Great video. This shows the complexity and rarity of how silver is mined. So the silver squeeze is on! This shows how rare and valuable silver is and how it is undervalued.
Chris Thank you for taking the time to educate the average joe on different minerals and ores and where to find them. I bought a copy of your book and it is very cheap for the amount of information you wrote. After reading I realize how valuable this book is and I would have paid a lot more money because it is worth a lot more than what you ask for it. I dont believe anybody would disagree that your book is way more valuable than what you ask for it. Thanks again for your hard work in publishing this book to educate me. It would be an honor to meet you. David Wilson
Chris, I live in southern Arizona, which is very rich in silver ores along with lead, gold and copper. I have always ignored the silver and lead ores just because as a sole prospector I feel it isn’t economically extractable, I primarily concentrate on the gold values. The information you provided has been helpful. A lot of the mines around here are abandoned and known as silver or lead mines. I usually examine these looking for possible higher grade gold deposits. Maybe I need to assay some of the silver/ lead ores also.
Thanks for the info! I live around a lot of gold and silver mines in kern county, CA and i find a lot of stuff out and about that ive always wondered about. This cleared up some things. How do you get specimens tested and extracted? Because trying to figure it out on my own has proven to be a mission! Lol. What you have said in your video about it, keeps getting past me.
Thank you for the video Chris. Decades ago I grew up in southern Arizona. My fathers side arriving in the Tucson area around 1780, and my mothers side in Santa Fe in 1626. My father would tell me about the various mines in the area and I would often go out adventuring. One day I was in my Chevy El Camino with my rifle, and miles from nowhere in the wilderness and I came across a blue-black rock laying on top of the dirt. It was crystaline, each "sand" crystal was about 1/32" on a side. I don't remember if it was cubic or other polygon. It was about the size of my fist and fairly round, very heavy for it's size, and very loosely held together. It held together a little better than a handful of blueblack wet sand formed it into a ball. If I were to strike it against a tree it would break apart into hundreds of pieces.There was a slight sparkle of the crystals in the sunlight, definitely not grey, but a dark blue/black color. When I picked it up it split about in half and I put the larger piece on the vinyl floor of the Camino cab. I basically forgot about for several weeks and motion of the car reduced it almost to a pile of sand. i.e. it made a mess and I tossed it out. Now I was thinking it was Galena, but the reference photo's of Galena had large crystals and a very hard appearance. This stuff would soil your hand as though pick up a piece of charcoal. What are the possible minerals that it could have been? Any guess is better than mine.
Based only on your verbal description there are dozens of possible minerals. It hard to tell minerals from a good photo, pretty much impossible from a verbal description.
Amazon didn't plan it right, so they are temporarily out of stock. They will have more copies back in stock in just a few days. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for the fascination info. It takes a ton of effort to identify and refine Silver, and it makes me appreciate how easy it is to just buy a Silver bar or coin. I think I'll leave the rest to heartier folks. I spend most of my extra cash on Silver and collect Silver coins, and I think it's important to learn a little about how we get this from the ground. It's not just someone tripping over a 100 kilo lump of silver and yelling "Eureka". But this makes looking at the rocks you find on hikes in a different lens - you might have a piece of Silver ore in your hand!
New subscriber. Very helpful! I will be purchasing your book. I do have many questions and will try to organize them first. Rock/silver hunting is my new found hobby! Thank you so much.
Hey Chris🙂 Jus wanted to drop ya a hello and help push your rithm along, hopefully. I subscribe to several many gold, meteorite, geology related chanels and although ive seen this particular vid, along with scores of others for past several many yrs, I still love the archives. Youve amassed quite a library of free source info/knowledge and I truly appreciate your willing to do it. Your passion for this subject matter transcends any need for a self righteous deed. Thank you, Chris Ralph, Sir 🙏🇺🇸👈🏻MAGA
Great informative video. Im lucky enough to live 6 hours from the old Cobalt mining area up in Ontario. I've amassed quite the collection of native silver. Most is mixed metal with Cobalt, Nickeline and secondary arsenides. Im sure you have some. 😁
I am a district of the country where silver has been found mingled with lead, zinc and copper, but now I think I might have some stuff that might be silver, only its so tiny I can not see it even with a digital microscope with enough clarity to be sure exactly what it is.
Very nice presentation on silver ore. I tried to refine a small chunk of silver chloride ore with no luck. Maybe it wasn't what they said it was. On another note in the ICMJ magazine you said you would try make a formula to strip gold from gold plated objects. Are you still going to do it?? Thanks for the silver video.
@@ChrisRalph That would work for small pins but not for objects with a lot of base metal. In the Jan. issue of ICMJ, you said you would look into a gold plate solvent using a sodium thiosulfate solution. I've been waiting all to find out if you could do it. No pressure, you where probably to busy or forgot about it. Thanks anyway.
Great video Chris and thanks for posting! Once while detecting around an old mining camp in Az. I found a quarter-size raw silver nugget and a button of Ag. The button was found while raking/detecting the bottle dump...miner must have tossed it out accidently with the trash?
Did you know your audio on your videos is only coming out of the left channel? Meaning only the left speaker/headphone has sound. Try setting your video render settings to Mono Audio that should fix it. Love your videos! Your book Fists full of Gold has sat in my amazon wish list for a couple years. After stumbling across your great videos recently I finally was motivated to purchase it!
