Smelting Cerro Gordo Silver
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2021
- Making real Cerro Gordo silver and lead bullion! Showing the refining and smelting process for some silver rich galena ore from our friend Brent Underwood @GhostTownLiving from Cerro Gordo Mines in California. In this video Jason Smelts down the raw Cerro Gordo galena into lead and silver bullion. Once all the lead and silver has been converted to metal, he uses the Parkes process to desilver the lead and remove other impurities. Once all the silver has been removed from the lead the lead is poured and molded into lead bullion. The silver zinc crust is then further refined by removing the zinc through another smelting process using a basic flux. The lead and silver, after the removal of the zinc, is cupelled to completely remove all the impurities and base metals resulting in pure silver. Check out how much lead and silver was recovered from Brent's insanely rich Cerro Gordo silver ore!
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Love it when UA-camrs come together for collabs! You guys make The Discovery Channel look like the amateurs, way better than TV!
Thank you!
@Pertinent Paradigm
I second that!
Definitely better than any discovery program.
Unsolicited rant:
It baffles me how discovery hasn’t tried to copy the online format to compete. I’m certainly no longer watching their programs because of the density of information on YT. Can’t beat a single camera and a person who knows what they are talking about. No fluff, no music, no synthesized drama.
@Arailt right!!
For sure. The Discovery channel is practically a propaganda program and definitely a drama. It drives me banana sandwich watching celebrity “scientists” like that narcissist Neil degrassy Tyson. Who has never published any science papers or been employed as a scientist, unless being a museum curator counts.
But worse than Neil is watching jack wagons like Bill Nye the notta scientist guy lecturing us on climate change. Bill is an aeronautical engineer.
I got big problems with “educational programming” that use actors-celebrity not scientists to deliver a biased worldview presented like its fact or true or whatever.
Anyway I should probably not rant.
Sorry about that.
Thanks I needed to vent haha.
@@oscodains Discovery, History Channel, and TLC are shadows of their former selves. They got stuck on the reality show trend and stayed with it. Only thing I watch is Oak Island on the history channel. We just laugh at the manufactured drama and poor editing and scripts.
Impressive Jason , you really got the Parkes process down ...... love watching you learn new trick to refining ....keep up the great work and we hope to one day make a video with you at your mine
Thanks Jeff. I have been meaning to send you an email all last week. We will be in touch soon about a collab. Thanks for watching!
BIG HELLO..YA THAT BE COOL..STAY WELL..
Oh yeaaahhh!!!!
Oh boy that'll be an awesome collab!
That will be one of the best collabs ever!!
I'm impressed. I am an assayer by trade, and fire assaying was my favourite (Retired now) That was a fine piece of large scale fire assaying.
If you don't want your silver beads to sprout, keep a spare cupel (can be a used one) in the furnace with the one you are using. Once the cupellation is finished invert the spare cupel and put it on the other cupel as a lid. Turn the furnace off and let it all cool slowly. The use of the other cupel as a lid will really slow the cooling rate. Also, if its a high copper ore, retained copper will increase the solubility of oxygen in the molten silver, which then sprouts badly when it solidifies.
Fuel costs petrol and propane, air miles , electricity, for $79 of silver . Is it worth it ? Absolutely.
Thank you Jason for sharing this collab with Brent with us all 👍👍
Jason, you should spray your kaowool down with rigidizer to prevent the dangerous fibers that will go airborne if you don't! Plus, it hardens somewhat so the insulation gets more stiff, for awhile anyways but when it softens up again, just spray if down again. And, it will last a little longer too!
Yeah dont breathe that shit in. I used to work with it all the time and it was always gloves and masks
Sodium silicate would be a good "rigidtizer". Muffler cement is sodium silicate paste, dilute and spray in a squirty bottle.
Fantastic!!
Watching those yellow flows turn into silver crystals was otherworldly!
What kinda voodoo hocus pocus was that?!?! Thank you Jason 👍
Convection conduction and entropy are the names of the witch dr. Spells you seek
@@sixfigureskibum Hahahaha! 😂
Ok. But, which witch is wich?
