I was a little worried that you weren't going to do a video this week due to the current affairs. But I'm sure glad you did. Needed the break from it all. So thank you.
The schedule for the up coming couple of months is: A short series on the metal Aluminum; a series on all the minor but super important tech metals like: Lithium, rare earths, Nickel and cobalt, uranium, etc. Then after that we will be back to all gold related stuff for a good long while.
Found silver/lead stones in my property. Sent them for testing. High in silver, 25 ppm and lead is 83.2 ppm and Galina is like 8. Back when I did this I did not know how to identify the rocks! So after watching your video, will go back to keep on my search and research. Thanks! I learn so much with your videos!
Woo-hoo, I always enjoy your videos, but this is one I can use here in North Arkansas! There's an old mystery mine that I've been chasing in these here hills. Thanks Chris, good work as always
@Nathan Miller Hey! Another Hillbilly! I hope you score well on your mining! I'm hoping to make a good strike on a polymetallic deposit which I am hoping is under my land! BUNNY LUCK to you with your mine! /)/) ( 'ˬ') @(>_ )-b \) \)
great video,, i live near leadore idaho,,,it was a big mining district as well as nearby gilmore and nicholia ,, lots of lead and silver came out of this area in the past,,,,,,lots of it is still left,,,,but with the government restrictions,,,or should i say dictator restrictions ,, i doubt any of it will be mined,
Greetings and happy new year, I wish everyone soundness! Prospector Ralph, your channel looks very informative and I subscribed right away in hope to learn more about this interesting trade Best of luck in finding the shining treasure in nature's nooks and creeks.
always wondered if there is silver n gold in old Wisconsin galena ore dumps? I had a 5 sided galena crystal assayed, 0.13 oz a ton for gold and 2.5 ounces of Silver per ton. Or what about the slag from old lead furnaces? But the state has outlawed galena mining due to sulfuric acid being released. They were only after the lead in the 1800's.
I found some nice Galena at an old mine in New Brunswick Canada. Wonder if I can see the silver in it ? it has pyrite lead and some streak I thinking silver. would like to show you.
I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on. 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.
I respect your knowledge on geology, Chris. Could you recommend a book that a guy could use to familiarize himself with the various ores and minerals associated with gold and silver prospecting? I’ve been slowly trying to learn as I go and still have very little knowledge of the rocks and minerals I’m encountering in The Mother Lode.
Mindat is a solid resource- I know almost nothing about NorCal, but it's a lot of serpentine, granite, and slate. There are some pegmatites and a lot of the slate is properly phyllite. Higher up are some mafic extrusive lavas and breccias and stuff that looks like basalt to me, apparently because they got uplifted from under the ocean or something, but they were down in there good like a couple thousand meters under the floor. I dunno, trying to learn myself. A big old intrusion done filled them rocks up with shiny. Serpentine to slate (I call it all slate, the schist and the phyllite) gradations are the good ones, but the granite has been weak for me. Similar circumstances produced the Juneau gold belt where gold deposited in stringers hosted in the black phyllite, and the granite there, the rusty diorite, also hosts gold. Search mindat plus your county and select macrostat in the bar of map options likely in the upper right. Clicking the colors brings up descriptions of the rock units etc. If you already know about mindat, sorry to waste your time. Although it isn't a book, it tends to have very concise regional specificity. It's pretty incredible, really. I struggle sometimes with the terminology, but it's important to remember with rocks that it's more like naming hues on the spectrum than species of life forms. CV Shorey's Earth Explorations is a good UA-cam geology explainer, not to undercut the venerable Mr. Ralph. Good luck.
Thanks for the content. I own a limestone quarry and have just found 2 pieces of pure galena weighing 5kg each. I am looking for information and trying to find a trustworthy geologist to assess if the mine has a good amount of deposits for exploration.
So to have a valuable lead mine you need many thousands of kg of galena - not 10 kg. Or it needs to have a lot of silver in it. You can have a lab do an assay and test it for silver content.
Love your channel! So very informative and useful. I’ve enjoyed watching it very much. Have you ever tried the Nokta Macro Gold Kruzer gold metal detector? It’s made in Turkey I believe. Worth the price they’re asking you think? I plan on acquiring some small placer gold bits to help train myself to use it and get as familiar as I can before ever trying to use it out in the field . Planning to go searching in the Selkirk Mountains in south eastern British Columbia. I’m from central Alberta where we do have some gold in the rivers but its all flour gold which honestly I’m really not interested in as it’s just too much fiddly work to both find and recover to be of any interest to me at all. Thank you! I hope to hear from you.
Many of the rare earths are worth dollars a pound - like copper or nickel. The ones that are super valuable are rare and occur only in small percentages in the Rare Earth ores.
Friend - we have an understanding problem - you tell me your gold is minus 200, then you tell me your gold is nuggets. You tell me your gold is in a river, but rivers come in many sizes and types. I do not even know what country you are in, or how much money you have to spend. You must consider all these factors and decide for yourself. Please watch this video, it will help you decide. See: ua-cam.com/video/EF4oFvSHbJo/v-deo.html See also: ua-cam.com/video/SqwkpH9LZIM/v-deo.html As you learn more you will grow in knowledge and be able to decide best for yourself.
Glad you liked it! Hey - you should have brought a weed burner torch with you to prospect in the snow with Gary! That's why I dont prospect in frozen ground.