Thanks for the info! I live around a lot of gold and silver mines in kern county, CA and i find a lot of stuff out and about that ive always wondered about. This cleared up some things. How do you get specimens tested and extracted? Because trying to figure it out on my own has proven to be a mission! Lol. What you have said in your video about it, keeps getting past me.
I know of a vein of metal ore which I always suspected was Silver. After watching your video I'm even more sure the vein is a silver sulfide. This vein is at least 20 feet long and one spot is visibly exposed, about the diameter of a soccer ball. This vein is also surrounded by mines dated back to the early 1800's. If I send you photos do you think you could give an opinion whether it might be Silver? I've known of this vein over 40 years and never shown it to anyone. The vein is in a pretty remote area, the majority of which is in solid bedrock. I found this vein by accident, walking on the bedrock with a metal detector turned on. This is in Arizona.
I know of them and have operated a few, but at about $35,000 apiece to start, I certainly dont own one. If I did a video on one I'd need to get hold of one. Perhaps one of these days.
Hey, I am new to identifying different minerals... I seem to find a lot of good material, just not 100% sure what I have. Would you be able to help me figure out what I have, thanks.. love the videos, I've learned a great deal from you.
- I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Chris, thank you for your reply to my previous question. Regarding your story on the Comstock Lode. A story from an old timer that had lived in the Southwest as long as my family: Henry Comstock was perturbed at the blue-black sand that was clogging his rocker in search for gold. Henry was tossing the sand to the side of his dig as tailings trash. Until a Mexican miner, that actually had mining experience, walked past his trash heap and exclaimed "Mucho Plata" i.e. "lots of silver". And, that is why Comstock's next mining claim was named "the Mexican."
The Grosh Bros. discovered the Comstock Lode. In a letter home that survived, one of the brothers told his parents back east that they had found several lodes, one of them "a perfect monster of a lode." They knew it to be a great silver lode.
😊 makes me happy to think I might be right after chasing some kind of raw Ore for years trying to figure it out but maybe i can leave a photo if I can . My name is Michael
I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because minerals usually cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
hi chris, i have some interesting objects that i found in lake erie, is there anyway i can get you to look at them? maybe through your website? thanks, great job on your videos!
I think I’ve seen some of these silver compound minerals up near an old mining town called Winfield, Co.! Perhaps the miners there , lacking a metal detector and geological ID skills, discarded some of these ores in waste piles! Many of the rocks there are superly heavy although I’m not sure they would sound the detector alarm.
CHRIS thanks for uploading the presentation on silver,and looking at your slides of different specimens you have concluded my theory on this metal and what it travels with in the geohydrothermal liquid mixes which it congregates with due entirely on temperature,i've concluded that gold, beings it liquefies at higher temp than silver and platinum it is just a smaller by product of movement in the rivers of superheated water mix that moves the metals and the other sauce,this explains gems and their congregation of other valuable stones all together,due to high temp leaching,thank you very much,you have found my missing link to my theory,i've seen strange samples out of the northern Arizona and southern tip areas around nev,coupled with the weird shaped sample of ribbon gold I found in el cajon area,its making sense now,thanks again
that explains a lot, I never set thru a college course for geology,many books,but talking about this topic is a classroom setting would have been helpful,so it is about the water,i got thinking ,its rained 100000 times in a couple hundred thousand years,magma makes a move and superheats the rain water 100's of feet down and it can't escape fast enough so it superheats and moves all of the metals In suspension and runs it in veins till it cools,pay streak,thanks CHRIS,makes sense
Hi Chris ! Thanks for the All the Very Informative Data on Silver & Silver Ore ! Appreciate it and Your Laid Back Style Very Much! I Live in Weiser,Idaho, about 60 Mi. North of Boise, Right on the Snake River ! Parts of this Area have been found to have significant Copper Ore, Would those Areas be a Good place to check for Silver in the Copper Mine Ore Tailings if any ? We also have an Old Mercury Mine in the Hills Behind town ! Thanks again ! Scotty ! ( Byron Scott )
As a GPAA club member I have found a number of specimens of silver ore in Glacial Drift. It's somewhat common while doing recreational gold mining if you know what to watch for.
Hi Chris and thanks alot for this very informative video. I think I've found some Silver ore mixed with lead... The thing is that they look like melted pieces. Heavy like lead but a whole lot different in look!! Dark, shiny crystals for the most parts, some greenish copper looking parts, and what looks like other pebbles stick into them... But what raised my suspicions on Silver content is that, when knocked together, they make the same kind of "blinging" sound that Silver coins usually make when impacting each other! Is it possible that the Silver ore, when not too big (half a golf ball for the biggest ones in my case) that they make that very satisfying "silver clinging" sound? Thank you very much!!
Sorry - I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html
Hi my name is Lisa. I was at my dad's property and found rocks that I just thought were pretty. I thought it was petrified wood but watching your video about silver ore. I have lots of questions.
Hi Lisa - I'm sorry, but I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Hello Chris I would love to talk to you when you have a little free time. I think my sister and myself may have came across some oxidized silver/gold and possibly iron ore. I was wondering if you would have a spare moment to give me your expert opinion. We really enjoy your videos!!! Thank you!
