Tested out the new impact mill today. Just a preliminary test before the "big" test. I had some ore I got from a mine that supposedly runs 1/2 to 1 oz per ton. I only ran a large coffee can or 1 and 2 inch rock. Talk about dusty! LOL
So I took a 1/2 cup of it and panned it and nothing. No gold and little black sands. Grabbed another pan and opened up the door and with a brush, brushed out some of the stuff still inside the mill, and panned about a 1/2 cup of that. That's when I was excited! There in the pan, too large to pass through the screen was native copper! I took a piece and tapped it with a hammer on the vise anvil and it flattened right out. Put it in nitric acid and it eventually was gone.
Excited because this is the first time I had native copper in my pan! Where there is copper, there is most likely gold with it, around it, and in it. Most large copper mines produce the gold as a "byproduct". Native Copper is kind of rare!
I've crushed Cinnabar in the past to recover free mercury. Looking forward to getting out in the field (even if it is triple digits!) It was 128 the other day!