I'm in Nevada so its not easy for me to access and explore the area. Here is some info (there is much more info on the internet). The Coeur d’Alene Basin Cleanup is also known as the Bunker Hill Mining & Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site. It is located in northern Idaho and eastern Washington, in one of the largest historical mining districts in the world. The site spans 1,500 square miles and 166 river miles. Mining operations began in the area in 1883 and continue today. Historical mining and milling methods disposed of tailings in rivers and streams. Those practices spread contaminants throughout the floodplain of the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River. Contamination also comes from large waste piles, waste rock, and past air emissions from smelter operations. Soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water became contaminated with heavy metals such as lead. The site was first added to the National Priorities List in 1983. Since then, EPA and its partners have made great progress in cleaning up contamination. The EPA partners with many the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, the Panhandle Health District, and others to clean up properties, mine and mill sites, areas where people recreate, and many other places where metals pose a risk.
What could be an iridescent gunmetal colored coating/crystal? It is also contained on the same rock that appears to be clear quartz/druzy quartz. It was found rockhounding so the iridescence is natural....
BRAVO !! Great series Ralph ! Enjoyed them all, especially this one ! Quick question: Are the weathered surface lead oxides somewhat heavy compared to surround hosts ? Maybe as a first clue ? Reason I ask, is some of these samples could be easily overlooked. Thanks again for the marvelous education ! 🤠⛏⚒👍
It depends on the material. Very porous aggregates of lead minerals may not be particularly heavy. The solid crystals and less porous forms are dense. Sometimes there is not a lot of lead anyway - a deposit may be marked by gossans of mostly iron and manganese oxides.
@@ChrisRalphi have lots of nodules and stream weathered oxides of goethite hematite with inclusions of lead zinc manganese copper... are these the kind of things that might spell an enriched zone underneath? In between boulders I find larger oxides or sulfides though I haven't got to digging. Siderite cerussite and corundum. also
I found the weirdest ore. It is silver in color, powdery soft feeling. Very Shiney. Very brittle. It looked in some areas though that the silver pasty color has traveled down the hill. So I started digging at the end of that area and then it was like mud paste silver. It's crazy.
have spent a year now in my new state (NM) trying to find reasonable color where most don't seem to - here's what I found - i worked the washes west-northwest of golden and never found color, walked away with sample load materials (copper and silver) a little further north off 14 (near turquoise hill) - found a smidgin of placer in taos ski valley, and little more southwest of red river (have a spot in mind to explore more in depth when better equipped and a warmer time of year) - found a 'really nice' quartz vain at about a little better than an once per ton on testing (conservative) //three 2.5gl buckets field crushed, condensed and panned to 1.2gms total// in the bland canyons area but way too under equipped, way too hard to get in and out of (a day and a half of walking in off the canyon walls and a day and a half back in order not to approach over private property), found reasonable placer in a canyon south of bearhead peak but again no vehicular access and days to walk in and out of (packing the tools in to do it right would be near impossible) - caught sight of flakes under the "catwalks" in gila, and found 'good' color a few miles from there but saving that area for when I have better tools so as not to attract attention to what I'm doing when I go back - in the mean time seem to have better luck with small scale placer and gb2ing in parts of AZ
@@ChrisRalph - our locals have been inactive over the last year and from what im told for the foreseeable future - i did join a AZ club for this year that's active outdoors simply to have locations to practice in but they're a good 8hrs each way ...so they'll be long weekend ventures - / - my wife is pretty critical of my trips because i almost killed myself twice this last year down in the canyons, lol - messed my hip up once, and able to hang on the second time, temporarily loosing my backpack (haven't broke any bones yet) - guess i just need to stop telling her about those parts of the adventure, lol
Mining company ran aerial scanning over our property - apparently it's one of the richest lead/zinc deposits in the country - but access via road is cost-prohibitive for industrial scale extraction - you can pick lead/zinc rich "nuggets" right out of the topsoil using a metal detector.
Hello Chris Chris Thompson here in Texas i watched your videos and am happy to say THANK YOU. I am interested in where to find the small rock crusher that was in your shop on left of bench ( awaiting a motor) in one video ( i have found the flayer crusher) i have found several locations that i have collected samples from ( I am starting a rock garden here ) that i would like to reduce the size of and see my results. Great information enjoying your videos.
Is is possible? Yes. Is it possible with the kind of lead deposits found in Iowa? No. However there is loads of glacial gravel gold in Iowa that was pushed down from Canada. See my video on Midwest gold.
Um yes I'm familiar with a glacial deposited gold in Iowa I have been extracting it for 10 years Thanks for responding to me I do watch your videos often
Hi Chris, thank you for the video. Where can I take the metals from my rocks to find out exactly what I have soI can determine if and how I can refine them? Thanks so much!
Absolutely love your channel. Do you ever get to Arizona? Do you ever consider guest speaking for very like minded clubs or organizations? Would love to have you if your ever in the Phoenix area, more specifically Superstition mountain area.
I did not make the 2020 Phoenix GPAA show, but had made the previous ones for more than 10 years straight. No GPAA show this year so not in 2021 either. I am happy to speak at clubs and do often speak at local ones up here around Reno, but problem with clubs is that I am in town for a few days while traveling and if those are not the days when the club is meeting, it doesn't work. Clubs usually only meet once a month, so the odds are low that the meeting is the same time I am in town.
@@ChrisRalph Second Sunday of every month around 4pm. But for YOU, we’ll call one whenever your in town! Keep on educating us about all the fine geology good sir! Look forward to them.