Hi Kayla - Please watch my videos on how to identify minerals. Start out with the first one: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html I get contacted by so many people every day who want me to help them with a variety of things that I just cannot offer personal consulting or a service to ID mineral pictures. Best of luck to you.
Hi Chris, say I have land in Montana and was digging for retaining wall fill and hit a a few good size veins. I need help on verifiing the type of silver and gold I found. I did have it essays at ALS in Nevada. Were can a person have this stuff processed. And get a good return out of it? I do have some pictures of the ore and I am really curious on the types of minerals I have. How can I send them to You with my questions?
Good luck to you in your efforts. I get many requests for help every day and simply do not have time. I have my own projects I want to work on. Read and study to learn. There are very few custom ore processors as it is not a very profitable business.
You got confused because there are more than one mine named 16 to one. One is in Nevada. Another is in Aleghany. The Nevada one produced silver ores. The California one produces gold ores.
My daughters found this rock on the hill in our backyard. Is there any way you could tell me if it's silver? I have no idea where to go to find out. I could send you a picture of it
Sorry - I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html
Hi Chris! Thank you for such a thorough and informative video. I live in Central NC. I have three creeks that run through my property. I find quartz crystals for days in those creeks. There is one that I can not identify though. It's a milky quartz with orange veining. I've found two nice points and several rocks. My property was part of an old trade path (which you can still see) and I have found so many native artifacts after plowing the garden or round pen. The creeks also have tons of a silver colored fleck (?) in them. I'm thinking this is pyrite. Would you happen to have any ideas about what the orange and white quartz could be? Thanks!
While I appreciate your video. I do have one question. Do all of these specimens sound off on a metal detector? I know iron sulfides do not, but now I'm wondering about silver sulfides.
Iron sulfides do not show up on a metal detector because they are not metal. Same thing for galena - it's not lead. Same for other sulfides including silver. There are a few odd exceptions but they are rare.
Some of the silver ore looks like itd be easily confused with magnetite. I have some stuff thats super heavy and only minimally magnetic in spots, but i think it might be silver ore. Is there a way to assay at home myself?
A cheap home assay for silver just doesn't exist. Silver ores are not magnetic at all, so if it is even minimally magnetic, its likely not silver. There are hundreds of dark colored minerals, only a small handful of which contain silver, so just that its dark colored is not really an indicator.
@@ChrisRalph ah that's unfortunate about the ease of home assaying. It's definitely not the material itself that is magnetic, but something in with it. I don't doubt thst I haven't found a speck of precious metals in my 40 years. Lol I do have this piece of quartz I'm looking at now that has these little blackish (tarnished) 1/4" long wires all through it but the metal in the wires that isn't tarnished and oxidized so heavily, almost has a brassy or copper-i sh to a golden color. None of the quarts has green mineralization at all though. Just some orange/red on a side. Like I said, no clue what it is, but it sure is cool
You could try a small amount of the powdered ore in hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid in the USA). If it is a sulphide, there will be a smell of rotten eggs (H2S) but if silver is present, the acid will go cloudy with a whitish colour. That might be silver chloride (AgCl) which is insoluble, and most metal chlorides are soluble. Other minerals might not dissolve in the HCl at all, so not a very good test, just one of several you might do. Another is to use a charcoal block, a blowpipe and a flux to reduce the ore to a metal bead. The colour of the oxide staining around the bead will help distinguish some different likely metals, like lead and copper. Not sure if Chris has blowpipe tests in his book, but there are some books out there which describe in more detail how they are done.
Funny I ran across this today. I have been hunting an intrusive in AZ for gold. Found some nuggets that were born right there but after extensive sleuthing I ran out of nuggets and bedrock came so near surface there's no way I missed a pocket. Argh! Frustrating! Anyway, while just detecting around yesterday I found a very peculiar object. Silverish, heavy, hard. About an oz. Not aluminum and don't scrape like lead so definitely niether. Has some material attached but looking through a loop I can't tell if its smelt glass or matrix. Question I have is there a simple chemical test for native silver?
Could you please enlighten me about shale colors ranging from white, black, brown. It is within the presence of red clay, quartz, and a yellowing leaching out of the groung around it.
Colors dont really mean much. Lots of minerals come in many colors. Watch my videos on how to identify minerals for yourself. Start with - ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html Best of luck to you.
@Chris Ralph I found a specimen of Ruby Silver on my property and was wondering if there are any steps I could take to keep it from changing colors. I thought if I placed it in and airtight plexiglass case with an oxygen exorber? Do you think that would work? 1 3/4in x 1 1/2in x 1 1/4in is the size of the specimen and I believe there is more I have yet to unearth because of it appears to have broken off of a larger sample.
@@ChrisRalph would UV protection on the plexiglass work? I would like to display it, it is attractive, otherwise it will go the way of my jewelry... in the safe and never een. Lol. Btw thank you for share your kn9wledge. I watch and review your video's often. Living in Ca, on the county line of Nevada and Yuba. I have a lot of time and 20 acres off mine 35 acres of the folks next door and BLM Land just minutes away.
