Heya all, first time poster new to prospecting. Been coming across this strange metal substance in the bush that makes my detector go crazy saying non-ferrous. Looks to me like melted lead but it doesn't seem to have the weight. Thanks in advance.
Unknown metal
- Thread starter Mike1491
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Looks like lead to me.
Welcome to PA.
Welcome to PA.
Can you break it apart and put up another picture.
Also can you tell us sb bit about yourself ?
Also can you tell us sb bit about yourself ?
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Hi Mike Welcome to PA. You say it doesn't have the weight of lead, which makes me wonder if it's maybe Aluminium (Is it really light?)
The reason I ask is that when I was a kid making some Lead fishing sinkers once, I got the Aluminium saucepan I was using too hot and it melted through the bottom. I also had a mate once whose motorbike caught on fire and burned, and that's what one of his carburetors ended up looking like! Maybe someone had a campfire or a burn-off at some time where you were detecting,and something Aluminium ended up in the fire?
Or, possibly the remains of a melted sacrificial Anode that was on something? (Zinc)
The reason I ask is that when I was a kid making some Lead fishing sinkers once, I got the Aluminium saucepan I was using too hot and it melted through the bottom. I also had a mate once whose motorbike caught on fire and burned, and that's what one of his carburetors ended up looking like! Maybe someone had a campfire or a burn-off at some time where you were detecting,and something Aluminium ended up in the fire?
Or, possibly the remains of a melted sacrificial Anode that was on something? (Zinc)
StoneTheCrows
Neil Mulvaney
How small are they.
It looks a lot like the small bits of aluminium foil that litters the gold fields.
Not sure if it was wrapping material from the old timers or what it was used for.
It looks a lot like the small bits of aluminium foil that litters the gold fields.
Not sure if it was wrapping material from the old timers or what it was used for.
Looks a bit like that too - hardness would help as well as SGmadtuna said:
IP (geophysical) crews in the 20th C used to use huge amounts to make good earth contact for their electrodes. They would dig a hole in the ground, put in aluminium foil, connect wires to it, throw in earth and then a few buckets of salt water.
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goldierocks said:
Pity they didn't clean up their work sites after they finished, great info once again :Y:
Not native silver is it?
Cheers
Doug
Cheers
Doug
RM Outback said:
We probably did, and threw it in the fire to make interesting silver nuggets for detectorologists to scratch their heads over decades later (my first job was digging the holes as a pick and shovel man - barely a man....)
No - you will not find silver looking like that at surface. The combination of sun, moisture and time will turn it black in weeks (like Grandma's silver cutlery). And since it would be weathering out from deeper down, it would have converted to other secondary silver minerals such as chlorides before it even got to surface.Rockhunter62 said:
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madtuna said:
Would agree. I picked up a couple of pieces that looked just like that a few days ago. Extremely light.
Hey all, it's very hard like metal. Can't break it by hand. Have found this big piece and several smaller pieces in other areas. The piece in the picture is about 10cms in length. Will try and see how it responds to a blow torch, it's not light but if it was lead I'd expect it to be heavier although perhaps I have unrealistic expectations haha.
I have found something similar in Qld.
What I have is a melted old zinc battery from years of bushfires.
Just throwing that out there as an alternative.
What I have is a melted old zinc battery from years of bushfires.
Just throwing that out there as an alternative.
Might be Friar Tuck's melted pewter wine goblet.
Goldtarget
(AKA OldGT)
Spark test will put you in ball park, if its solid and reasonably heavy Id guess zinc heavy aluminium, like heads of a piston, or cast aluminium remelted, low melting points. Looks exactly like the smelted stuff we got in scrap yard when i was there. Cans and foil tend to get stringy but higher zinc content gives it weight and that exact puddled look.
