How to recognize valuable metal ores - You could make a rich discovery in a pretty rock you found
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2023
- Would you be able to recognize it if you stumbled onto a rich ore deposit?
We all know gold, platinum and silver are valuable, but what about the ores of those and other metals as well? What about Lithium, Uranium, rare earths, and others? Those can be very valuable too. How would you know? You don’t want to walk away or ignore something that could bring you great wealth, right? This video will introduce you a wide variety of different but valuable metal ores for lots of kinds of metals.
For those who want to learn more about Prospecting and finding gold check out my book, Fists full of Gold. It’s an encyclopedia of everything on the topic of prospecting. It’s available on from High Plans Prospectors. (Affiliate) You can find it at:
highplainsprospectors.com/pro...
For even more information on prospecting, minerals, gems and other related information you can also check out my website at:
nevada-outback-gems.com/prospe... 
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Your subscription has been a valuable tool in my rock wanderings. This video is a good one and an important thing it taught me is to find a friendship with someone that knows and teach his/her stuff.
Just ordered your book, by the way. Prospecting season is coming up soon in Arizona. And beyond.
Best of luck for your AZ prospecting!
Wow! This was extremely informative! Well done. The presentation was easy to understand and well delivered. Thank You
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video !!!
This is information everyone needs to know.
I feel like you could preface this with a concerted push to get people outside !!!
Get involved with the world, hike the mountains near you, explore the streams and river, get out and look for these things.
There is never going to be a big sign that pops up and says "hey, dig ore 👇"...
Get out there folks !!! A unproductive day hunting ore, is more productive than sitting home thinking about ore !
Ain't that the truth!
Wow! I'm keeping my eye's open when out and about...Thanks Chris, for your video on this subject. I'll check out the other vid's on this stuff.
Glad you liked it.
I look for fossils and come across so many rocks I can't I.D. I'm allergic to a lot of different metals so if I pick up a rock and it feels like it's burning me or if I get kind of a shock up my arm, I know it can only be 3 or 4 different kinds of metals. I wear gloves when handling metals especially pure palladium, ouch! That pain doesn't go away for about 6 months. Thanks for sharing
Interesting.
I really enjoy your videos, they really helped me in educating myself on minerals and rocks. I wish I had chose to become a geologist when I was younger, but I have an enormous infinity for rocks. I live in Colorado just outside of a huge archeological district in El Paso County, and I spend all my time rockhounding and learning. Thanks to you and many other RUclips content providers, I consider my self vastly educated on rocks and minerals as well as skills in lapidary work. I appreciate your time and knowledge and I thank you much! 💜
Thank you and glad to hear you enjoy the videos.
Great video again, Definitely great you passing on your knowledge.
Glad you enjoyed it
I can’t believe just how much gold ore I’ve held and never even knew. So much silica and quartz stained with iron I’ve passed by. Thank you
Glad it was helpful for you.
Safi sana, Mzee. 😊
Thanks alot for the Great class. Its very important for us to understand, though we can read but we cannot summerise the way you dit it. I enjoy this from Tanzania, a country rich natural resources. Be blessed!!!
Tanzania is very rich is both gold and gem minerals.
certainly, you are very right!!! To be honest, I am on the same Professional as well and currently working on ways exporting Lithium ore, Iron ore, Nickel ore, Coal, Graphite, Dolomite, Copper ore and the like. @@ChrisRalph
I know you from ICMJ though we have never met. You are very knowledgeable in minerals, not just gold, after I catch up on your videos I am sure I'll be in touch. Good job Chris, you are a national treasure of information when it comes to minerals and mining. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed the video and I look forward to hearing about your prospecting adventures.
@@ChrisRalphhello Chris maybe you can help me find a Palladium and uranium buyer..?
Great video, Chris,
I look all the time for good ores.
I hope you find some good ones.
Chris, I love your videos. You are so knowledgeable and when you say you want us to find fists full of gold, it really sounds like you mean that. I'm planning to buy your book when I get back into rockhounding again. (Just ordered my metal detector, I'm ramping up for rock hunting season...)
Thanks for making engaging, educational videos. Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Glad you are enjoying them.
Great information, thanks again Chris!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Well done I enjoyed the pictures of the Gold ores !!!!!!
Thanks. I was up in the Hydro pits today.
@@ChrisRalph nice good luck
its shocking how good you are at creating such comprehensive nuggets of knowledge. thank you so much! im hooked.
Wow, thank you!
