I bought your book a couple of years ago. Only saw your videos today. For those wondering, it is an amazing book that covers all essentials when it comes to prospecting and equipment. A true gem on the bookshelf which is beaten and dog-eared. While the video may be long in tooth, this guy knows his stuff. If I were to recommend a reference guide to geology, panning, sluicing, detecting and everthing in between, it would be Fists Full of Gold! Thank you sir!
Thank you Chris. You have reinforced my idea being correct on how to clean my black sands, by classifying down for easier panning and I made a cleaning machine vs my blue bowl.
@@ChrisRalph if I may I have a question do you offer any teaching out in the field, I ask because I'm moving to Arizona my son lives in Florence and I also follow Jeff Williams he referred me to your channel and I would like to learn first hand how to pan and really survey the land by eye and learn how to figure things out
Thanks for all your dedication to teaching us your skills Mr R. I am challenged in staying engaged with reading these days but am happy to be subscribed to your channel.
I'm curious as to why you use water when screening. I've not seen this metthod before and am wondering if it has benefits over dry screening. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!!
Very fine gold can stick to small rocks and pebbles with clay. With dry screening, that gold just gets tossed out. Its been tested and proven that wet screening get better recovery, especially with very fine gold.
No, no, no I was trying to say that after the precipitation of aqua regia, you get a black dust. That black dust is gold right? Similarly there are some black gold ores with very high grade (1500g/t)
I have gneiss ore with very fine silver, electrum, gold, flakes of a white metal and supervise black sand with a slight blue tint. How do I seperate and figure out what is what?
informative video,i have land where i took blacksand sample to professional chemical assay co...it was determined to contain 7/10 oz of gold per ton...they said it was purer than gold exported from south africa . no running water on land yet so blue bowl mite not be my best option?
Great video Chris! I'm new to prospecting and I'm trying to devour all the information I can on gold so it's always a treat when one of your videos pop up in my feed. I recently staked a placer claim on a creek that has historic gold production using hand and hydraulic mining, it's in mountain valley that was occupied by a glacier. I'd love to see a video building on some of your, and Jim Halloran's ICMJ articles about prospecting glacial deposits, buried paleo channels, lateral moraines, etc. Also, a suggestion on sharing links, it might be easier to mention them in the video and then direct the viewer to look for them in the description below, it should simplify post processing. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I will do something on glacial moraines, paleo channels, etc. But I want to get out and film actually in the areas where there are the moraines and channels. So it will need to wait to next year when those places are not all buried in snow as they are now. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
I suggest checking out Dan Hurd's channel if you havent already. If you look back at his videos over the years, he has a ton of how-to series on cleaning up material, testing equipment out, etc. Great way to get some base knowledge on gold prospecting and processing.
Great video. Do you always prefer the blue bowl over a Miller table? Also, would like to see you do a video on pulling gold out of sulfides. Ive got some crushed quartz and rock, that I've been told the gold is held in the sulfides. Your book is great, by the way.
I absolutely plan a book on extracting gold from sulfides, I even had sulfides set aside, but it will likely be in 2020 when the weather warms. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Yes they form separately. The gold mostly comes from quartz veins. The black sand comes from weathering of rocks with no gold like granite. The debris from weathering comes down into streams and rivers. The heavy black sand catches in some of the same places as the gold in the rivers because both are heavier than average.
Hi Chris, I'm enjoying your videos and have a request, or maybe you've already shared the secret in another video, but Could you explain how money is actually obtained by getting your gold to the market? Some things I've always wondered about: How is the quality and purity of your gold determined? I'm assuming one wouldn't expect to be buying 100% gold. And even then, how are different batches from different deposits priced? Again, I'm assuming that some gold from some deposits will still have at least some bits of lead or other heavy metals attached or surrounding the pieces. I've seen on other videos where sometimes the gold is attached to quarts, pyrite etc. I also see where some shops like to sell nuggets in their natural form, and wondering how would they be priced differently? Any insight into the money exchange process would be gladly taken. For what it's worth too, I don't mine the long videos watching the panning process right till the end. I've never found even a spec, but have always found the challenge of finding/recovering gold to be addictive. Thanks for helping to feed that monkey on my back :) Love your content!