I realize that platinum is rare, but is silver easily confused with platinum when it's found ? How much heavier would platinum be than silver? Nice presentation! Thank you!
I once visited what was reputed to be 2 silver mines east of Missoula, MT. and a bit north of a small town of Clinton, MT. The ore that I saw didn't look anything like all of your examples. What I saw and handled was chunks of rock that was sandy and gray/black with small streaks of a blue/green running through it. These were hard rock mines almost at the top of a mountain. I wonder if I was being spoofed, by my friends, about sliver and it was really mines for copper? ;-)
I talked a lot about gray / black silver ores in that video..... Plus its true that copper and silver are found together sometimes.... No way for me to know if your friends were spoofing you....
I get many, many requests from all over the world for mineral ID, help, assistance, training, advice, etc. I have said in a number of videos - pictures are not nearly as helpful for identification as you would think. I did this video to help folks learn to ID minerals for themselves - ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html I have many projects, obligations and commitments of my own, so my answer to you will be the same as everyone else - I wish you the best of luck with your own project, but I cannot be of assistance.
Great video. This shows the complexity and rarity of how silver is mined. So the silver squeeze is on! This shows how rare and valuable silver is and how it is undervalued.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Chris, Your book is everything you said it was and then some. Great book!
Glad you are enjoying it.
Chris Thank you for taking the time to educate the average joe on different minerals and ores and where to find them. I bought a copy of your book and it is very cheap for the amount of information you wrote. After reading I realize how valuable this book is and I would have paid a lot more money because it is worth a lot more than what you ask for it. I dont believe anybody would disagree that your book is way more valuable than what you ask for it. Thanks again for your hard work in publishing this book to educate me. It would be an honor to meet you.
David Wilson
Thanks for the kind words. I used to appear at the GPAA gold shows but they did not have any in 2023.
Thank you Chris, for taking the time to educate us, your passion for the theme is legendary!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
very cool video, Chris. Nice lesson on silver Ores.
I learned something today watching this! I’ll be sure and watch more of your videos. You got another subscriber!!!
That "ruby" silver sample was gorgeous looking ... would look great polished up as is ... thanks for your instructional videos.
You are so welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Very interesting video....thanks again Chris...!
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank you for making this video. Wasn't looking for this but finding it was perfectly timed
Glad you enjoyed it.
As you may know, Eva is much more interested in silver than gold. She enjoyed it very much. Thank you.
Its been one of my more popular videos since it came out a few years ago.
Thank you Chris for sharing your knowledge
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Very useful information, Thank you. Helps explain some very unimpressive looking ore I collected from a supposedly rich area earlier this summer.
Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the kind words.
Chris, I live in southern Arizona, which is very rich in silver ores along with lead, gold and copper. I have always ignored the silver and lead ores just because as a sole prospector I feel it isn’t economically extractable, I primarily concentrate on the gold values. The information you provided has been helpful. A lot of the mines around here are abandoned and known as silver or lead mines. I usually examine these looking for possible higher grade gold deposits. Maybe I need to assay some of the silver/ lead ores also.
Can i join you some time im in tucson would love to and 4 eye look then 2
What mines do you go to in AZ?
Don’t forget the specimen market.
Thanks for the info! I live around a lot of gold and silver mines in kern county, CA and i find a lot of stuff out and about that ive always wondered about. This cleared up some things. How do you get specimens tested and extracted? Because trying to figure it out on my own has proven to be a mission! Lol. What you have said in your video about it, keeps getting past me.
Great video! Silver is overlooked by 95% of people!
Very true... Glad you enjoyed the video.
cus its worth 95% less
Thank you for being generous in sharing your knowledge to us.The same are very useful on our adventure- prospecting someday.
Best of luck to you in your future efforts.
Hi chris, can u please help me?
I wish to ask if I can sample some of my silver ores for ur observation and remarks on whether or not it also contains gold.
Oh cool, I have that book. Nice exAMPles of silver in the video.
Thank you for this precious information I appreciate all the efforts you have made to better recognize the good stone rich in Silver mineral

Glad you enjoyed it!
Well done ! I'm excited to view the rest of your videos.
Glad you hear you enjoyed the video. Many more are in the planning stages too.
Thanks for posting this. Id love to find some Colorado Silver someday. Cheers
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. More videos on silver are coming in 2020.
Superior video, Chris. Big thanks for putting it together.
Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the kind words.
Thank you for the video Chris. Decades ago I grew up in southern Arizona. My fathers side arriving in the Tucson area around 1780, and my mothers side in Santa Fe in 1626. My father would tell me about the various mines in the area and I would often go out adventuring. One day I was in my Chevy El Camino with my rifle, and miles from nowhere in the wilderness and I came across a blue-black rock laying on top of the dirt. It was crystaline, each "sand" crystal was about 1/32" on a side. I don't remember if it was cubic or other polygon. It was about the size of my fist and fairly round, very heavy for it's size, and very loosely held together. It held together a little better than a handful of blueblack wet sand formed it into a ball. If I were to strike it against a tree it would break apart into hundreds of pieces.There was a slight sparkle of the crystals in the sunlight, definitely not grey, but a dark blue/black color. When I picked it up it split about in half and I put the larger piece on the vinyl floor of the Camino cab. I basically forgot about for several weeks and motion of the car reduced it almost to a pile of sand. i.e. it made a mess and I tossed it out. Now I was thinking it was Galena, but the reference photo's of Galena had large crystals and a very hard appearance. This stuff would soil your hand as though pick up a piece of charcoal. What are the possible minerals that it could have been? Any guess is better than mine.