I know that the course of Lynx Creek AZ has changed many times. I have 2 claims on Lynx and am going to ignore the Creek and focus on flood events. This past year I believe may have been a 20 year event and the creek really rocked as you could hear boulders colliding. Imagine a 100 or 1000 year, or even greater event. I know a few people who have found eye opening gold 30 p[us feet above the creek in blocks of bedrock that required challenging extraction. The majority of gold looked well traveled. I myself have found the same. I know the creek bedrock still holds significant gold. Regardless I am going to go outside the norm. I am also aware that plenty of gold is still traveling down from above hillsides. I have picked a few areas that appear to be old flood deposits, When I dig down 4 feet or so I find deposited boulders sometime atop bedrock. It is in these areas I have found the best gold. A good amount of fines as well. I know you know the area well. Thanks for any input.
There is lots of gold along Lynx Creek in AZ, and there are benches of old gravel up above the current stream.
Hi
I am from Tunisia and i say thank you so much for the informations you teach in your Channel
You are so welcome!
@@ChrisRalph hi
Am from Tunisia and am poor young boy
Mr chris i cant buy your book coz for me its so expensive but i saw it in Amazon and it looks good and i know its valuable
I will work hard to earn its price and will buy it next year cause i know it will help me in identify rocks
Thanks again Mr chris for all what u do to help young people to know about rocks and geology
With all my respect and love
Salah from Tunisia
Great video; thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it
A walk in the field video gives the better lessons you have good impact on the audience again thank tou
Please look at my past videos - I have a number of me out in the field - but this time of year there is snow and mud and rain - The outdoor videos are shot when the weather is a little better.
THANKS FOR SHARING. I LOVE COLLECTING ROCKS.
You and me both!
Great video! I live near the motherload belt in california and recently went out prospecting, i got some samples to put though my sluice box at home bit i did find some quartz float, as well as serpentine and some green rock, so i am a bit excited to go through the soil i collected c:
Sounds great!
Your the man Chris I enjoy your videos beings I'm a prospector all my life now 61 still looking at every rock I see...
Hey you are a few years younger than me, so get out and enjoy the wilds.
Thank you, I have a lot of ore from idaho and nevada just wasn't sure what it was and this helps alot.
Great to hear that the video was helpful for you!
Thanks for sharing your wisdom!
Glad it was helpful!
Hey Chris I'm in central Texas, and I've metal detected on limestone in my area. Get a ring from my metal detector, start digging only to find a rust vein in the limestone. The Spanish had gold mines under our limestone here in Central Texas, but no one knows where they are, just a general area.
You know that detectors can sound off on natural iron rich minerals. That's what hot rocks are. They are not iron metal, but just minerals that contain more iron than is typical.
Thank you sir
CANT BELIEVE YOU GUYS STOOPED TO THAT LEVEL !
Nice having company down here...
I'm stooping to the top.
Nearing retirement and hoping to expand my geology/fossil hobbies. These classes help and ill check out your book.
Night shift worker and only check out your Saturday later.
Sorry I don’t have any good questions...yet 👍
If you think of good a question, I'll still be here. Best of luck to you in your retirement.
@ChrisRalph Thank you in advance, kind Sir
Putting the book on my wish list. Looks like a gold mind of info.
The folks who have purchased it have been very happy with the book.
THIS!! Thank you for making this. I found the most beautiful copper ore and now need to know what is a worthy specimen and what is leaverite.
Glad this video was helpful!
I just want to send few of my stones that i discovered.it's mountain and i know where i can find all those.
Very alsome vidio glad you made this 1 I'm a prospector plus rock collector. Thanks for sharing another great vidio
Glad you enjoyed it.
Great video I have learned a lot following along
Weres a good place to send off samples to get tested for purity?
I use ALS geochemisty lab in Reno, Nevada. They offer a variety of tests and you can find their contact info and further information about them using Google.
Thank you for the informative content.
Glad it was helpful!
Great explanation thank you sir
Glad you liked it
You are the coolest guy ever. I found a Geode with cool crystals after taking some of your tips.
Awesome! Thank you! Glad I could help you to some success.
Gracias sir por su excelente forma de explicar para nosotros que somos aficionados a estos temas. Desde mexico
I am glad that you enjoyed it.
The answer to your intro question: nope. I sure wouldn’t! 😂 Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! ✌🏼
glad the information was helpful.
Chris I ran into your channel I have gold fever, but Florida doesnt have appreciable amounts of gold.😭😭😭
Finances do not allow me to go search for gold. But there are miles and miles of beaches.