Thank you Alex Hardy. 👍
Very interesting stuff. Just love it when UA-cam recommendations teaches me things I didn't even know I wanted to learn.
Here from Brent's Channel Ghost Town Living. Thank you so very much for the excellent video and explanation of the refining process. Thank you for doing this for Brent and for our educational and entertainment benefit! As Always, May God Bless you and yours!
Thanks for watching!
"You really don't want to tip it over if that leads not solidified" Sounds like advice earned from experience :D
I was thinking the same thing,haha.
When he said that,I the saying "ask him how he knows" popped into my head
Everyone attempting to melt and pour should read a little from a good cast lead bullet manual. Lyman has one for example. The dangers in handeling molten metal are not obvious to the novice.
Awesome seeing the whole process from ore to pure metal! Thanks for taking us along for the ride :)
Thanks for watching!
I saw the universe in a solidifying silver button, quite remarkable and awe inspireing. Thank you for that. :)
In life you hear about how stuff is made prepared worked on but untill you see it all in real time ? It becomes mind blowing.I mean that's what you've done but in yee oldee days the process was a lot bigger .So thankyou for your work and vid I now feel a little more closer too Cerro Gorrdo.
Watching the silver crystallize on the second cupelling was awesome.....
Amazing molten metal shots.
Great video, thanks!
Thanks!
You know, after seeing this I'm actually surprised that silver isn't more expensive. I mean...that's a *lot* of ore for a wee bit of silver! Learning a lot!
Most silver is recovered not so much mined anymore. There also different refinement processes too
Silver price has been suppressed for decades Matt. You should be surprised. Reason dictates that you do.
There are a lot of steps and tools to get lead and silver, etc. separated.
I like the use of the bent slotted spoon and kitchen tongs.😄
Haha, I get most of my materials from the goodwill 😂
I work at one of the last copper smelters in the US we produce 55 tons an hour cool to see you learning the trade
Hi Emiliano. Is there ANY chance I could come for a visit to your smelter? I know the company would probably not be to excited about it, but it would be awesome if possible. Send me an email at MBMMLLC@gmail.com thanks!
102 grams is more than 3 troy ounces. 31.103 grams per troy ounce. I was looking forward to a larger melt. Thanks for showing and explaining.
This is awesome! It would be nice to see a breakdown of the fuel/flux/materials cost and silver/lead value in dollar amounts.
Heh, I think the value is in the clicks ;) Still, fun to watch!
I like the way you gave up, and started using old vacuum cleaner hoses.
Haha, cheapest I could find
The way that lead and silver move around is very cool.
Great video, Jason!! You taught a lot of people some new tricks todays! Much appreciated. I had no idea the original ore melt would take so much iron for the conversion. Thanks again for all your hard work ( and propane) in educating us. Jim
I didn't either. I kind of figured the sulfur would just burn off as sulfur dioxide. I suppose if the iron can absorb it, that's a better option though since sulfur dioxide is a component of acid rain. Also if you do it inside your shop, that stuff can start corroding anything metal around as well since it turns to sulfuric acid when it reacts with water.
Ya on the low end ' of purification, for example button.but you appreciate the ion that goes so fare way from a truth ,in the quantity of material for what something. Truley is !!!...'as in a ton of earth there is 900lb of Alumina as well the only material that requires a ton or more to produce a single oz is Uranium..solar wings that take pictures of earth making it very apparent with earth's color contrast,to show extremely rich soil for pacific mineral s .how about that Australia 🇦🇺 🌏...!!...lol.....☆☆☆☆☆..this is. .TDK...America....
3oz of silver from 100 lbs of ore, thats a very rich vein. I would like to see a ton smelted and assayed. This could be what that canadian mining company trying to force Brent out is after.
I was just about to ask if this was a good yield. Whole lot of effort for under 100$ worth of silver unless the process is refined and selling lead too.
Small scale would not be worth it but large scale might make money
You don’t assay a ton. This IS the assay.. keep watching the UA-cam videos and using the “buzzwords” you hear buddy. You get MSHA certified I’ll take on a tour
@@tyrone6820 let people learn and have fun. Why do you feel the need to gate keep ore refining? You’re not impressing anybody.
really great stuff. that was a lot of mine walking previously to get 3 ozs. BUT YOU SHOWED US HOW IT WAS DONE. THAT IS POWERFUL TEACHING DONE RIGHT, AND I THANK YOU FOR IT.
