anyway I saw a vial of blue crystals in a Museum in Virginia City and have always wanted a small vial of that "pesky" stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno Chris Posted November 8, 2016 Author Share Posted November 8, 2016 The main silver mineral at Virginia City was Argentite, now called acanthite (blame mineral scientists for changing the name). The mineral is silver sulfide and is 87% silver by weight. It is really more black than blue, but can be kind of a gray / blue color. If you work hard, sometimes earthy acanthite specimens can be found on some of the mine dumps at Virginia City. See: http://nevada-outback-gems.com/mineral_information/Acanthite_mineral_info.htm The attached photo shows a specimen picked up in the Virginia City area off a mine dump. You can see the silver wires and flakes in the photo, it is most likely high silver electrum. The dark stuff around the silver is acanthite. Most Nevada mines that contain native silver produced it only in small pieces - little flakes and wires kind of like the photo below. Not much of that stuff would make a decent specimen. Probably much of the Nevada native silver would not be visible to a metal detector. Some other native silver can be seen at:http://nevada-outback-gems.com/mineral_information/silver_mineral_info.htm 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brogansown Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Thanks for that Chris. We don't have much silver here in Eastern Oregon that I know of except for a deposit at the ghost town of Mineral, Idaho, just across the Snake River from us. It's a ghost town now, inhabited only by rattlesnakes (and lots of them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortuga Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 I've wanted to hunt the gold placers in the Sierritas where the silver dog came from. Besides the club claims out there the best I could figure was they were right smack in the middle of a trailer park now and the others are on State Land Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvanwho Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 Weren't there silver mines in the Patagonia area of southern Arizona worked by the Spanish/Mexican miners? I read of huge black sheets of silver inches thick and many feet long being found down there way back when. And another spot east of the Supers. Chris can PM me on that one. Supposedly you could pick native silver nuggets off the ground . -Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno Chris Posted November 9, 2016 Author Share Posted November 9, 2016 Patagonia area, yes. East of the Supers. - not sure where you mean, nothing comes to mind off the top of my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortuga Posted November 9, 2016 Share Posted November 9, 2016 The "Planchas de Plata" were found south of Patagonia just south of the border on a ranch called "Arizonac" which led to the region being called Arizona and eventually the U.S. state. They were huge slabs or "planks" of silver and large balls. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno Chris Posted November 10, 2016 Author Share Posted November 10, 2016 I did say in the original post that it's high silver electrum. Electrum is a natural gold-silver alloy. I would guess this stuff is 20 to 40 percent gold. The guy who found it will be getting it probed to see what the percentage of gold is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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