need help identifying

[aleasha]

Started panning this year-great way to get kids outside in nature. Found this copper "rock" weighing 110 pounds. Panned area nearby and found alot of metal mostly copper and a greyish/silver metal, some in shape of pellets. Any ideas on the type of metal would be appreciated-should we continue to explore this area or move on to another location. Very new at this so any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks.

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[DJR]

to begin with try some cleaning, some folks say white vinegar, try some jewelry cleaner, things like that, maybe then some one will be able to help.
Good luck

[4theluvofgold]

If Its silver bleach will blacken it. Use a small price to tell.

[aleasha]

Thanks for suggestions-here a few others we found. Any help identifying these metals-one has what seems to be a flat copper piece in it and the other one is grey-looks black until cleaned and "sparkles" on inside but can be flattened with hammer. They are both very heavy.

[bill-costa rica]

my first thought was smelting slag. is there old mining activity in the area, a mill site?

bill-cr

[Bonaro]

I agree with bill, looks like slag.
When you melt ore to recover the metal in it, you will have a lot of "dross" or waste material that forms a scum layer on top of the molten metal. This is usually skimmed off and rejected and will often contain all sorts of different minerals including in this case, copper. Look into the local history and see if a smelter was located nearby

[aleasha]

We live in atlantic canada and i have looked into mining and there has never been any type of mining anywhere near our area. The gray metal isn't black-it has a black very greasy substance all over it. Can't get it off very easily. This was found around alot of volcanic stuff-don't know if that matters but thought it was interesting. Thanks so much for your replies-learning alot.

[rlp122]

Judging by your pictures and the fact that it is black and greasy while being found around a volcanic area, then it is possibly copper that has come into contact with Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) at some point. Hydrogen Sulfide forms a nasty black coating on copper that can be removed with a bit of elbow grease and some light acid such as vinegar.

It is a real pain to deal with Hydrogen Sulfide around Wastewater plants. It can eat out small electrical traces fairly fast even in low concentrations. Hydrogen Sulfide is a colorless and odorless gas in higher concentrations and will stop electrical activity in your nervous system causing death from respiratory failure. It's hard to get high concentrations out of doors in most situations as it tends to dissipate fairly rapidly.

Not too often I get to contribute something here that I know much about.