Kindly recommend a gold detector that is ideal for river prospecting but cheap and sensitive enough to penetrate the ground to a reasonable depth and is waterproof. size of gold range from gold to minus 200
@@ChrisRalph this is in the general vicinity of the 'wedding chamber' find, but this covers a vast area. There are small limestone 'pipes' running all over the place right under the surface with rich ore
Would love to see a video on taking rock and assaying it. How do I know what is ore "microfine" vs trash? May be a naive request but its a topic I need to tackle.Also can I test for content such as X= chromium vs trash ect.
Doing your own assay basically means having all the equipment to do your own fire assay. And that is expensive. You can do a test for free gold more cheaply, but that will not include microfine gold.
How do we know that we are in the water table ? My claim is in a steep canyon , creek running through the bottom of corse, is my placer claim both side of creek are my load claims . I would think the water table would be at creek level ? Mabee no could be higher as the creek has slowly dug it’s self deeper . The old portal goes in just above the creek level , and I’m no expert but I believe it’s been ran through the sulfide zone , mabee to get below the oxide zone , I’m not sure . Has been said the last geologist that has been in there with previous owner said it is a silver mine ( as there is no records on this mine ) .
@@ChrisRalph , 12 oz silver pt , .50 gold pt .... Have just recently discovered electrum , was a nugget about size of end of pinky , Was too light colored to be gold so I smashed it to test it lol was a mistake so I smashed it down but also broke apart as it was from crystalline electrum as I later discovered with microscope . With research I discovered that there was electrum found in my mining district,( not Colorado ) . One of two spots found in Oregon .
@@americanadventureoutdoors4213 I would suggest that you drill a hole from inside the mine [assuming you have the right tools available to you to drill such a hole] and see if it fills with water. If there is not water flowing out of the mine on its own, any water that comes up into your hole will [usually] stop at the natural water table by the laws of hydrodynamics. If, however, water is dripping down the walls or from the roof ['back' ] of the mine, then the water table is higher than the mine, and means that you are likely in the rich spot where the minerals are most concentrated. BUNNY LUCK to you on your mine! /)/) ( 'ˬ') @(>_ )-b \) \)
@@DeliciousDeBlair . Well part of the problem is there is a creek coming down the mnt on the side of said portal . The shaft runs close to it or right under it . We are geting water in the mine year round . I’m certain they were headed towards and under a breccia zone , but never made it . The gold in the district was found down to about 200 ta 300 feet , after that in the sulfide zone .
Where do you have the info on why lead is not given to the average man? I am interested in the information as to why it is restricted. There must be a financial reason behind it.
You can still buy lead bullets. Lead has been replaced in many items because it is toxic and left leaning persons in the mommy state government think you would endanger yourself if you could get lead easily.
Very interesting normally I would be interested in these videos but my grandpa and great grandpa were miners in the Mohave desert were they had a claim. Ice found some of my grandpas specimens that are so cool to look and are also very heavy but I don't know what it is, I also found a grey bar that was poured which is very heavy but to hard to be lead I think. Is it possible for me to email you pictures of what I've found? Maybe you can help me identify the items. Thanks in advance
Glad you enjoyed the video, but I do not offer a service to identify stuff - its way harder than you think. Take a look at my video on how to identify minerals and learn more about it. See: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html
😮🤔 So I had some rocks chilling in some Peracetic Acid, ( 6% White Vinegar, and 3% peroxide) Combined in old plastic 1 lb coffee container. At some point the liquid started to evaporate, and eventually evaporating 100% totally. So now my stones have grown a thick ( 1"-2")) )in coat of white salty Crystal looking lattice structure coating the entire surface of the stones. What could it be.
Chris I know you are not a lawyer but maybe you can do a video on gold prospecting/mining laws in general for Cal. Az. And Nevada, so us small time prospectors don’t run afoul of?
Laws vary from place to place and what a prospector might want to do varies so really tough to do because of so many possibilities. And as you said, I am not a lawyer.,
I thank you for all your hard work and the fact that you love your job ( which means you never really work when it’s something you love doing and the fact that you also love to share your knowledge. I’m a big rock hound and I love what God has created and it’s sad that it’s passed off as just a rock . The formations in designs and colors which could only be created by God is shared with us all if we just take the time to look at it and we could enjoy each beauty Jimmy times this past but I never pass is my eyes I’m picking locks up every single day my house is filled with the problem is is I don’t think enough time to find out what I have Because I’m always inundated with something but I thank you for your time and all that you’ve shared I hope that I get to hook up with you and maybe send you some pictures of what I have maybe you can tell me what I got maybe they might even be worth something so one day I can love the work and share like you do , , have a good day have a good night and I thank you for Share
Chris you have said that California has lots of gold but the California government will make sure it is not mined. Could you please expand on that? Is it a environmental factor or is it something else?
I am sorry my friend, but I get so many requests every day for personal help, training, photo evaluation, etc. that I cannot fulfill all the requests. I have many, many commitments of my own that demand my time. I wish you the best of luck in your efforts. Chris
Hello friend, I hope you are well. I'm curious: Here in Brazil, every finding that is considered historic by law belongs to the government. There are cases of people who are unaware of the Law, publish their findings and the Government hijacks the findings, without paying any gratuity to the detectorist, who still runs the risk of being arrested if he sells what he finds. How is the Law there? What did you find is it yours? Can you trade freely or keep it in your possession?