Based only on your verbal description there are dozens of possible minerals. It hard to tell minerals from a good photo, pretty much impossible from a verbal description.
Need to learn more about Silver, being in Arizona, hopefully I can locate some one of these day.....thanks again, Chris...!
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Very informative, I'm so happy to have found your channel.
Glad it was helpful! - I've got a lot more videos also.
Awesome cool information on silver! Not much talked about. Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words. In the coming weeks, I'll add a similar video on Platinum and another on diamonds.
@@ChrisRalph thanks! I'm up in British Columbia and new to gold panning prospecting..ect thanks you give out real information on all your vids..thx
Very interesting lesson. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Chris I enjoy your videos and learning from you.
Glad to hear it
The frog and birds in the backyard are a nice touch
I dont live in the heart of the city.....
Love the video great job and I have to get the book
Amazon didn't plan it right, so they are temporarily out of stock. They will have more copies back in stock in just a few days. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Very good teacher to a novice....Very interesting....great job.
Thank you! , Glad you liked it.
Thanks Chris for sharing all your smarts with us
My pleasure!
great video I live and work around Aspen Colorado which is known for Silver. I usually am looking for gold but I love silver too
Glad you enjoyed the video.
South Florida has NO rocks, lol..all coral ..lucky you sir
I'm In southern Ontario near Toronto, there isnt much here either within an hour and a half radius at least
Thanks for the fascination info. It takes a ton of effort to identify and refine Silver, and it makes me appreciate how easy it is to just buy a Silver bar or coin. I think I'll leave the rest to heartier folks. I spend most of my extra cash on Silver and collect Silver coins, and I think it's important to learn a little about how we get this from the ground. It's not just someone tripping over a 100 kilo lump of silver and yelling "Eureka". But this makes looking at the rocks you find on hikes in a different lens - you might have a piece of Silver ore in your hand!
Knowing more about silver is a good thing.
New subscriber. Very helpful! I will be purchasing your book. I do have many questions and will try to organize them first. Rock/silver hunting is my new found hobby! Thank you so much.
Sounds great. Thanks.
Good info, on silvers in different forms.
Glad you think so!
Definitely digging this topic 🪨
Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for your hard won knowledge.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks a lot, very educational for my rock collection,
You're welcome, glad it was helpful.
Fantastic video series! Loved it info packed
Very soon I will be coming out with a similar video on Platinum and platinum ores. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hey Chris🙂 Jus wanted to drop ya a hello and help push your rithm along, hopefully. I subscribe to several many gold, meteorite, geology related chanels and although ive seen this particular vid, along with scores of others for past several many yrs, I still love the archives. Youve amassed quite a library of free source info/knowledge and I truly appreciate your willing to do it. Your passion for this subject matter transcends any need for a self righteous deed. Thank you, Chris Ralph, Sir 🙏🇺🇸👈🏻MAGA
Thanks. Glad you enjoy the videos!
Thank you so much ..to teach how we can look around ..it was truly interesting..
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for the lesson.
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Great informative video. Im lucky enough to live 6 hours from the old Cobalt mining area up in Ontario. I've amassed quite the collection of native silver. Most is mixed metal with Cobalt, Nickeline and secondary arsenides. Im sure you have some. 😁
Very cool!
I'd like to see a video on silver ore found in the eastern U.S. Thanks for this great video.
I'll put it on my list but I live in the west and way easier to film here.
Thanks Chris, fantastic video...!
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for the great knowledge. Great video!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
very nice thank you I come from the Selkirk mountains of BC the ores are very interesting
Yours is a very interesting part of the planet.
i found that this video contains a lot of great information,,,,
i’m hoping to put this to good use soon!
thanks!
👍
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Great video. Question..can the specimens you showed..or can silver ore sound off a metal detector???
Metallic silver will sound off on a metal detector. Most ores are silver containing minerals which will NOT sound off on a metal detector.
I am a district of the country where silver has been found mingled with lead, zinc and copper, but now I think I might have some stuff that might be silver, only its so tiny I can not see it even with a digital microscope with enough clarity to be sure exactly what it is.
Very nice presentation on silver ore. I tried to refine a small chunk of silver chloride ore with no luck. Maybe it wasn't what they said it was. On another note in the ICMJ magazine you said you would try make a formula to strip gold from gold plated objects. Are you still going to do it?? Thanks for the silver video.
I did something like that a couple years back. Hydrochloric with copper chloride will dissolve most metals leaving the gold plate behind.
@@ChrisRalph That would work for small pins but not for objects with a lot of base metal. In the Jan. issue of ICMJ, you said you would look into a gold plate solvent using a sodium thiosulfate solution. I've been waiting all to find out if you could do it. No pressure, you where probably to busy or forgot about it. Thanks anyway.