It's really something phenomenal that you've done here.
That’s some nice ore out of those mines! I bet there was even better grade coming out of Cerro Gordo 100+ years ago.
Awesome video!
Thanks 👍
i love these type of videos, was cool to see a new process of refining this time.
Very cool! I just watched Brent's video, right before this one and I think you got more silver out of what he left, than he thought you would. He'll definitely be able to make several rings with that much silver! Seeing the process of smelting galena down to silver was informative. I definitely subscribed!
Thanks for watching!
Really enjoy watching your videos. It makes one appreciate how much work the miners did to earn a living mining in the 1800's. I watch and learn from your experiments and from your mining videos as well. Thanks for another great video.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome job! That was some nice looking lead! And great silver
Thanks that was interesting. It really drives home the point how hard it was to make money in these mines. I guess you lost money on this demo since the propane and other supplies cost more than the silver is worth!
3
I was thinking the same thing it's way more work then it's worth
Unless you can turn it into jewelry and sell it at higher than scrap prices. That's a whole other profession itself though, and just means even more work to make money off of it.
…at least until silver breaks its chains and goes up to the price it should be at! Should be coming soon, right now there’s a mad dash to own physical silver and the paper market is going to be exposed for the scam it is.
It wasn't done because of the monetary value! Brent wanted the silver to make some jewelry out of.
I'm just over in Blaine. Just finished watching Brent's video. Very interesting stuff. How people figured out the process at least a couple thousand years ago. Amazing.
That was more interesting than I thought it would be. I thought the chemistry would escape me, but it looks pretty straight forward. Thanks for showing the process and explaining what each thing does in the refining process. ❤
I had no idea Galena yielded such a good amount of lead per lb/ton/etc…fascinating! I guess it’s nature’s way of making lead mining profitable.
Thanks for the great content, Jason!
Once again great content Jason. I've learned so much from watching your videos. One day I would like to try my hand at melting the gold from my prospecting trips to the Yale panning reserve in Yale B.C. As this is very fine flat nano dots and SUPER flat nano flakes , it will be some time yet before that happens lol. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us it's well appreciated.
Much thanks for the info.
32:38 1 Troy ounce is 31.1 grams. So 102.65 divided by 31.1 is 3.3 troy ounces. So it's a hair over 3, not a hair shy. That was awesome to watch.
Excellent video! I leaned a lot from watching this. Thanks!
Thanks for watching!
Good to see you on Brent’s channel. I signed up to win the silver ring you processed. Thanks!
This was awesome, Jason! It's so cool that you are able to have this unique connection to such a historical place/mine, and you will forever be a part of it's history!
Wow!! Jason, thank you for an excellent video and for bringing a chunk of Cerro Gordo galena through the process to come full circle, and that circle now proudly resides on Brents finger.
Thanks for working with Brent. Great Vid!
Great video Jason! I'd loved to seen an XRF reading from the first pour. Just to get an idea of lead/silver percent along with any additional metals. Again, thanks for posting!
Thanks for watching!
Loved watching the silver crystalize! So cool! Can't wait until I have everything to do this at home! Thanks & keep doing what you do!!!
My Daddy was a gold miner, up in the hills above Sacramento. He made this a big part of his life, and when he passed, I got a little.
I'm not nearly this patient.... But it's amazing to watch the process.
Deplating of lead with zinc is known as the Parkes Process. Excellent Jason.
Pretty impressive. Thanks for taking us through the process and showing all the work that goes into it. I have been keeping up with GTL since he started so it's cool to see this cross over.
I watch both of your channels, and really enjoyed the collaboration here. Keep them coming guys and I wish you both success.
I get the silver crystal formation when I recover silver from photographic fixer. Looks nice 😊
VERY COOL! GOOD TO SEE YOU GUYS WORKING ON THIS..FASCINATING.STAY WELL
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting! Really cool to see how many different people are getting involved in what Brent is doing. His passion and enthusiasm are contagious.