In the US, most archeological finds belong to the government if found on government land. However this channel is about mineral finds, not really about treasure hunting. Mineral finds belong to the finder.
I appreciate your interest, but I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I do wish you the best of luck, but I am sorry that I cannot offer any help on that level.
I found a large rock heavy at quartz site ar behind loves trk stop it has crystal and black veins running through as well as black spots I think it could be lead silver ore but not sure any suggestions as for location I found it
3:04 "but I kind of disgusted how a lot of politicians somehow think that the average man shouldn't have lead whether it's in the form of a diving weight or a wheel weight or a bullet." Oh, wait until you learn that you can turn lead into silver using household items. hahahaha
@@ChrisRalph By the way, have you ever discovered any copper traces in galena? Copper is impossible to find in lead because (as far as I know) it changes into silver and gold.
I had almost lead poisoning as a kid. Despite that i didn't know. After finding it out i still felt great. My skin has bad reactions to metals anymore. Except for silver. And iron i guess. Haha. Or id be dead from my blood :) can't wear it though. Even surgical steel. Haven't tried platinum. Too expensive to find for me. You think my skin would react bad to it too? I don't want to bother looking for it still if you think it would. Tried gold. Made me itch. Im weird. I would just stick with silver but kind of tired of the way it tarnishes all the time. And having all silver would make me a target to thief's as well as make my bank account non-existent. 😂🥴
I'm supost to be training for work but you do to good of a job teaching LOL HAHAHAHAHA I quit I'm going Prospecting. Make your own movie and be the star.
Sir we have variety of stones in our area but I have no experience of identifying then whether they are gold ore or not. Sir would you assist me in. And if you have time than I will send you these stones to you. Please send me your wattsapp nmber
I was a little worried that you weren't going to do a video this week due to the current affairs. But I'm sure glad you did. Needed the break from it all. So thank you.
No, its a political hell, but I will keep plugging away.
Another great series Chris. Interesting information, I enjoyed it, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. Next will be a couple videos on aluminum.
Subbed at the end of last year. Glad I found the channel. Looking forward to finding out more about minerals and their associated elements.
The schedule for the up coming couple of months is: A short series on the metal Aluminum; a series on all the minor but super important tech metals like: Lithium, rare earths, Nickel and cobalt, uranium, etc. Then after that we will be back to all gold related stuff for a good long while.
I believe I found it around here and over there in the volcano mountain and some Carlene😊 ore
Be sure to have it tested by an assay laboratory.
Excellent video Chris....thanks again..!
Thank you for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it.
Once again Chris, a great informative video.
Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for the kind words!
incredibly informative, really great video thank you so much for doing this series!
Thank you for the kind words!
I love your videos I live in Northern California and I watch them all the time I even watch them over again
I'm glad you enjoy them.
Found silver/lead stones in my property. Sent them for testing. High in silver, 25 ppm and lead is 83.2 ppm and Galina is like 8. Back when I did this I did not know how to identify the rocks! So after watching your video, will go back to keep on my search and research. Thanks! I learn so much with your videos!
Hope you find lots of the Good stuff
@@ChrisRalph with ALL that info (and I am watching all the videos) plus the technology, plus the energy, it is impossible for me not to find it! lol
Another great video. Thanks Chris!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks a lot Chris. We are looking to get our own lead concession. Liked this video。
Glad it was helpful!
You are the best master💪👏🤗
Thank you for the kind words! 😃
Another great video...keep them coming👍
Thanks, will do!
Really you are the best teacher
Thank you for the kind words!
I wish I could do something with all this knowledge I am gaining by watching your channel! 😁
I just love this stuff💖
You can do it!
Thank you for sharing this video..i understand now minerals are present in our planet..God creation..
Good short session on minerals.God bless
May God bless you as well.
Woo-hoo, I always enjoy your videos, but this is one I can use here in North Arkansas! There's an old mystery mine that I've been chasing in these here hills. Thanks Chris, good work as always
Very cool! Best of luck to you in your quest.
@Nathan Miller Hey! Another Hillbilly! I hope you score well on your mining! I'm hoping to make a good strike on a polymetallic deposit which I am hoping is under my land!
BUNNY LUCK to you with your mine!
/)/)
( 'ˬ')
@(>_ )-b
\) \)
Where in North Arkansas what county? May have found one in marion
Great informative video, Chris.
I am reading your book "Fists Full Of Gold" (got it for Christmas). So informative.
Thank you.
Awesome, thank you! I am sure you will enjoy the book.
Great video/lecture! Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
great video,, i live near leadore idaho,,,it was a big mining district as well as nearby gilmore and nicholia ,, lots of lead and silver came out of this area in the past,,,,,,lots of it is still left,,,,but with the government restrictions,,,or should i say dictator restrictions ,, i doubt any of it will be mined,
A sad state of affairs - loads of gold in California too, but the state government will make sure its not mined.
Greetings and happy new year, I wish everyone soundness!
Prospector Ralph, your channel looks very informative and I subscribed right away in hope to learn more about this interesting trade
Best of luck in finding the shining treasure in nature's nooks and creeks.
Happy new year! Thanks for the kind words.
I live in colorado, up near leadvjlle, the prospectors threw a black crust out as wasterock, later workers determined it was freaking platinum dude!
Hmmmm....
Thanks for making such an informative video.
