Platinum or not Platinum

		Quote:			Posted by bigwater
	Certainly sg is not all of the picture, but sg will give you an idea of whether or not it's worth going to the trouble and expense to have more tests done. 45 minutes on an analysis is not bad though.  How much did that cost you?

It was around $250.00 as I recall for a 10kg ore sample but it also included the paperwork necessary for submission to the BLM on changing from a prospect claim to a full working claim. Claim sold shortly after the assay. I'm a happy camper.

The electronic test consists of sticking two probes into visible metal on the sample. The machine to do this is a one time cost of a few hundred dollars and the result is on the screen in a few milliseconds. Specific gravity tests take a few hours and some samples may be too small to get an accurate result. It's the old way of doing things.

The cost of an electronic assay machine was, at the time, 5 times the cost of the assay and I then had to pulverize the ore and do a lot of testing to determine the yield. It was much more expedient to let them do the work.

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Bigwater, the e-mail I got simply told me it was gold. The rest of the assay which included the yield per ton was more important in the grand scheme of things. Their paperwork allowed me to negotiate a sale. My point is that there are faster ways than waiting weeks for an assay these days. Most jewelers have gold testing machines that will tell you if a small sample is platinum, gold, silver or an alloy of any sort. You can buy them on eBay but they're not cheap. A bargain if you find a lot of questionable items or ore but for the casual treasure hunter, quite expensive.

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Of course you can send it off for analysis, Any scrap dealer with a M.S. machine or kvex x-ray can tell you what elements are present in what ratios. As for a field test, the three properties that will tell is 1-nitric acid (concentrated), 2-(the one i like) malleability, and 3) melting point and S.G. are more difficult and confused for alloys.

I remember an old cowboy movie where a young prospector comes up with an arm load of gold colored rocks yelling Gold!, Gold! I've struck Gold!. The next line was from an old grizzled prospecter who is standing by.

"You say you found gold?" (he places a rock on a flat table and smashes it with his pistol butt). "That ain't gold, That's fool's gold!

That being Hollywood's version of a malleability test

Malleability. That's the property that tells if its a native metal or one of the many metallic lustered minerals. do that first.

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Hey,

  Yes thanks for the advice I will do that.

Daryl

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Saw a video online about testing a potential platinum containing mineral by placeing it in hydrogen peroxide. Platinum being a catalyst will release lots and lots of oxygen bubbles. Got real excited until I found that manganese and titanium and a lot of other minerals are catalysts as well that did the same. Got samples out of a platinum bearing stream in North Carolina. If you have access to a furnace you could try smelting it and doing a fire essay. A lot of platinum bearing minerals like sperrylite look like platinum but aren't pure so will be difficult to get a specific gravity, but smelting your ores leaves noble metals only and is a little more informative.

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