And after years of watching videos of people running sluices or panning you always hear about black sand. Magnetite or Hematite is often a percentage of those black sands. Both have a specific gravity of between 5 and 6 ( varies due to composition).
So a sluice will catch those nearly 1/4 the weight of gold.
What could I expect to catch if I ran a sluice at the beach ( maybe a drop riffle for finer gold although that isnt the target). I do not know if anyone has ever tried it. I have panned beach sand and yes there is magnetite and hematite ( Hematite is weakly magnetic until roasted) yet the heavies that were left I had no way of knowing what they were, and didnt have the resources to find out so I threw in the towel. But it has left me curious. Any clue what might be on the gulf floor? Kind of curious there are miles of water that have a sand bottom.
Black sand does not always have gold, in fact most times it does not. But if you run gold bearing gravel through a sluice, you almost always get some back sand. This is because black sand minerals like hematite or magnetite are super common. Gold is rare.
There is basically no naturally occurring gold in Florida. But there is loads of gold jewelry lost on beaches. Probably best to focus on that.
Thank you 👍🏻👍🏻
Great info and pictures of are good
You're welcome 😊
Rocks used for bed edging was remulching and resetting rocks to find a chunk of fools gold. Gemstones rose quartz
ok.
Thanks
No problem, Glad you enjoyed it!
I'm just happy I even have plain old iron.
MAYBE I have some copper, silver, zinc, lead, magnesium or even uranium [because uranium does exist in this locality, but not at any profitable level], but if I have a good, affordably extracted volume of pure iron, I'll be totally pleased.
Right now I am, for the first time ever, processing some iron ore.
If it pays well enough, I will do my best to expand into deeper shaft drives.
sounds interesting.
@@ChrisRalphWithin 20 miles of my farm are 153 small mines.
Mainly specialize in lead and zinc, but some silver, some copper, and some iron.
Traces of Cadmium have shown up here as well, which, in the opinions of some geologists is odd, as word is, it does not normally show up in these types of epithermal deposits.
I don't expect to find any Cadmium here though, simply because it is super rare.
@@ChrisRalphI will be publishing results on my iron ore refining over time.
Thanks from Australia
You're welcome
Thank you for all the information, I would like to know if the ores you spoke about in this video differ from region to region? I am in norther Ontario.
They differ some but are also very similar.
Excellent video.
Glad you liked it!
Very interesting.
Glad you think so!
Tanks mister
You are welcome.
i'm going to dig up my backyard right now!
Sounds interesting, let us know what happens.
Love it! Thanks!
You are so welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you good video id like to see you in the field
Look at my past videos - I have a number of me out in the field - but this time of year there is snow and mud and rain - The outdoor videos are shot when the weather is a little better.
Love the identification of minerals series, I do have a question what is considered a good ore for example I crushed a pound of ore and I got about 6. 60 mesh size flakes is that considered good or not worth the time, thank you
I would say that you should get 0.01 grams of gold out of each pound of test rock. 6 sixty mesh gold specs probably weigh less than 0.001 grams.
I have one kilo of silver lead ore and plan on getting more.
Luckily for me I have access to an area that has it laying on the hillside.
Last week I picked up a 500 gram specimen.
Hoping to better next week.
Sounds great. Best of luck to you.
Thank you Mr Ralph. I am going to Micigan Keewenaw for copper and maybe silver. Ready to buy a hand held detector and a detector good for copper. Any recommendations? Would like totAlcost for both below 1500$
I'm thinking that the Gold Monster with the large coil might be best.
God shows me .. I Believe I have found thee purest gold and one of thee biggest veins . I'm almost positive. The gold is so yellow
Think how much good you could do by selling your riches and then giving the money away to charity. Think of the needy people you could help. I don't think its being sacred, I think you are being greedy by with holding your riches when so many needy people could be helped.
The elementals guide me.
I had some 25k gold once in Nam
@ChrisRalph so do you sell all your gems and gold and donate to charity's that only give 3% of what you donate to what it's supposed to go to?
@@GoldenBoy-et6ofCompassion gets 80% of donations to the poor people.
Thx mate for this video…I really loved it being a complete rock hound here in Australia…do you think your book would be helpful for me to reference here in Australia ?
The land here is so different than the USA and not sure if I’d be looking for the same signs in rock formations
Thank you 🙏
Dazstone
Most of the book is on gold occurrences and apply all over the planet. That said, it is not a where to find gold book that is mostly full of maps. Its about gold and gold deposits more generally. I have sold loads of them in Australia and the buyers have been quite happy.
Thanks for this knowledge I’m from the valley in California where they use to mine how can I show you what I found?