Glad that you found it helpful.
always wondered if there is silver n gold in old Wisconsin galena ore dumps? I had a 5 sided galena crystal assayed, 0.13 oz a ton for gold and 2.5 ounces of Silver per ton. Or what about the slag from old lead furnaces? But the state has outlawed galena mining due to sulfuric acid being released. They were only after the lead in the 1800's.
As your assay shows there are small amounts of gold and silver with the lead.
Great presentation
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Really enjoyed your video! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I found some nice Galena at an old mine in New Brunswick Canada. Wonder if I can see the silver in it ? it has pyrite lead and some streak I thinking silver. would like to show you.
I get so many, many requests for personal help, advice, training, review, mineral ID, etc. - every day - I simply cannot get involved with all the requests. I have plenty of my own projects to work on. 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.
I respect your knowledge on geology, Chris. Could you recommend a book that a guy could use to familiarize himself with the various ores and minerals associated with gold and silver prospecting? I’ve been slowly trying to learn as I go and still have very little knowledge of the rocks and minerals I’m encountering in The Mother Lode.
There are rock and mineral color hand books you can buy on Amazon.
Mindat is a solid resource- I know almost nothing about NorCal, but it's a lot of serpentine, granite, and slate. There are some pegmatites and a lot of the slate is properly phyllite. Higher up are some mafic extrusive lavas and breccias and stuff that looks like basalt to me, apparently because they got uplifted from under the ocean or something, but they were down in there good like a couple thousand meters under the floor. I dunno, trying to learn myself. A big old intrusion done filled them rocks up with shiny. Serpentine to slate (I call it all slate, the schist and the phyllite) gradations are the good ones, but the granite has been weak for me. Similar circumstances produced the Juneau gold belt where gold deposited in stringers hosted in the black phyllite, and the granite there, the rusty diorite, also hosts gold. Search mindat plus your county and select macrostat in the bar of map options likely in the upper right. Clicking the colors brings up descriptions of the rock units etc. If you already know about mindat, sorry to waste your time. Although it isn't a book, it tends to have very concise regional specificity. It's pretty incredible, really. I struggle sometimes with the terminology, but it's important to remember with rocks that it's more like naming hues on the spectrum than species of life forms. CV Shorey's Earth Explorations is a good UA-cam geology explainer, not to undercut the venerable Mr. Ralph. Good luck.
Thanks for the content. I own a limestone quarry and have just found 2 pieces of pure galena weighing 5kg each.
I am looking for information and trying to find a trustworthy geologist to assess if the mine has a good amount of deposits for exploration.
So to have a valuable lead mine you need many thousands of kg of galena - not 10 kg. Or it needs to have a lot of silver in it. You can have a lab do an assay and test it for silver content.
Love your channel!
So very informative and useful. I’ve enjoyed watching it very much.
Have you ever tried the
Nokta Macro Gold Kruzer gold metal detector?
It’s made in Turkey I believe.
Worth the price they’re asking you think?
I plan on acquiring some small placer gold bits to help train myself to use it and get as familiar as I can before ever trying to use it out in the field . Planning to go searching in the Selkirk Mountains in south eastern British Columbia. I’m from central Alberta where we do have some gold in the rivers but its all flour gold which honestly I’m really not interested in as it’s just too much fiddly work to both find and recover to be of any interest to me at all.
Thank you!
I hope to hear from you.
I hope you find big nuggets or nothing, so you dont have to throw those little fiddly bits aside (just too much work doing that).
Chris! What if we discovered some of those rare earth metals in some discarded rocks! Might we pan those or dry sift perhaps?
Many of the rare earths are worth dollars a pound - like copper or nickel. The ones that are super valuable are rare and occur only in small percentages in the Rare Earth ores.
Chris am still waiting to here from you about,a cheap metal director for river prospecting.the size of gold varies starting from nuggets
Friend - we have an understanding problem - you tell me your gold is minus 200, then you tell me your gold is nuggets. You tell me your gold is in a river, but rivers come in many sizes and types. I do not even know what country you are in, or how much money you have to spend. You must consider all these factors and decide for yourself. Please watch this video, it will help you decide. See: ua-cam.com/video/EF4oFvSHbJo/v-deo.html See also: ua-cam.com/video/SqwkpH9LZIM/v-deo.html
As you learn more you will grow in knowledge and be able to decide best for yourself.
thanks I'm learning a lot with these video's !!!
Glad you liked it! Hey - you should have brought a weed burner torch with you to prospect in the snow with Gary! That's why I dont prospect in frozen ground.
@@ChrisRalph i have one and didnt even think about it till we got there !!!
Another good one
Thanks.
Ron
Thanks.
Will you do a video about what happened with the contamination in Silver Valley Idaho? How bad is it really and what went wrong?
You need to be more specific.
@@ChrisRalph It's called Bunker Hill Superfund Site now, and the area is contaminated with heavy metals.
I'm in Nevada so its not easy for me to access and explore the area. Here is some info (there is much more info on the internet).
The Coeur d’Alene Basin Cleanup is also known as the Bunker Hill Mining & Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site. It is located in northern Idaho and eastern Washington, in one of the largest historical mining districts in the world. The site spans 1,500 square miles and 166 river miles. Mining operations began in the area in 1883 and continue today. Historical mining and milling methods disposed of tailings in rivers and streams. Those practices spread contaminants throughout the floodplain of the South Fork Coeur d’Alene River. Contamination also comes from large waste piles, waste rock, and past air emissions from smelter operations. Soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water became contaminated with heavy metals such as lead.