Great video. Learned alot. Looking forward to seeing mire videos. How are you getting the concentrate you bring home? I am in the position to where I cannot spend alit of time in the field as I have a weekday job. That means I can only go prospecting on long weekends. Right now, i am panning as I go which takes to much time. I would like to be able to get the concentrate and do the panning at my liesure.
professor Chris Ralph i would like to ask question i crashed my black rock into black dust then i added acid in the morning when i checked it turned into green sand mixed with green crystals what does that mean. thanks i watched most of your videos it helped me alot
chris you have all the right tools you just are useing them poorly put your panned gold and blacksand in a large gold pan then put your strong magnet in a small gold pan put some water in the large pan with the gold and sand mixture place the small pan on top of the water shake gently and lift the small pan out completely free of gold and all the blacksand can be put over a bucket then take out the strong magnet clean and dry all done
I just dug some black sand at an ocean beach. It was compacted with just an inch or so of regular loose on top. I'll have to go back with a pickax to get deeper if it isn't already sanded in.
Nice video. Only important info missing is, how long did all these steps take? How long to classify? How long to pan larger fractions? How long to Blue Bowl smaller fractions? How long to remove magnetics? How long total time to recover roughly $150 in gold? Also, definitely need a 100 mesh screen for Blue Bowl.
If I was not video taping all this and trying to make a demonstration, probably could have done the whole thing in about 20 minutes. Still, this is why its normal to save up cons and work them all at once rather than doing 20 little batches that each take 20 minutes or so.
Very good instructional video and information, quite detailed in the process. Newer subscriber to your channel, actually I do have a question, being that I live where gold isn't profitable in my state or even common much, I decided to soon build a rock crusher and just buy ore, so I have bought ore but the problem is I can't see any gold with a ten X loupe in the ores, question would be am I making a mistake buying ore that has no visible gold? Thanks. Edit just bought your book that should be more than interesting.
@@ChrisRalph I am now watching your video titled . Secrets of Rich Silver and Gold Bonanza Ores - Epithermal gold & silver vein geology - Virginia City and This video shows gold ore from different places and what to look for, yeah the tens of several boxes of ore I have bought may not be all that good compared to the pictures I am now viewing.
Thanks Chris I believe I found gold that needs to be chemically brought out of the rock I live in Idaho is their a company you could recommend and could you tell me about the process or make a video on this getting samples tested? Thanks Chiris I did get your book off amazon I will get around to reading thanks!!!
I use ALS geochemistry to do my samples. You can find them with Google and mail the samples to them. Commercially, the mines use cyanide to extract the gold but I will do a couple videos next year on how to extract the gold and silver chemically without cyanide. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for all the knowledge you share...it is very useful and appreciated Do you use jet dry in your clean-outs I was glad to see in the blue bowl demo that you put some healthy scoops of black sand , a lot of others show scooping out by the spoonful and it is nice to see it is a personal choice and it can be done your way. Thanks again
Great Video from a creative teacher ... I have a lot of quartz and I always get a black ore please help me professor... I'm from Algeria, and I have a lot of things I want to see you for
21:30 I really can't believe you have not once, but *_TWICE_* stuck your fingers into the bowl. Is that suddenly okay to do? Are your hands magically oil-free? I also can't believe nobody else has so far called you on it. Also, for finer water control, replace the ball valve (1/4 turn full open to full close) with a gate valve (3 full turns open to close).
@@ChrisRalph Not according to literally *_EVERY OTHER VIDEO_* on gold collecting I've seen. Show me *_ONE_* other video where the person either sticks his fingers in their water, or said it's okay. I'll wait.
Good stuff my starter pan kit arrives Thursday & I’m pumped
Good luck!
