Metals that co-exist with gold

Hi all, I went mountain biking with a mate recently and saw some lovely white quartz in the hills. So, a few days later I decided to take the machine back there to do some detecting. There is a large rocky outcrop right down the steep hill, small scattered quartz but ive found nothing like a reef (yet). What interested me is that about half way down the hill I got some strong signals, passed the magnet over and flicked disc on the detector (and it definately wasn't ferrous) and I kept digging. After 30 mins I had 6 small 'nuggets' which felt heavy and I started to get excited, that is, until I cleaned them. What appeared was a dark grey metal which I assumed was lead, but they weren't very soft. Once I chiselled them at home, it seems they are lead, but I had read that lead rarely occurs in ore form like this and it definitely doesn't look like pictures of lead ore. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I'm curious whether this might be a good sign in terms of finding gold in the area. The soil was loose but very rocky so I guess some heavy stuff might get stuck closer to the surface. In short, I don't know and would appreciate any answers/suggestions

Cheers

Jun

silver nuggets maybe

G'day Junhaus

Bullets that have been fired and hit rocks distort, and I have found plenty that are nugget shapes until you scratch them and you see the lead colour.

Some areas have plenty like this and other areas just have the original projectile shape as they hit nothing solid.

cheers dave

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It could possibly be solder from old tins that have rusted away or the solder has melted off in a camp or bushfire.

Any chance of a photo Junhaus? I wouldn't have a clue what it could be but many here could probably solve the mystery if they saw what you found.

Hi
If the army fired mortars into the side of the hill that’s what would be left.
I was in the Army and have seen this before.
It would have been a training exercise many years ago.
Regards Neale

Thanks for all the replies, I would've assumed that if it was manmade (bullets, mortar etc) it would have some iron content and hence be magnetic. I guess it might be solder but there is no history of habitation in this area within a few kms apart from some motorbike tracks. I'll clean up the mess I've made of the find and upload a photo, hope it makes sense to someone.

G'day Junhaus

Most bullets that I know of are made of lead (non ferrous) meaning no iron and there for not magnetic, don't know about morters.

But hey don't let that stop you keep up the good work as you never know the next one may be gold.

cheers dave

Lead will always break in cubic form and it doesn't take much effort. Having to hit your rock? with a hammer and chisel would suggest maybe silver, Tellurium! You need to do a streak test with your cloths still on! Bullets will always look like bullets when viewed from the gunpowder end, that damn circle will always put your hopes back in place with reality?

When I said lead will always break in cubic form, I meant the ore of lead "Galena" and no it is not magnetic!
As for the solder idea, it's about the same hardness as lead, Soft As. IE no chisel required!

The streak is grey, meaning either galena or lead, however lead is meant to be extremely rare. The structure is flat and rounded (more like some alluvial gold nuggets), so it's probably not galena. I'm stumped. I'll put up pics ASAP.

There are some 50 minerals which will produce a grey black streak, however only a couple will make a detector beep! Still could be gold mixed with a mineral not often found, giving it it's grey color, White gold for example, until acid treated will not reveal it's luster, as the silver content will always tarnish the surface. When I say tarnish it's not like tarnish on your silver ware, it's a hard dark coating which only a file will show the true color, and that can still vary depending on % of ???
The unknown Cheers~Chris.

Manganese can tarnish gold like that!

Pyrolusite AHHH. A post a made about 3 months ago, still trying to have my find verified A couple of geo's put me onto a no more then $50 tell me what it is? reality turns out to be about $300+ with no guarantee, What!

ok, here goes. i soaked the 'nuggets' in HCL for a day and it got rid of most of the dirt/oxidation, etc. ive selected some of the bigger and cleaner specis for the photo. they all have a dark grey tinge, but this comes away easily by scratching with my nails and leaves the shiny metallic surface you can see on some of them. youll also notice that some have very straight edges, this is because ive chiselled them in half. as id mentioned, they were all smooth and irregular shapes when i found them, no straight edges and no evidence of being bullets, etc. still cant see them as being lead, but any help would be appreciated

thanks heaps,

j

The things on the picture look like lead that was cut.

Did you dug up somebody's test patch?

They could be printers lead ( lead made hard with antimony)

Here is the Antimony Ive been finding, break your finds and see if they have a crystal structure.