While watching your process I couldn't help but wonder what all the old miners had to endure from start to finish. It really blows my mind how deep that mine was and the labor it took.
Thank for helping Brent
THANKS, JASON & BRENT FOR YOUR VIDEOS!
Love watching these. I have done a few aluminum smelting but like to have the knowledge of more materials. Keep up the good work
Beautiful the molten ore and metals cooling off.... mesmerising stuff!
Great video! Thanks for all the hard work!
Glad you enjoyed it!
That was some great work ! Capturing the silver crystallize is a mesmerizing shot, really nice camera work throughout. :)
Love this films. Always wanted to get into smelting (being small fry gold prospector in Finland as seen on my channel)... always wanted (dont really know why) to smelt black sands left behind from our sluicing operations. As there is sometimes a loads and loads of it. I guess just for the starters just to make iron slab and shape it into something.. but i believe there might be other interesting metals also in the concentrates.
I came from Brents channel to here! Ah maze ing .... Thank you for this video! I live up by the Old Man " Rainier " .
Thanks Jason, and Trent. I have been very curious about the process since I have been exploring mines in the Eastern Sierra. This was a great tutorial demonstration of the process. Ill keep watching you. Fascinating business this.
I just love that even with how totally janky that furnace is, it works perfectly well. The silver is likely pretty pure to crystalize like that. At current prices it's worth around $75 so maybe came close to paying for itself. I assume this process was a lot more efficient when done in industrial size batches.
My thought as well. It would have to be.
Don't forget the value of 60 lbs of lead. It's sitting at $1.04/lb right now. So that's another $62.
@@Alondro77 I didn't realize it was that high, but yeah, that would definitely be a plus.
This was such an interesting and incredible video! I work with glass and this reminds me so much of what I do and all the processes it takes to get to the end product. I'm definitely a new and avid follower!
Good job helping Brent at the serra Gordo mines. Thank you brother. I just subscribed and a couple of my friends.
Wow Melting metals is so awesome the patterns were amazing thank you loved this Vlog
After all these videos from you I still think you’re a damn alchemist.. good job brother 👍
Get the lead out. I didn’t realize what Grand father was saying. So he meant melt down. LOL
This was fascinating. A great treatise on small mineral processing.
After learning the fundamentals one could easily scale it up.
Thanks for showing us.
Thank you for what has been a most educational morning for me on a subject i knew
nothing about. at least I know what the dirty little cups are at the rubbish tip and a whole lot more beside.
Thank you again
Really cool video. There are lots of old galena mines near mean and I always wondered if there is any $ to be made in refining the ore. At $0.75 per gram of silver and $0.55 per pound of lead for about $76 in silver and $33 in lead for a total of about $109. So how much per hour profit is there in refining that ore?
The furnace fuel and electricity, flux, cupels, shipping etc. were probably a lot of money and not even counting the work hours. I doubt anyone could do this profitably in small scale. This is done sort of as a historical re-enactment project. The visibility, education and youtube views are worth much more than the metal. Unfortunate for would-be miners but so it goes.
Fantastic. Thank you Jason, and thank you Brent. Jason, do you have a process to recover the zinc from the last batch of slag, so that you can reuse it in the future? This was a great mine-to-ore-to-metals series.
The Zinc is oxidized into the cupel, don't think its recoverable. I may be mistaken
Yeah, zinc is gone. I can buy zinc from the scrap yard for 30 cents a pound so I don't think its worth getting back. Thanks for watching
Just discovered your channel today before watching Brent’s latest episode. Awesome collaboration. Thank you for sharing.
Always great to see a mining/exploring/ghost town channel colab! 30:55 Was AWESOME to watch those dendritic or silver dendrite crystals forming!
When are you going to try some chemistry... Ecogoldex leach with a zinc cement or SO2 precip? 2022 soon!
If you had collected all the slag and leftovers, we could have seen a before and after picture with the ore as the before and the various extracted metals plus other minerals as the after.
I imagine Brent might include the different stages in his Cerro Gordo museum.