I bought your book a couple of years ago. Only saw your videos today. For those wondering, it is an amazing book that covers all essentials when it comes to prospecting and equipment. A true gem on the bookshelf which is beaten and dog-eared. While the video may be long in tooth, this guy knows his stuff. If I were to recommend a reference guide to geology, panning, sluicing, detecting and everthing in between, it would be Fists Full of Gold! Thank you sir!
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed both the book and the video.
Thank you Chris. You have reinforced my idea being correct on how to clean my black sands, by classifying down for easier panning and I made a cleaning machine vs my blue bowl.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
P
P
Pp
P
Chris, You are the master at creating new content ! Well done man !
Thanks, You know I mention you in the video I did after that one. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Awesome, Chris! Thanks for sharing your process, this looks like a relaxing and enjoyable way to process black sand.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
@@ChrisRalph I love all your videos, Chris. Thank you!
Great video as always, have you seen the silicone mat that Alan Robertson has made for the blue bowl ? It's crazy how gold sticks to silicone!!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Excellent teaching Chris love your channel
Glad you enjoyed the video.
@@ChrisRalph if I may I have a question do you offer any teaching out in the field, I ask because I'm moving to Arizona my son lives in Florence and I also follow Jeff Williams he referred me to your channel and I would like to learn first hand how to pan and really survey the land by eye and learn how to figure things out
Thanks for all your dedication to teaching us your skills Mr R. I am challenged in staying engaged with reading these days but am happy to be subscribed to your channel.
I am in northern central BC, would love to hear if you've traveled our beautiful province :)
I have been to Victoria on vacation, but not for prospecting.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
I'm curious as to why you use water when screening. I've not seen this metthod before and am wondering if it has benefits over dry screening. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!!
Very fine gold can stick to small rocks and pebbles with clay. With dry screening, that gold just gets tossed out. Its been tested and proven that wet screening get better recovery, especially with very fine gold.
can you please make a video about atomic gold which does not reflect light and so black?
I did a video on monoatomic gold. Its fraud and not gold. Check out my video at: ua-cam.com/video/321qwfY8pHo/v-deo.html
No, no, no I was trying to say that after the precipitation of aqua regia, you get a black dust. That black dust is gold right? Similarly there are some black gold ores with very high grade (1500g/t)
I have gneiss ore with very fine silver, electrum, gold, flakes of a white metal and supervise black sand with a slight blue tint. How do I seperate and figure out what is what?
get an assay test to tell you exactly what you have.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks, how do I find a trustworthy assayer?
informative video,i have land where i took blacksand sample to professional chemical assay co...it was determined to contain 7/10 oz of gold per ton...they said it was purer than gold exported from south africa . no running water on land yet so blue bowl mite not be my best option?
Perhaps.. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for the lesson it helps in repetition to really learn anything in life.Great job Chris.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Great video Chris! I'm new to prospecting and I'm trying to devour all the information I can on gold so it's always a treat when one of your videos pop up in my feed. I recently staked a placer claim on a creek that has historic gold production using hand and hydraulic mining, it's in mountain valley that was occupied by a glacier. I'd love to see a video building on some of your, and Jim Halloran's ICMJ articles about prospecting glacial deposits, buried paleo channels, lateral moraines, etc. Also, a suggestion on sharing links, it might be easier to mention them in the video and then direct the viewer to look for them in the description below, it should simplify post processing. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I will do something on glacial moraines, paleo channels, etc. But I want to get out and film actually in the areas where there are the moraines and channels. So it will need to wait to next year when those places are not all buried in snow as they are now. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
I suggest checking out Dan Hurd's channel if you havent already. If you look back at his videos over the years, he has a ton of how-to series on cleaning up material, testing equipment out, etc. Great way to get some base knowledge on gold prospecting and processing.
Great video. Do you always prefer the blue bowl over a Miller table?
Also, would like to see you do a video on pulling gold out of sulfides. Ive got some crushed quartz and rock, that I've been told the gold is held in the sulfides.
Your book is great, by the way.