The site was first added to the National Priorities List in 1983. Since then, EPA and its partners have made great progress in cleaning up contamination. The EPA partners with many the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission, the Panhandle Health District, and others to clean up properties, mine and mill sites, areas where people recreate, and many other places where metals pose a risk.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks for the response. I just thought I'd ask your perspective on it from someone in the industry.
What could be an iridescent gunmetal colored coating/crystal? It is also contained on the same rock that appears to be clear quartz/druzy quartz. It was found rockhounding so the iridescence is natural....
Really hard to say. iron oxides or????
BRAVO !! Great series Ralph ! Enjoyed them all, especially this one ! Quick question: Are the weathered surface lead oxides somewhat heavy compared to surround hosts ? Maybe as a first clue ? Reason I ask, is some of these samples could be easily overlooked. Thanks again for the marvelous education ! 🤠⛏⚒👍
It depends on the material. Very porous aggregates of lead minerals may not be particularly heavy. The solid crystals and less porous forms are dense. Sometimes there is not a lot of lead anyway - a deposit may be marked by gossans of mostly iron and manganese oxides.
Yeah, I wonder how many times I've walked over a potential deposit, and never knew it. Hummm ? 🤔
@@ChrisRalphi have lots of nodules and stream weathered oxides of goethite hematite with inclusions of lead zinc manganese copper... are these the kind of things that might spell an enriched zone underneath? In between boulders I find larger oxides or sulfides though I haven't got to digging. Siderite cerussite and corundum. also
I learned a lot! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it.
I found the weirdest ore. It is silver in color, powdery soft feeling. Very Shiney. Very brittle. It looked in some areas though that the silver pasty color has traveled down the hill. So I started digging at the end of that area and then it was like mud paste silver. It's crazy.
Interesting!
Can you take a video of this and share it? I’m curious of this
have spent a year now in my new state (NM) trying to find reasonable color where most don't seem to - here's what I found - i worked the washes west-northwest of golden and never found color, walked away with sample load materials (copper and silver) a little further north off 14 (near turquoise hill) - found a smidgin of placer in taos ski valley, and little more southwest of red river (have a spot in mind to explore more in depth when better equipped and a warmer time of year) - found a 'really nice' quartz vain at about a little better than an once per ton on testing (conservative) //three 2.5gl buckets field crushed, condensed and panned to 1.2gms total// in the bland canyons area but way too under equipped, way too hard to get in and out of (a day and a half of walking in off the canyon walls and a day and a half back in order not to approach over private property), found reasonable placer in a canyon south of bearhead peak but again no vehicular access and days to walk in and out of (packing the tools in to do it right would be near impossible) - caught sight of flakes under the "catwalks" in gila, and found 'good' color a few miles from there but saving that area for when I have better tools so as not to attract attention to what I'm doing when I go back - in the mean time seem to have better luck with small scale placer and gb2ing in parts of AZ
Take a look at local prospecting clubs who often have claims or permissions to enter public property.
@@ChrisRalph - our locals have been inactive over the last year and from what im told for the foreseeable future - i did join a AZ club for this year that's active outdoors simply to have locations to practice in but they're a good 8hrs each way ...so they'll be long weekend ventures - / - my wife is pretty critical of my trips because i almost killed myself twice this last year down in the canyons, lol - messed my hip up once, and able to hang on the second time, temporarily loosing my backpack (haven't broke any bones yet) - guess i just need to stop telling her about those parts of the adventure, lol
Mining company ran aerial scanning over our property - apparently it's one of the richest lead/zinc deposits in the country - but access via road is cost-prohibitive for industrial scale extraction - you can pick lead/zinc rich "nuggets" right out of the topsoil using a metal detector.
Interesting. thanks for sharing.
Hello Chris
Chris Thompson here in Texas i watched your videos and am happy to say THANK YOU. I am interested in where to find the small rock crusher that was in your shop on left of bench ( awaiting a motor) in one video ( i have found the flayer crusher) i have found several locations that i have collected samples from ( I am starting a rock garden here ) that i would like to reduce the size of and see my results. Great information enjoying your videos.
I got mine used.
Can gold deposits be found in and around lead deposits? I live in Iowa and we have lead deposits on the eastern side of the state always wondered.
Is is possible? Yes. Is it possible with the kind of lead deposits found in Iowa? No. However there is loads of glacial gravel gold in Iowa that was pushed down from Canada. See my video on Midwest gold.
Um yes I'm familiar with a glacial deposited gold in Iowa I have been extracting it for 10 years Thanks for responding to me I do watch your videos often
I have a lot of this but having a lot of problems with other metals like magnesium
Interesting....
nuggets of thanks...
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Very helpful 👌
Glad to hear that
Hi Chris, thank you for the video. Where can I take the metals from my rocks to find out exactly what I have soI can determine if and how I can refine them? Thanks so much!
There are assay labs who do testing of rocks to determine the valuable metals they contain.
@@ChrisRalph What kind of test we should do test the percentage ? like XRF, XRD or any other?
Absolutely love your channel. Do you ever get to Arizona? Do you ever consider guest speaking for very like minded clubs or organizations? Would love to have you if your ever in the Phoenix area, more specifically Superstition mountain area.
