Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a metal detecting find from last summer. Unearthed a large piece of high grade ore from the old mine dumps around here. I had a slab cut off from the boulder and this is what it looks like inside. 145 pounds more of it to get slabbed. Not sure what I am going to do with it all. Sell it?

well HiHo Silver! what a nice find! id hold off selling it untill the price comes back up!

Great find.
If I had that much rough Silver I'd have it made into bullion or coins and sit on it for a while.

I wish I could have it made into bars but it seems impossible to find someone that will take it because of the arsenides that are also in the rock. I think the best thing to do would be to cut the rest of it up and try to sell it as mineral specimens for collectors or for people that do lapidary work. I had the ore assayed twice and it came back at 3650 toz/ton for silver. The ore comes from Cobalt,Ontario.

Here is another piece I have. The calcite vein was etched out using muratic acid to expose the silver vein a little better. It is a very aesthetic piece.

That is definitely a beautiful specimen. I had to enlarge the image to fully appreciate it.
I think you're right about retaining better value in specimen form.

I'm sure the value of your stone would be much more than the value of the extracted silver. It's a beauty! I'm working in the Harquehala Mountains, AZ, and the silver ore here is loaded with lead, and you mentioned Arsenates, so be forthright about both when you sell the stone to someone in the lapidary community. No one needs either element in contact with their skin, so it would not be good for unbacked cabs. It might be nice set in backed mountings in other jewelry, or as veneers on boxes/bookends, etc... I'm collecting some of the more solid pieces of our ore to try marketing them in that way, but we're heavy with galena... it might be illegal to sell without a warning in CA, or so I'm told. None of the US processors so far will touch our ore, and the only possibility may be Mexico, if what you shared about Canadian processors is true... sigh...

At one old mine here that was closed by the War Act in '39, they piled silver ore to hold their claim signs up... it wasn't worth hauling off the mountain. I am afraid things may not have changed much with some ores.

It is an AMAZING find, and I'm sure someone will pay you handsomely for the specimen. Perhaps Jim Houran might like it? Google him and find a forum where he discusses his collection. I'd start posting pictures on collectors sites if I were in your shoes... even if it's already slabbed up!

That is a really nice slab. Good luck with selling it.