I don't offer mineral ID services. I get loads of these types of requests.
I'm going to buy your book
It ranks very high on Amazon, I'm sure you will find it very helpful.
I found a Ironstone rock in Australia oxidized a little had 3 and a half grams of copper ore in it.
sounds great
Great video! Question: I read somewhere once that the Boise basin in central Idaho has more gold deposits than California ever did possibly note that Alaska as well but it’s difficult to get to and the Frank Church wilderness area is off limits. Is this true? I or exaggeration? Thank you
It's a pretty big exaggeration.
Hey. I keep finding what appears to be dendrite manganese. Can you teach us about those
It's a very common stain on many types of rocks. It just means that the rock contains at least small amounts of manganese.
Is it worth staking claim?
Thanks for the information, my question is why Florida doesn't have any gold. Cheers from Jacksonville Florida 🌞
Gold deposits are part of natural geologic forces, like mountain building. There are no mountains or volcanoes, or hot springs or that sort of thing in FL. Hence no geologic activity that could produce gold deposits. In the Midwest US, they don't have mountain ranges, but they have gold from gravels pushed down from Canada in glaciers. The glaciers did not reach FL.
@@ChrisRalphperhaps in the sands of Florida or in the rocky shores has heavy minerals have been deposited by wave action? Mothers earth suice box perhaps ? Top of the morning to you Chris!
I've found a rock in central Virginia that has a vein going almost all the way around it. It's almost an inch thick in some places. The vien is a bright red color, & it's magnificent. The rock weighs 7lbs & has other red spots on it as I clean the dirt off of it. It's the size of three fist. It's very interesting & I have been trying to figure out what it is.
Find someone knowledgeable who can look at it in person.
Sir plz if u share indicator of gold and platinium with us.or make a vedio about this❤
not as simple as you think.
Near my property out at Humboldt river ranch, i was metal detecting and a large rock set off the signal loudly, it looked like Ryolite so i broke a 0ive off and brought it hom and under my camera set 9n macro i can see it's loaded with gold.
sounds exciting.
Great video, very informative!
I have developed a special technique for separating the invisible precious pgm metals (ruthenium rhodium platinum palladium osmium iridium)
Using a nontoxic bioleach , the method is great for separating metals from sulfides!
I hope to make some tutorials soon
My favorite ore I purchase from georgia in sulfidic clay schists
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
I was curious I’ve always seen gold streaks in quarts rocks I find could it be real gold if so does that mean I can probably crush it into powder to collect the gold? Hoping to get an answer thank you!
Yes, you can crush it and separate the gold out of the powder if it is real gold. I did a video on that: See: ruclips.net/video/rJqFxu0Wko0/видео.html
But i appreciate your videos, thank you
Glad they are helpful!
Thank you Chris…I have a farm in Michigan where the farmer says he’s never seen a property with so many rocks every year… who would you recommend that I contact close to flint Michigan who could help me explore and analyze whether there are any valuable rocks? Thank you,
Curt
To be honest, I don't know anyone in Michigan.
Hi Chris im sure u know that there are gold sulfates u can boil in brine water,then acidify with HCl form a chloride, and use ferrous sulfate to recover gold
Which brine water? All brine waters of every ocean?
Distilled water and pure salt
My thoughts walking thru gravel pits began for gravel never thought of for ores
Good to keep ores in mind.
Dang Chris it's only Friday. Do we get another video tomorrow ? Keeping us on our toes. 😁
Tomorrow at the right time, I knew I would not be in reach of the internet, so I put it up today. No video tomorrow.
Ralph what about doverite from franklin NJ ?
It's a very rare yittrium mineral found in a few places, but nowhere is it plentiful enough to be an ore.
Is mining or metal reclamation more profitable as a whole?
I remember my company got into metal reclamation and we had to take a test - I absolutely failed when I called a form substance as "waste" only to find out it was a high value platinum. i also remember it was a volume business of taking A LOT of recycled metals to get small quantities of valuable metals. So when I see minimal ounces of gold vs what I know, just curious which is more valuable?
An unanswerable question - Is manufacturing or retailing more profitable?
@@ChrisRalph actually since I do both (manufacturing and retailing), it really depends on the distribution system in question. So point taken!
I wish you went over Kimberlite tubes in a little bit more in depth as deep as they are ....😊
I do go over them in depth in this video - ruclips.net/video/pcNXLtzOi7I/видео.html
in the nickle or silver ore any rhodium. gotta go look for the rhyolite. 3 pieces. quite large. ,cooling off soon. have a good day.