Great video Chris and thanks for posting! Once while detecting around an old mining camp in Az. I found a quarter-size raw silver nugget and a button of Ag. The button was found while raking/detecting the bottle dump...miner must have tossed it out accidently with the trash?
Glad you enjoyed the video. Sounds like you made some exciting finds.
Damn I did find silver in my backyard. Thanks from Arizona
good luck to you.
Did you know your audio on your videos is only coming out of the left channel? Meaning only the left speaker/headphone has sound. Try setting your video render settings to Mono Audio that should fix it. Love your videos! Your book Fists full of Gold has sat in my amazon wish list for a couple years. After stumbling across your great videos recently I finally was motivated to purchase it!
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for the info! I live around a lot of gold and silver mines in kern county, CA and i find a lot of stuff out and about that ive always wondered about. This cleared up some things. How do you get specimens tested and extracted? Because trying to figure it out on my own has proven to be a mission! Lol. What you have said in your video about it, keeps getting past me.
There are geochemical testing labs also called assay labs that exist and do these tests. You can find some with Google. The testing is not cheap.
I know of a vein of metal ore which I always suspected was Silver. After watching your video I'm even more sure the vein is a silver sulfide. This vein is at least 20 feet long and one spot is visibly exposed, about the diameter of a soccer ball. This vein is also surrounded by mines dated back to the early 1800's.
If I send you photos do you think you could give an opinion whether it might be Silver?
I've known of this vein over 40 years and never shown it to anyone. The vein is in a pretty remote area, the majority of which is in solid bedrock. I found this vein by accident, walking on the bedrock with a metal detector turned on. This is in Arizona.
I cant tell from pictures, that is why they have chemical assays. Have your rock tested to see.
@@ChrisRalph I'm going to cut out a section of the vein and have it tested.
How about a video on X-ray fluorescent (XRF) analyzers?
I know of them and have operated a few, but at about $35,000 apiece to start, I certainly dont own one. If I did a video on one I'd need to get hold of one. Perhaps one of these days.
my left ear loved this video
although right feels very lonely
Its possible your system needs adjusting to hear in both ears. Its not true stereo.
Hey, I am new to identifying different minerals... I seem to find a lot of good material, just not 100% sure what I have. Would you be able to help me figure out what I have, thanks.. love the videos, I've learned a great deal from you.
- I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Thanks! Would love to see some of that blue black muck.
Think more in terms of very fine black sand rather than a dark colored clay.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks! Guess Im not sitting on the next Bonanza then!
Chris, thank you for your reply to my previous question. Regarding your story on the Comstock Lode. A story from an old timer that had lived in the Southwest as long as my family: Henry Comstock was perturbed at the blue-black sand that was clogging his rocker in search for gold. Henry was tossing the sand to the side of his dig as tailings trash. Until a Mexican miner, that actually had mining experience, walked past his trash heap and exclaimed "Mucho Plata" i.e. "lots of silver". And, that is why Comstock's next mining claim was named "the Mexican."
Glad you liked the video.
Great video kinda confusing but I'm less than a novice. Great video 👍👍👍
Glad you enjoyed it.
The Grosh Bros. discovered the Comstock Lode. In a letter home that survived, one of the brothers told his parents back east that they had found several lodes, one of them "a perfect monster of a lode." They knew it to be a great silver lode.
True, but I dont think they found any of the high grade. It only outcropped at the Ophir.
I really liked the video by the way.
Great. Glad you enjoyed it.
Great job on the video !!!!
Glad you hear you enjoyed the video.
😊 makes me happy to think I might be right after chasing some kind of raw Ore for years trying to figure it out but maybe i can leave a photo if I can . My name is Michael
I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because minerals usually cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Thanks for an informative video.
Glad it was helpful!
Would these speculums Register on your gold/silver detector?
These specimens are metal and would register on a metal detector.
hi chris, i have some interesting objects that i found in lake erie, is there anyway i can get you to look at them? maybe through your website? thanks, great job on your videos!
Identifying minerals from photos is nearly impossible, so I do not offer a photo ID service.
I think I’ve seen some of these silver compound minerals up near an old mining town called Winfield, Co.! Perhaps the miners there , lacking a metal detector and geological ID skills, discarded some of these ores in waste piles! Many of the rocks there are superly heavy although I’m not sure they would sound the detector alarm.
Sounds like you need some assays. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
CHRIS thanks for uploading the presentation on silver,and looking at your slides of different specimens you have concluded my theory on this metal and what it travels with in the geohydrothermal liquid mixes which it congregates with due entirely on temperature,i've concluded that gold, beings it liquefies at higher temp than silver and platinum it is just a smaller by product of movement in the rivers of superheated water mix that moves the metals and the other sauce,this explains gems and their congregation of other valuable stones all together,due to high temp leaching,thank you very much,you have found my missing link to my theory,i've seen strange samples out of the northern Arizona and southern tip areas around nev,coupled with the weird shaped sample of ribbon gold I found in el cajon area,its making sense now,thanks again
Silver and gold actually dissolve in the hot sulfur water, just as sugar dissolves in regular water.
that explains a lot, I never set thru a college course for geology,many books,but talking about this topic is a classroom setting would have been helpful,so it is about the water,i got thinking ,its rained 100000 times in a couple hundred thousand years,magma makes a move and superheats the rain water 100's of feet down and it can't escape fast enough so it superheats and moves all of the metals In suspension and runs it in veins till it cools,pay streak,thanks CHRIS,makes sense
Hi Chris ! Thanks for the All the Very Informative Data on Silver & Silver Ore ! Appreciate it and Your Laid Back Style Very Much! I Live in Weiser,Idaho, about 60 Mi. North of Boise, Right on the Snake River ! Parts of this Area have been found to have significant Copper Ore, Would those Areas be a Good place to check for Silver in the Copper Mine Ore Tailings if any ? We also have an Old Mercury Mine in the Hills Behind town ! Thanks again ! Scotty ! ( Byron Scott )
Not all copper ore has much silver. Focus on areas with significant historic silver production.