I came to check this out cause of Brent... Great video! Looking forward to watching more as a new subscriber
Watching that silver cooling was so cool... It was mezmerizing
My favorite part
@8:27 - that layer of carbon is also what helps cast iron remain "non stick" when treated properly. That layer of carbon is key.
Awesome vid Jason, pretty great that you are bring Cerro Gordo back to life, just wondering if you tested the purity of the silver? or checked the specific gravity? Cheers
From what I gather it's at least 99% if it's "sprouting" - "Silver beads containing only very small quantities of Pb, Cu, Zn, Bi, etc., will not sprout, so that if a button does sprout, it is a sign of purity" - The Chemical Engineer, 1906
This was an awesome video!!! Smelting is so fascinating, thanks for sharing this with us!!
Thanks for showing us the process !
I'm a Metal Detectorist from the UK and I was wondering if Old 2,000 year old Lead contains silver because the refining processes are not like they are today as zinc was not made until 1746. So in theory it should contain quite a lot of silver?
Lead from some Derbyshire mines was said to contain silver and arsenic the arsenic as a white powder oxide was prized for cosmetics for making skin look white and pale! That was before they discovered the toxicity of arsenic comps (also search Paris Green)
@@seymourpro6097 I might give it a go as zinc melts at 419.5 °C and I'm allways digging up zinc as well.
Could contain some silver. Where I live they renovated the old 1600's installed copper roof of the local cathedral and in the process electrolytically purified the old copper sheets. I believe they got dozens of pounds of silver and some small amount of gold from processing tonnes and tonnes of historical copper. Wouldn't be surprised if the same was true with historical lead coming from suitable mines.
I have always had a fascination with silver....not gold, but always silver....this is C00000L!!!
Subscribed! Thank You for Preserving Our History with Brent! Your a Huge Help!
Super Sweet video !! I really loved that whole process..Never really watched it from beginning to end ..Look forward to the next one and gotta start seeing what else you got on here.... Thanks again
Love that you guys collaborated! Fantastic bro!
Great video...I came to your channel after watching the collaboration video, evidently I didn't get enough smelting with the first....had a basic idea of what was involved but not the actual process or the number of steps. I will definitely be checking out your other videos...thanks for sharing.
I've been following this from both his and your channels. I really enjoyed watching you go through this process. Very cool thing to share!
Great work Jason 👍 interesting watching you make Sara Gordo silver I know Brent will be very happy thanks for sharing Fireman 🔥🔥🔥
Been watching your videos for a couple of years and always enjoy them!
Sir it was real fun seeing your collaboration with ghost town living!
How did yall meet.. long ago I told him about u when he was wondering how to get the silver out of his stuff... like around when he poured his first big bar and made a video. I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT! Great job
Thank you for the referral and the support! I am really glad it worked out and I think the videos turned out great!
Of course your super smart and it's like magic what u do.. I haven't hurd from his channel cus I asked him too but I rewatched the video and I didn't hear him say he knew of u and if we knew anything to let him know. So I really think this is so kool how this makes it so complete strangers can link up and share skills with eachother. Thanks for answering me too! Happy Thanksgiving
THAT WAS AWESOME. THANKS FOR SHARING THE PROCESS.
Terrific work Jason.. keep it up 👍
Thanks much
✌️PT
Really great explanation of the process! Love the video!
I follow Ghost Town Living as well so I was super excited to find this video!
Great job Jason , very interesting indeed and a pretty nice result too , great informed process to follow , well done mate , cheers .
What a process ! Thanks for showing us this .. i'm fascinated, can't stop watching your vids
so cool to see all them buckets of conglomerate into all that lead and more important real Cerro Gordo silver nice job Jason :)
Thanks!
Jason, thanks for your vids. Because of them I get a bunch of questions answered And get to see just how easy and complicated this process is.
Excellent recipe explained.
Very succinct and efficient.
I am truly amazed by the talent located so close to me here in the PNW. I hope one day to come and spend some time with you and tour/learn how you do what you do
I'll buy lunch keep up the great work
Tyler
The patterns from the hot metal as it cools in the mould are mesmerising. Thanks for sharing