FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Todd Willis]

Hi,
I’m brand new to this forum. Thank you in advance for any help you may provide.
A little background. I have been a lifetime collector of minerals. I have from time to time, dabbled in gold prospecting. I have a geology background, although that is mostly not what I have done for a living.
Recently, I decided to get back into it. Living eastern Idaho, in close proximity to the Snake River, famous, infamous?, for its micro-fine gold. I thought it would be a fun challenge and I was right. Having a good time.
As I have just started back doing this, I have mostly scouted likely areas for flood deposits, then panning, and when I find any color, gather some to take home. I have been various levels of clarifying, to test my sluice recoveries at different mesh sizes and practice my rough and cleanup panning skills. I am catching and recycling the small amounts of dirt I bring home, less than 10 gallons so far. All of the material I have processed, in most cases, many times through a recirculating sluice system. For reference, I am using Dream Mat. What I am consistently finding, in what I will refer to as my super-concentrates, i.e., gold and black sands, approximately 20-30 percent gold, 70-80 percent black sands, I am finding that I have this additional material that I don’t know what it is. Please see photo. Sorry, I did not understand how to get a photo upload for an unknown, so I just picked one.
I had noticed this material early on, in my buckets and in my pan, but initially dismissed it as organic material from the river but is still there after multiple sluicing and panning cycles. It appears to drop as fast as the gold when I transfer, using a pipette, to a vial. Perhaps important to add that I do use a surfactant (Jet Dry) beginning in my buckets through sluicing and panning.
I am very much looking forward to any help that may be provided.
Thank you