I absolutely plan a book on extracting gold from sulfides, I even had sulfides set aside, but it will likely be in 2020 when the weather warms. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks Chris, Some of us can't afford shaker tables, so I hope your method is for the average guy.
would it be worth grinding the larger black sand grains into something finer and then blue bowling them?
99.9 percent of the time that would not be worthwhile.
@@ChrisRalph Oh, OK. Does that mean the black sand is created separately from the gold ore and then is brought together by weathering and erosion?
Yes they form separately. The gold mostly comes from quartz veins. The black sand comes from weathering of rocks with no gold like granite. The debris from weathering comes down into streams and rivers. The heavy black sand catches in some of the same places as the gold in the rivers because both are heavier than average.
@@ChrisRalph OK so point doing this when gold panning, but maybe when mining quartz veins.
Hi Chris, I'm enjoying your videos and have a request, or maybe you've already shared the secret in another video, but Could you explain how money is actually obtained by getting your gold to the market? Some things I've always wondered about: How is the quality and purity of your gold determined? I'm assuming one wouldn't expect to be buying 100% gold. And even then, how are different batches from different deposits priced? Again, I'm assuming that some gold from some deposits will still have at least some bits of lead or other heavy metals attached or surrounding the pieces. I've seen on other videos where sometimes the gold is attached to quarts, pyrite etc. I also see where some shops like to sell nuggets in their natural form, and wondering how would they be priced differently? Any insight into the money exchange process would be gladly taken.
For what it's worth too, I don't mine the long videos watching the panning process right till the end. I've never found even a spec, but have always found the challenge of finding/recovering gold to be addictive. Thanks for helping to feed that monkey on my back :) Love your content!
I sell to a refiner and the test purity before they pay you. That way they know the purity.
Great video. Learned alot. Looking forward to seeing mire videos. How are you getting the concentrate you bring home? I am in the position to where I cannot spend alit of time in the field as I have a weekday job. That means I can only go prospecting on long weekends. Right now, i am panning as I go which takes to much time. I would like to be able to get the concentrate and do the panning at my liesure.
Maybe look at getting a high banker / power sluice to let you process more material. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Very interesting and very informative, too. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
professor Chris Ralph i would like to ask question i crashed my black rock into black dust then i added acid in the morning when i checked it turned into green sand mixed with green crystals what does that mean. thanks i watched most of your videos it helped me alot
There are hundreds of kinds of black rocks. God only knows what one is yours, as you have not told me.
farah musa
Like Chris said, no way to tell for sure, but green usually means copper.
Do you own a smelter? Why don’t you decide to smelt the concentrates into a collector metal?
Black sands don't smelt well, so this is only done for the final most concentrated version.
chris you have all the right tools you just are useing them poorly put your panned gold and blacksand in a large gold pan then put your strong magnet in a small gold pan put some water in the large pan with the gold and sand mixture place the small pan on top of the water shake gently and lift the small pan out completely free of gold and all the blacksand can be put over a bucket then take out the strong magnet clean and dry all done
Except you do not know what you are talking about.
I just dug some black sand at an ocean beach. It was compacted with just an inch or so of regular loose on top. I'll have to go back with a pickax to get deeper if it isn't already sanded in.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
How to turn pure black sand into pure gold
Thanks Chris, I have a blue bowl and use the same process except I also screen to 100 mesh and run it......
I'll have to pick up a 100 mesh screen for myself and try that. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Which rock the black sand coming from
The back sand comes from any types of rocks, including metamorphic rocks like schist and igneous rocks like granite.
I have a good stone which is somehow turned into black stone ..
Any idea how to fix it ..
Dont lnow what the stone is so hard to say.....
Nice video. Only important info missing is, how long did all these steps take? How long to classify? How long to pan larger fractions? How long to Blue Bowl smaller fractions? How long to remove magnetics? How long total time to recover roughly $150 in gold?
Also, definitely need a 100 mesh screen for Blue Bowl.
If I was not video taping all this and trying to make a demonstration, probably could have done the whole thing in about 20 minutes. Still, this is why its normal to save up cons and work them all at once rather than doing 20 little batches that each take 20 minutes or so.