I did not make the 2020 Phoenix GPAA show, but had made the previous ones for more than 10 years straight. No GPAA show this year so not in 2021 either. I am happy to speak at clubs and do often speak at local ones up here around Reno, but problem with clubs is that I am in town for a few days while traveling and if those are not the days when the club is meeting, it doesn't work. Clubs usually only meet once a month, so the odds are low that the meeting is the same time I am in town.
@@ChrisRalph Second Sunday of every month around 4pm. But for YOU, we’ll call one whenever your in town! Keep on educating us about all the fine geology good sir! Look forward to them.
Kindly recommend a gold detector that is ideal for river prospecting but cheap and sensitive enough to penetrate the ground to a reasonable depth and is waterproof. size of gold range from gold to minus 200
No metal detector can see minus 200 mesh gold particles. Those are dust sized pieces.
@@ChrisRalph the size of gold carries recommend the one which is cheap and ideal for river prospecting
We have nuggets,pickers and even smaller visible gold in my area
There are places in NM you can find chloride ores scattered around on the ground
Silver chloride is definitely worth picking up.
@@ChrisRalph this is in the general vicinity of the 'wedding chamber' find, but this covers a vast area. There are small limestone 'pipes' running all over the place right under the surface with rich ore
that should be 'Bridal Chamber'
Will oxidation effect the lab results of the silver quality and quantity (g/tn) ratio?
The oxidation state of the ore does not change the assay results.
Would love to see a video on taking rock and assaying it. How do I know what is ore "microfine" vs trash? May be a naive request but its a topic I need to tackle.Also can I test for content such as X= chromium vs trash ect.
Doing your own assay basically means having all the equipment to do your own fire assay. And that is expensive. You can do a test for free gold more cheaply, but that will not include microfine gold.
@@ChrisRalph well let's weigh those options out?
I have been trying to look it up. It looks like serpentine when cleaned off but before it's cleaned off it's greasy like metallic silver. Very soft.
OK.
Thanks. I like this one.
Glad you like it!
Any tips about looking for Silver in Utah?
Lots of silver and lead mines in Utah, check out some old state reports.
How do we know that we are in the water table ? My claim is in a steep canyon , creek running through the bottom of corse, is my placer claim both side of creek are my load claims . I would think the water table would be at creek level ? Mabee no could be higher as the creek has slowly dug it’s self deeper . The old portal goes in just above the creek level , and I’m no expert but I believe it’s been ran through the sulfide zone , mabee to get below the oxide zone , I’m not sure . Has been said the last geologist that has been in there with previous owner said it is a silver mine ( as there is no records on this mine ) .
Have some assay tests done to determine what is in the different grades of the ore.
@@ChrisRalph , 12 oz silver pt , .50 gold pt .... Have just recently discovered electrum , was a nugget about size of end of pinky , Was too light colored to be gold so I smashed it to test it lol was a mistake so I smashed it down but also broke apart as it was from crystalline electrum as I later discovered with microscope . With research I discovered that there was electrum found in my mining district,( not Colorado ) . One of two spots found in Oregon .
@@americanadventureoutdoors4213 I would suggest that you drill a hole from inside the mine [assuming you have the right tools available to you to drill such a hole] and see if it fills with water.
If there is not water flowing out of the mine on its own, any water that comes up into your hole will [usually] stop at the natural water table by the laws of hydrodynamics.
If, however, water is dripping down the walls or from the roof ['back' ] of the mine, then the water table is higher than the mine, and means that you are likely in the rich spot where the minerals are most concentrated.
BUNNY LUCK to you on your mine!
/)/)
( 'ˬ')
@(>_ )-b
\) \)
@@DeliciousDeBlair . Well part of the problem is there is a creek coming down the mnt on the side of said portal . The shaft runs close to it or right under it . We are geting water in the mine year round . I’m certain they were headed towards and under a breccia zone , but never made it . The gold in the district was found down to about 200 ta 300 feet , after that in the sulfide zone .
Where do you have the info on why lead is not given to the average man? I am interested in the information as to why it is restricted. There must be a financial reason behind it.
You can still buy lead bullets. Lead has been replaced in many items because it is toxic and left leaning persons in the mommy state government think you would endanger yourself if you could get lead easily.
Very interesting normally I would be interested in these videos but my grandpa and great grandpa were miners in the Mohave desert were they had a claim. Ice found some of my grandpas specimens that are so cool to look and are also very heavy but I don't know what it is, I also found a grey bar that was poured which is very heavy but to hard to be lead I think. Is it possible for me to email you pictures of what I've found? Maybe you can help me identify the items. Thanks in advance
Glad you enjoyed the video, but I do not offer a service to identify stuff - its way harder than you think. Take a look at my video on how to identify minerals and learn more about it. See: ua-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/v-deo.html
Are the Lead minerals safe to hold in your hand?
You should wash you hands after handling them.
😮🤔 So I had some rocks chilling in some Peracetic Acid, ( 6% White Vinegar, and 3% peroxide)
Combined in old plastic 1 lb coffee container. At some point the liquid started to evaporate, and eventually evaporating 100% totally.
So now my stones have grown a thick ( 1"-2")) )in coat of white salty Crystal looking lattice structure coating the entire surface of the stones. What could it be.
Since you started with "some rocks" - and I have no idea what those rocks might be - I have no idea whatsoever of what you have now.
Hi sir , how much percent of silver on ore silver rock ?
Some has much gold, but others have very little. some are in between. Not all ores have the same silver.
