Electrum Anyone?

[Lead Detector]

Just curious how often people find electrum.  What is the value of it compared to standard gold? Is it more rare, or fairly common?  Is there a way to easily test whether you have electrum? 

Edit: just found the video below that answers many of my questions.  It's worth watching.

@Reno Chris did this great video that explains purity of gold and mentions electrum.  Very informative video

https://youtu.be/ic_rKn1IspA?si=z-4cn0Ob6e1gzNwL

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

Electrum was what we found in Nevada quite often, also common in southern Idaho. I would usually read the mine reports to find what percentage or ratio it occurred historically depended on location, most of it ran 60/40 to 50/50. Nitric would remove the silver on the surface exposing the gold, but usually made it look darker.

[rvpopeye]

Thx for this post LD ! 

I always watch Chris Ralph's videos , and always learn something from them !

Was wondering if he was also our Reno Chris ?  Now I know that too ! 

 

[Swegin]

The late Jim Straight talked a lot about this on Rob's forum also recommending some really good books on the subject.

 

[Aureous]

In Australia, I've found Electrum-gold at St Arnaud (Victoria) and Tarcoola (Sth Aust). They vary around 45-55% and 60-40%.  Very pale in color and price varies to 2x gold value for the whole piece. Specimens in quartz fetch the highest prices.

[dig4gold]

Isn't electrum watered down gold in nature with a high silver content? Therefore making the gold a very light pale colour. I wouldn't think it would be worth nearly as much as more pure gold. A lot of the hard rock gold mines in the Coromandel region of the north island in NZ had a very high silver content to there gold making the bullion bars not worth as much as the more pure gold bars of other mines.

D4G

 

[Aureous]

14 hours ago, dig4gold said:

Isn't electrum watered down gold in nature with a high silver content? Therefore making the gold a very light pale colour. I wouldn't think it would be worth nearly as much as more pure gold.

Collectors love the stuff....its very rare and especially when its from a known, recorded location, its highly desirable. I sold all of mine decades ago for a very good (back then) price. But, wish I had some in my own collection now.

[Gerry in Idaho]

One of my Field Staff and I crushed some ugly rocks we found with detectors a few yrs back.  All of his were from Northern NV (high silver content) and most of mine were from Eastern OR.  We then panned the sandy material to separate the Au from sand.  After that, he broke out the burner and we smelted our materials while pouring into cone molds.

That following Monday morning at 6AM we headed to AAA Refinery in Portland to sell the Au.

They shot it with some kind of XRF gun that reads the % of gold and other minerals such as silver.  What was interesting is that the gun could see his gold had a much greater amount of silver content and I think he was around 60% Au.  My gold was around 75% Au reading so I was paid more per ounce than he was.

Interestingly, AAA Refinery also pays for the silver in the gold as well.  Many refineries don't offer that extra cash and they pocket it.

I don't know the exact amount of purity of silver to gold content to = Electrum but I do know if melted, you'll get less $$$.

[dig4gold]

On 3/24/2025 at 10:53 AM, Aureous said:

Collectors love the stuff....

Unbelievable..... Why, what's the attraction? Pale looking gold doesn't do it for me. Give me the real stuff any day.

D4G