Very good instructional video and information, quite detailed in the process.
Newer subscriber to your channel, actually I do have a question, being that I live where gold isn't profitable in my state or even common much, I decided to soon build a rock crusher and just buy ore, so I have bought ore but the problem is I can't see any gold with a ten X loupe in the ores, question would be am I making a mistake buying ore that has no visible gold?
Thanks. Edit just bought your book that should be more than interesting.
I think so. Some gold is so small it can only be extracted chemically by leaching.
@@ChrisRalph I am now watching your video titled . Secrets of Rich Silver and Gold Bonanza Ores - Epithermal gold & silver vein geology - Virginia City and This video shows gold ore from different places and what to look for, yeah the tens of several boxes of ore I have bought may not be all that good compared to the pictures I am now viewing.
Thanks for the information good video
Glad to hear that it was helpful.
I bought a magnet inside a cylinder that rotates polarities its called “spin it off”. Works great for black sands
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Jacob Hopkins
Spin It Off is a great tool. I use both the big and small tools in different steps along the way.
If you collect it's the black sand, with magmatic, how it will turn into gold
Thanks Chris I believe I found gold that needs to be chemically brought out of the rock I live in Idaho is their a company you could recommend and could you tell me about the process or make a video on this getting samples tested? Thanks Chiris I did get your book off amazon I will get around to reading thanks!!!
I use ALS geochemistry to do my samples. You can find them with Google and mail the samples to them. Commercially, the mines use cyanide to extract the gold but I will do a couple videos next year on how to extract the gold and silver chemically without cyanide. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
iron pyrites (fools gold ) is magnetic , wouldnt be too concerned about gold that sticks to a magnet
Sorry, Iron pyrites are not magnetic.
@@ChrisRalph really? was of the understanding they were , being ferrous sulphide
i love this video 👍👍
I'm glad you like it
thankyou sir
been saving my black sands for this, thanks bud.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
The video actually starts at 4:10
But it was really helpful
Some people want the extra information.
Do you use jet dry or shampoo?
Jet dry.
Very helpful video sir thank you very much.
Most welcome
great vid again really like your vids, cant afford your book but your vid help thank you
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for all the knowledge you share...it is very useful and appreciated
Do you use jet dry in your clean-outs
I was glad to see in the blue bowl demo that you put some healthy scoops of black sand , a lot of others show scooping out by the spoonful and it is nice to see it is a personal choice and it can be done your way.
Thanks again
I am still only adding about a cup at a time, but that is is better than a teaspoon full. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Great Video from a creative teacher ... I have a lot of quartz and I always get a black ore please help me professor... I'm from Algeria, and I have a lot of things I want to see you for
Sorry, I get so many, many requests for personal help from allover the world.
Thank you very much dear teacher
thank you nice information
thank you.
21:30 I really can't believe you have not once, but *_TWICE_* stuck your fingers into the bowl. Is that suddenly okay to do? Are your hands magically oil-free?
I also can't believe nobody else has so far called you on it.
Also, for finer water control, replace the ball valve (1/4 turn full open to full close) with a gate valve (3 full turns open to close).
Because you are way over fixated on the tiny trace of oil on my hands.
@@ChrisRalph
Not according to literally *_EVERY OTHER VIDEO_* on gold collecting I've seen. Show me *_ONE_* other video where the person either sticks his fingers in their water, or said it's okay. I'll wait.
i found this helpful,,,
thanks!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
NIce! Thanks for sharing.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Black sand is GOLD? I WANT SOME!
Watch the video before you comment.
You keep saying " you can see " but almost never show - WE CAN'T SEE ?
In English the word "see" can also mean to understand. Do you see how this can be so?
👍👍👍
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Blue bowl, Kung Fu style 😄
Very good. Glad you enjoyed it.
🎱
OK.
😂
1st 🙋
You win First!
@@ChrisRalph 😁🎉
put it in a sandwich bag, your magnetic
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.