Silver Ore find Adelaide

[Zorgs]

New to this but hooked so I keep the detector in my work van for any chance to have a look.

Was driving through the hills and saw the foundation ruins of something old on the side of the road so thought I'd have a quick look around. Mostly iron and rubbish driving me nuts. On the way out the 705 sounded pretty hard and read a solid 44. Thought it's probably scrap metal again. Dug it out from 100mm down, threw it in my bag thinking not much, probably lead.

Washed it off at home and then realised it isn't lead. Not Galena. Filed it back to reveal nice white metal. Softer than mild steel with the file, harder than lead. Non magnetic. Conductive, 0.0 ohms resistance. Weighs 102gm. I did a bit of research and there was possibly a silver mine in the area. That's about all the background work I could think of.

Appreciate any input. If so, it's not worth a whole lot but I'd be pretty excited if it was silver.

Edit, could have been melted down already?

 

[XIV]

it looks like a bit of melted aluminum by the photo
but hey I might be wrong,

 

[Heatho]

Intersesting, how heavy does it feel, like really heavy for it's size? Native silver in Aus is pretty rare.

 

[silver]

be nice if it is.

 

[Zorgs]

Yeah definitely heavy which is why my initial instinct was to not bother having a good look.

 

[Zorgs]

be nice if it is.

Certainly would be silver

 

[KarlS]

Silver usually tarnish black with Ag2S not green. But you can try this. Get some glass or ceramic bowl and line it with aluminium foil. Pour some boiling water in, add table spoon of bi cab soda and bit of table salt. Put your metal in. If it cleans up to silvery look, you most likely have silver or silver alloy.
You may notice smell of rotten eggs H2S.
Karl

 

[Zorgs]

Thanks Karl. I gave that a go but there wasn't any change and no sulphide smell. I've taken some better pictures with a different camera in natural light. The colour is a mid-dark grey and there seems to be a slight mineral? crust over the surface. To show white metal I need to file it back.

The last picture shows a bit of black charcoal like material which I find interesting.

Just realised how much more detail the camera shows than what I can see. Might have to get a magnifying glass or a pair of glasses!

 

[Zorgs]

Any other ideas? I need to find out, my wife thinks I have an attachment to a rock.

Was thinking of one of those acid test kits or sending it to school with my son and seeing if the science teacher will pop some nitric acid on it.

 

[Mackka]

I' no expert but it looks like slag to me.
Cheers
Mackka

 

[AtomRat]

Is it malleable?

 

[Zorgs]

I' no expert but it looks like slag to me.
Cheers
Mackka

Yeah I sort of thought that. Though it is non ferrous so being a by product of ferrous smelting it shouldn't be anywhere near this heavy.

I could be wrong though!

EDIT, after yours and atom's post I put it in the vice and gave it a bash. Not really maleabale, crystalline inside. Heavy, non metallic, easy to tarnish though which threw me. So I take it might be slag/tailings?

I hang my head in shame :8

 

[lars]

Hi zorgs. We also found what we think is a small silver nugget around the adelaide hills. Was 6 inches down sitting on bedrock.