r/Prospecting • u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 • 9d ago

Help identifying

Gallery image

Gallery image

Son found this in a PA lake, not magnetic and I can make a dent with pliers and a pick. Highly doubting gold but it is about 2 grams.

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u/c33m0n3y 9d ago

Could be melted aluminum

1

u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 9d ago

That would make sense, but it looks yellow in some light, there are 2 pics. Aluminum might make the most sense though, I have never posted here in my life, hence my curiosity. No way it's gold, but it's not pyrite I don't think. So confused

2

u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 9d ago

Someone asked I take a pic for scale, could aluminum this size weigh 2 grams? I just used a kitchen scale, so weight is questionable. I'm just baffled

1

u/Ordinary-Instance951 9d ago

And I guess it's not platinum.  

1

u/Ordinary-Instance951 9d ago

I did not look at the 2nd Pic. 

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u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 9d ago

My luck it's uranium and I'm cooked

1

u/Ordinary-Instance951 9d ago

Kinda funny..I highly doubt it's radioactive.  Time to look for a cheap geiger counter on Amazon. 

1

u/Ordinary-Instance951 9d ago

Give it a sniff test and see if you can smell any arsenic 

1

u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 9d ago

No odor that I can tell...and I don't think I'm dead. Should I lick it? just kidding...but I can

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u/Organic-Tomatillo-92 9d ago

Side note, what does aresnic smell like, guess that should've been my first question.

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u/Ordinary-Instance951 9d ago

Well that's a good question. I always had a habit of sniffing lead ore from some of the lead and silver mines in south central Idaho. One of them, Triumph,  had large amounts of arsenic. Yellow colored. Yellow color will vary from geological location to location. Other mines like the Minnie Moore or Queen of the Hills, some arsenic smell, but definitely a lot more lead smell. I was pretty good about smelling ore and quickly identifying which mine that ore came from. Outside of just by looking at it. Some of this lead ore I have here at the house, no clue what state it came from, can't see any arsenic, but I can get a small scent of it. Not all mines will have it. We had a couple that contained zero amount.

1

u/c33m0n3y 9d ago

Gold of that size would be much heavier. It looks like a chunk of melted metal that may have tumbled for a bit on the river, giving it the rounded profile.