As a GPAA club member I have found a number of specimens of silver ore in Glacial Drift. It's somewhat common while doing recreational gold mining if you know what to watch for.
Sounds interesting.
Great job very good video thank you much !!
Glad you liked it!
@chris ralph, professional prospector Thanks another great video. A masterclass
Thanks for the kind words. In the coming weeks, I'll add a similar video on Platinum and another on diamonds.
Hi Chris and thanks alot for this very informative video.
I think I've found some Silver ore mixed with lead... The thing is that they look like melted pieces. Heavy like lead but a whole lot different in look!! Dark, shiny crystals for the most parts, some greenish copper looking parts, and what looks like other pebbles stick into them...
But what raised my suspicions on Silver content is that, when knocked together, they make the same kind of "blinging" sound that Silver coins usually make when impacting each other!
Is it possible that the Silver ore, when not too big (half a golf ball for the biggest ones in my case) that they make that very satisfying "silver clinging" sound? Thank you very much!!
Sorry - I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html
In silver rich areas, does the groundwater contain more silver than normal?
not necessarily.
Hi my name is Lisa. I was at my dad's property and found rocks that I just thought were pretty. I thought it was petrified wood but watching your video about silver ore. I have lots of questions.
Hi Lisa - I'm sorry, but I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Hello Chris I would love to talk to you when you have a little free time. I think my sister and myself may have came across some oxidized silver/gold and possibly iron ore. I was wondering if you would have a spare moment to give me your expert opinion. We really enjoy your videos!!! Thank you!
Hi Kayla - Please watch my videos on how to identify minerals.
Start out with the first one: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html
I get contacted by so many people every day who want me to help them with a variety of things that I just cannot offer personal consulting or a service to ID mineral pictures. Best of luck to you.
Hi Chris, say I have land in Montana and was digging for retaining wall fill and hit a a few good size veins. I need help on verifiing the type of silver and gold I found. I did have it essays at ALS in Nevada.
Were can a person have this stuff processed. And get a good return out of it? I do have some pictures of the ore and I am really curious on the types of minerals I have. How can I send them to You with my questions?
Good luck to you in your efforts. I get many requests for help every day and simply do not have time. I have my own projects I want to work on. Read and study to learn. There are very few custom ore processors as it is not a very profitable business.
Thank you
very useful
35:08 do you agree that a lot of those nuggets could be found only in rivers !!!!???
Not really.
Most of your examples are from NV and CA,, does the silver and silver ore on the East coast look similar?
Yes, but there is very little silver ore on the east coast, as it's just not the right geology.
Question: will a metal detector detect all or most of these ores?
Only a few of them. Metal detectors see metal, but not minerals that contain metal. Most of those ores are minerals and not the metal itself.
16 to 1 mine is in Allegheny CA I believe. Sierra county. Not nV
You got confused because there are more than one mine named 16 to one. One is in Nevada. Another is in Aleghany. The Nevada one produced silver ores. The California one produces gold ores.
My daughters found this rock on the hill in our backyard. Is there any way you could tell me if it's silver? I have no idea where to go to find out. I could send you a picture of it
Sorry - I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html and Part 2 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/v-deo.html and Part 3 can be found here: ua-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/v-deo.html
Hi Chris! Thank you for such a thorough and informative video. I live in Central NC. I have three creeks that run through my property. I find quartz crystals for days in those creeks. There is one that I can not identify though. It's a milky quartz with orange veining. I've found two nice points and several rocks. My property was part of an old trade path (which you can still see) and I have found so many native artifacts after plowing the garden or round pen. The creeks also have tons of a silver colored fleck (?) in them. I'm thinking this is pyrite. Would you happen to have any ideas about what the orange and white quartz could be? Thanks!
Very difficult to ID minerals with a few words or even with photos. See my videos on how to ID minerals for yourself.
While I appreciate your video. I do have one question. Do all of these specimens sound off on a metal detector? I know iron sulfides do not, but now I'm wondering about silver sulfides.
Iron sulfides do not show up on a metal detector because they are not metal. Same thing for galena - it's not lead. Same for other sulfides including silver. There are a few odd exceptions but they are rare.
I have found a Rock and am not sure of it so please can u help me?is shine like little stairs.
I don't offer rock evaluations.
Some of the silver ore looks like itd be easily confused with magnetite. I have some stuff thats super heavy and only minimally magnetic in spots, but i think it might be silver ore. Is there a way to assay at home myself?