@@ChrisRalph inshallah i will try and see how much the percentage, thanks 🌹🌹
Thank sir
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Chris I know you are not a lawyer but maybe you can do a video on gold prospecting/mining laws in general for Cal. Az. And Nevada, so us small time prospectors don’t run afoul of?
Laws vary from place to place and what a prospector might want to do varies so really tough to do because of so many possibilities. And as you said, I am not a lawyer.,
'''''' THANKS,,,,,,,,,,!
Glad it was helpful!
I thank you for all your hard work and the fact that you love your job ( which means you never really work when it’s something you love doing and the fact that you also love to share your knowledge. I’m a big rock hound and I love what God has created and it’s sad that it’s passed off as just a rock . The formations in designs and colors which could only be created by God is shared with us all if we just take the time to look at it and we could enjoy each beauty Jimmy times this past but I never pass is my eyes I’m picking locks up every single day my house is filled with the problem is is I don’t think enough time to find out what I have Because I’m always inundated with something but I thank you for your time and all that you’ve shared I hope that I get to hook up with you and maybe send you some pictures of what I have maybe you can tell me what I got maybe they might even be worth something so one day I can love the work and share like you do , , have a good day have a good night and I thank you for Share
Thanks for the kind words.
Chris you have said that California has lots of gold but the California government will make sure it is not mined. Could you please expand on that? Is it a environmental factor or is it something else?
I am talking about large scale mining which your state government opposes because of its very left wing bent.
Do you have a Facebook page? somewhere I can send you some picture, of some of the stuff I have found. Maybe you can ID some of it.
I am sorry my friend, but I get so many requests every day for personal help, training, photo evaluation, etc. that I cannot fulfill all the requests. I have many, many commitments of my own that demand my time.
I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.
Chris
Hello friend, I hope you are well.
I'm curious:
Here in Brazil, every finding that is considered historic by law belongs to the government. There are cases of people who are unaware of the Law, publish their findings and the Government hijacks the findings, without paying any gratuity to the detectorist, who still runs the risk of being arrested if he sells what he finds. How is the Law there? What did you find is it yours? Can you trade freely or keep it in your possession?
In the US, most archeological finds belong to the government if found on government land. However this channel is about mineral finds, not really about treasure hunting. Mineral finds belong to the finder.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you!
Can we invite U to Indonesia? As prospector?
I appreciate your interest, but I do not offer any services for personal training, consulting or advisement. I get many such requests and simply do not have time to help all who ask. I do wish you the best of luck, but I am sorry that I cannot offer any help on that level.
I found a large rock heavy at quartz site ar behind loves trk stop it has crystal and black veins running through as well as black spots I think it could be lead silver ore but not sure any suggestions as for location I found it
No idea of what it might be - there are hundreds of heavy minerals. Lots of iron ores are black.
@@ChrisRalph I will have all checked if I find a place that can do that for me in Missouri where I live
I found some rocks that alarm my detector. I t looked like gelena. I heated it and it popped. It then left a smell like sulfuric acid
Galena is lead sulfide, when you heated it you got a sulfur smell from the sulfur in the mineral.
@@ChrisRalph thanks for responding. I got your book by the way. I’m enjoying it.
i prospect for gold i find more lead lol good video
That is frequently the case! The recycling video I did on lead was mostly lead I collected while prospecting, including metal detecting.
3:04 "but I kind of disgusted how a lot of politicians somehow think that the average man shouldn't have lead whether it's in the form of a diving weight or a wheel weight or a bullet."
Oh, wait until you learn that you can turn lead into silver using household items. hahahaha
4.
@@ChrisRalph By the way, have you ever discovered any copper traces in galena?
Copper is impossible to find in lead because (as far as I know) it changes into silver and gold.
Lead available here in Pakistan
interesting.
I had almost lead poisoning as a kid. Despite that i didn't know. After finding it out i still felt great. My skin has bad reactions to metals anymore. Except for silver. And iron i guess. Haha. Or id be dead from my blood :) can't wear it though. Even surgical steel. Haven't tried platinum. Too expensive to find for me. You think my skin would react bad to it too? I don't want to bother looking for it still if you think it would. Tried gold. Made me itch. Im weird. I would just stick with silver but kind of tired of the way it tarnishes all the time. And having all silver would make me a target to thief's as well as make my bank account non-existent. 😂🥴
I have no idea about platinum and how it might affect you. And platinum is much more expensive that silver.
I'm supost to be training for work but you do to good of a job teaching LOL HAHAHAHAHA I quit I'm going Prospecting. Make your own movie and be the star.
Best of luck to you in your prospecting.
Is gold in sand stone in N Y state? ✡️✝️✝️🔭🥰🌈🐦
Sorry, no.
Hello
Greetings.
#👽✌️
Glad you liked it.
@@ChrisRalph 🙏💕ขอบคุณครับ
going down to chihuahua boys
Best of luck to you.
I will be deleting my youtube account due to their censorship. Please post your content to rumble. Sincerely, Tim Dybala.
When I can make the same money on Rumble, I will.
@@ChrisRalph I get that. Maybe you could have both youtube and rumble
Sir can I get ur no
My friend, I only speak English and it appears you do not.
Sir we have variety of stones in our area but I have no experience of identifying then whether they are gold ore or not. Sir would you assist me in. And if you have time than I will send you these stones to you. Please send me your wattsapp nmber
Please watch my videos on how to identify minerals. I do not offer a mineral ID service.