Silver Prospecting Techniques
Silver like other minerals is a valuable commodity, although it is much less valuable than it's precious metal counterparts, silver does hold considerable value to the prospector as it often occurs with other minerals. New Brunswick prospecting has been fortunate that a member of the mineral exploration community has stepped forward and offered a field testhing guide for silver prospecting. Below you will find Chemical Prospectors guide to Geochemical prospecting for silver.
Here’s a fast and easy test for silver, in the field with very little equipment. Once you do the prep work at home or camp you are set to run the test in just a few minutes. There are no acids involved although there are tests that use them, but I find no need for them as this test works so well.
Here are the Steps
You have looked hard and have found an outcrop of greyblack rock that has a different look to it, different than the other rocks on the area, you knock off a fresh chunk and check it with your 10 x loop you keep hanging from your neck ( that’s how the people in that new bar you stopped of at before you came out here KNEW you were a real prospector, all of them have one hanging around there neck ! ), it go’s well with the lumberjack boots and the wide brim hat also, you get out the small magnet to see if its magnetite then check to see what its streak looks like. as well, then you set down beside a small soft sided bag, the type used to keep things cool in, that now contains a few small plastic bottle’s of chemicals, a couple of test tubes, a small wire brush, a small home made frame with 80 mesh screen wire, and a small iron or stainless steel pipe cap and a rock hammer. Oh and your going to find that the side by side numbered tickets you picked up at that office supply the other day, sure do make for an easy way to keep samples from getting mixed up after finding some rocks that looked like they might have something of value in them but not silver,no big deal you can test them later when you have a little free time.
Before you start testing the sample in your hand you look at it from all sides and trim off the areas that have been exposed tothe rain, snow, and air. You have learned not to use any exposed surface for testing because the air, and water that has been on it for untold years would have leached some elements from it and/or changed the ones it had into something else like clay. The first thing you do it break the sample up into small pieces then crush them into 80 mesh powder or even finer so the chemicals can have a larger surface area to work there magic on. After you finished making it into powder of around 5 grams you put it into one of the small test tubes, it might be up the tube a 1⁄2 ", no matter its enough to show you what you want to see, then to cover it up about two or two and a half inches with some of the sodium thiosulfate solution and stopper the test tube, and shake it hard for a minute or so but being careful to note just how long a time it really was because your going to shake all the other samples the exact same amount of time when you do them.
After x amount of time you stop and while the contents settle in it you have got the other smaller of the two bottles , and being very careful not to get ANY of it spilled on you or anything you want to keep it for the next two years. You add two drops of it into the test tube but you DO NOT shake it this time. If there is anywhere near enough silver in that sample it will have shown it before you said "HOT DAMN" it worked ! Put two more drops into it and see if the black band from the first two drops gets wider if so that’s extra good, no black band at the top means go on the hunt again.
Now you want to collect more samples and test some more, BE SURE you have recorded all information in your field book before you change locations. What DO YOU Mean you have no field book ? OK so you forgot this one and only time in your whole life, take out your knife and carve it into your lumber jack boots or into your leg but get it recorded ! What’s wrong with using your map and GPS ? There, you see how easy it is to forget things.
One thing you have learned at the time of testing in what you found is an OXIDE if it was a sulfide you would have had to roast it on the lid of that soup can stove you made just for that event, you would have set up your stove, with its 1 lb. Propane tank, aimed the torch angled up inside the slit in the side of the can and without burning down the forest around you, very carefully sprinkled the sample on its top. Then roasted it until it quit smoking and had turned a dull red ( maybe), then do as above.
BREAK TIME !
OK back to work, Now we need to learn how and what we need.
Chemicals:
Sodium thiosulfate, you will want to buy 500 gram bottles of it because you will use a lot of it .It’s cheap.
Sodium sulfite : This is STINKY stuff and you do not want to spill it or get it on your skin! Will have one hell of a time getting it out. Do Not mix this in the house for these reasons, she (Wife) will kill you before you get it out. Much like a beer and egg party except, you can’t tell it to go home!
A 3" pipe cap ( weld on type is best ) stainless steel is best but iron type can be used also.
A good rock hammer not one made in China.
Small wire brass or steel brush ( auto parts store maybe ).
80 mesh S.S. wire cloth if you can find a place in Canada to buy it other wise you will have to Order it from the U.S. Go to ActionMining.com they stock it, but it comes in 3 foot lengths. They also carry lots of other things you might want, download there catalog. They do ship to Canada!
You will need two small plastic bottles, a small one like eye drops come in ( I like the kind with A swing type spout but most any kind will do the job. The other one needs to hold about 250 ml. If you think you will use more than 250 ml a day get alarger for storage and refill. The small one from it. Try not to mix up more than you will use in a week because it will go bad. Do not store mixed chemical for more than three months due to this fact. Also you do not want any of them to freeze.
A good idea is to buy some chemical work gloves; you really do not want to get some of the Chemicals that are going to be used in future posts on your skin, same with safety eye wear. Far better to buy them to start with rather than after something go’s wrong! You will need some sort of container to carry every thing in that will hold everything and protect it from the sun and bump & bang damage. Test tubes are very easy to break so they must be wrapped with something soft and inside something to prevent damage. I found some small ones in a hobby shop that work fine and are very cheap, get 6 or 8 with plastic stoppers, if they do not have stoppers use kitchen type plastic wrap cut into small pieces, works as well. Do not reuse for more than one test ( the stoppers ).