A cheap home assay for silver just doesn't exist. Silver ores are not magnetic at all, so if it is even minimally magnetic, its likely not silver. There are hundreds of dark colored minerals, only a small handful of which contain silver, so just that its dark colored is not really an indicator.
@@ChrisRalph ah that's unfortunate about the ease of home assaying. It's definitely not the material itself that is magnetic, but something in with it. I don't doubt thst I haven't found a speck of precious metals in my 40 years. Lol
I do have this piece of quartz I'm looking at now that has these little blackish (tarnished) 1/4" long wires all through it but the metal in the wires that isn't tarnished and oxidized so heavily, almost has a brassy or copper-i sh to a golden color. None of the quarts has green mineralization at all though. Just some orange/red on a side. Like I said, no clue what it is, but it sure is cool
You could try a small amount of the powdered ore in hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid in the USA). If it is a sulphide, there will be a smell of rotten eggs (H2S) but if silver is present, the acid will go cloudy with a whitish colour. That might be silver chloride (AgCl) which is insoluble, and most metal chlorides are soluble. Other minerals might not dissolve in the HCl at all, so not a very good test, just one of several you might do. Another is to use a charcoal block, a blowpipe and a flux to reduce the ore to a metal bead. The colour of the oxide staining around the bead will help distinguish some different likely metals, like lead and copper. Not sure if Chris has blowpipe tests in his book, but there are some books out there which describe in more detail how they are done.
my left ear enjoyed the video
Adjust your headphone sound.....
Very educational Thanks
Thank you for the kind words! Glad it was helpful!
Funny I ran across this today. I have been hunting an intrusive in AZ for gold. Found some nuggets that were born right there but after extensive sleuthing I ran out of nuggets and bedrock came so near surface there's no way I missed a pocket. Argh! Frustrating!
Anyway, while just detecting around yesterday I found a very peculiar object. Silverish, heavy, hard. About an oz. Not aluminum and don't scrape like lead so definitely niether. Has some material attached but looking through a loop I can't tell if its smelt glass or matrix. Question I have is there a simple chemical test for native silver?
Not that I know of - all are destructive tests using acid.
Could you please enlighten me about shale colors ranging from white, black, brown. It is within the presence of red clay, quartz, and a yellowing leaching out of the groung around it.
Colors dont really mean much. Lots of minerals come in many colors. Watch my videos on how to identify minerals for yourself. Start with - ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html Best of luck to you.
...our silver mine in Canada had/has values up to 19,000 opt Ag...yes, we've found samples of it.
That is a pretty impressive assay!
So will the silver oar be picked up by a metal detectors
Metal detectors will pick up silver ores that have metal in them, but not pick up forms of silver ore that has no metal, but only sulfides.
Thank you for the video your real smart!
Glad it was helpful!
@Chris Ralph I found a specimen of Ruby Silver on my property and was wondering if there are any steps I could take to keep it from changing colors. I thought if I placed it in and airtight plexiglass case with an oxygen exorber? Do you think that would work? 1 3/4in x 1 1/2in x 1 1/4in is the size of the specimen and I believe there is more I have yet to unearth because of it appears to have broken off of a larger sample.
Airtight and in the dark - the light converts a small part of the ruby silver to metallic silver which darkens the specimen.
@@ChrisRalph would UV protection on the plexiglass work? I would like to display it, it is attractive, otherwise it will go the way of my jewelry... in the safe and never een. Lol. Btw thank you for share your kn9wledge. I watch and review your video's often. Living in Ca, on the county line of Nevada and Yuba. I have a lot of time and 20 acres off mine 35 acres of the folks next door and BLM Land just minutes away.
I dont know the wave length that causes the problem - so no idea of UV only would do the trick. Lots of gold gold in both Yuba and Nevada counties.
I realize that platinum is rare, but is silver easily confused with platinum when it's found ? How much heavier would platinum be than silver? Nice presentation! Thank you!
Platinum is almost twice as dense as silver. Metallic silver is rare - most silver is in silver bearing minerals, not as silver metal.
Who else came here cause they may of found silver ore but is not a professional.. so needed to learn more ways to identify it
Get a chemical assay and then you will know for sure.
I once visited what was reputed to be 2 silver mines east of Missoula, MT. and a bit north of a small town of Clinton, MT. The ore that I saw didn't look anything like all of your examples.
What I saw and handled was chunks of rock that was sandy and gray/black with small streaks of a blue/green running through it. These were hard rock mines almost at the top of a mountain. I wonder if I was being spoofed, by my friends, about sliver and it was really mines for copper? ;-)
I talked a lot about gray / black silver ores in that video..... Plus its true that copper and silver are found together sometimes.... No way for me to know if your friends were spoofing you....
@@ChrisRalph That's OK, The stuff I saw just looked different. Thanks for your info and response. ;-)
I have a rock that looks like it has gold and silver chunks peaking through. How can I really determine/?
I get many, many requests from all over the world for mineral ID, help, assistance, training, advice, etc. I have said in a number of videos - pictures are not nearly as helpful for identification as you would think. I did this video to help folks learn to ID minerals for themselves - ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html
I have many projects, obligations and commitments of my own, so my answer to you will be the same as everyone else - I wish you the best of luck with your own project, but I cannot be of assistance.