Cooling off very soon!
@@ChrisRalph out by barstow. no place to go by yourself. when its over 100. degrees. have a good day.
how do i clean up a specimen i picked up in the field. i know its some sort of metal by the weight of it it the size of a decent strawberry but weighs close to 500 grams. its orange red in colour leaning towards brown.
Not sure. There are many possible cleaning techniques and you need to choose the right one for your specimen.
Hey Chris, what is the name of the book?
Fists Full of Gold, but Chris Ralph, you can find it on Amazon.
Power lines use aluminum for transfer lines and a thin bare copper for grounding everyother pole
Transformers are copper and lower power lines are copper.
Can you do a video on tourquoise with maps and where you can find it? Don Los Angeles California
Its not something I'm likely to do soon.
i was looking thru a river with a metal detector and kept getting hits and it was black looking rocks like the one you said has silver i live in wisconsin is it possible i found silver?
Its possible but more likely you found iron rich rocks.
Hey Chris, I’m having a hard time finding information on how to sell ore and concentrates, it’s almost like it is hidden from the public, any advice you have on selling ore would be appreciated.
The problem is that the ores or cons almost never yield what the miner thinks it should. Then the Miner always thinks the buyer charges too much.
The answer is to take your ores all the way to Dore bullion. There are plenty of refiners who will purchase your impure bullion.
@@ChrisRalph thank you Chris, the Ore I’m working with is Molybdenite. Trying to find a smelter for that in the US seems nearly impossible.
You are right. Pretty much impossible. Besides what buyers exist for moly don't want a ton or a few hundred pounds. They want hundreds of tons on a regular basis - amounts no individual is going to supply. There are a few custom mills for gold....
Great video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
can I find gold nuggets and microscopic gold in any stream
another one... what is the color and appearance of microscopic gold
thank you very much sir
No - gold is rare. You can find gold in some streams, but even microscopic gold cannot be found everywhere. Microscopic gold, when magnified so you can see it, looks just like larger pieces of gold.
@@ChrisRalph
thank you very much sir
what about basalt stones... All kinds of them have deposites
No most basalt does not have gold in it. Gold is rare - that is why it is so expensive.
@@ChrisRalph
thank you very much 🙏 .. you are right
Does the book fist full of gold , explain the formation of Gold and other precious minerals in Africa(kenya),, according to the pictures they really look similar.
Geology of the earth is not different in Africa. The book talks about the geology of gold, but does not talk about the particular gold deposits of Kenya.
a little question . Have we given up on finding an efficient way to exploit the metal nodules on the bottom of the oceans? the technology is not mature enough or the expectations were too high and it is not profitable? I read that these nodules contain large amounts of magnesium, copper, nickel and other precious metals.
I know is offtopic , sorry ...
Expensive, so not economic, and and also subject to protests from environmentalist extremists.
@@ChrisRalph thank you ❤
What price is the book
Check on Amazon for a price in your country.
Iridium is it valuable? That mineral was discovered at the Wetumpka impact Crater...
Yes, it is valuable, but there are only tiny traces of it at the meteor crater. It would not be even anywhere near economic to extract it. Far cheaper just to buy from a normal mine producer.
I need you to come to my place I’m supposed to have some kind of minerals somebody tried to buy from my cousin late 40s early 50s
There are consultants, but they are not cheap. I do not offer that kind of service myself, I just have no time available. There are labs that can do an analysis, but you then provide the context of what the analysis means.
Can you talk about zinc deposits
perhaps one of these days.....
How much the value of the platinum ?
Price goes up and down every day. Check the internet.
How do you have one tested?
I like your show but I need more information and a little bit of advice on what to do next? And how do I look for someone I can trust and who can honestly tell me what i got and what its actually worth?
There are consultants, but they are not cheap. I do not offer that kind of service myself, I just have no time available. There are labs that can do an analysis, but you then provide the context of what the analysis means.
I/we have a rich silver deposit. But you can't option a silver mine in Canada, unless you give it away...
That does not make sense.
Mr. Chris, I found a small, slightly separated pocket of quartz vein. Its width ranged between 1 cm, but it contained a good percentage of gold, so I dug behind it a little and then it was finished. The question is do you think if I keep digging I will find another pocket? Then she noticed that her soil contained what looked like oils or fats. What is the explanation for this phenomenon?Mr. Chris, I found a small, slightly separated pocket of quartz vein. Its width ranged between 1 cm, but it contained a good percentage of gold, so I dug behind it a little and then it was finished. The question is do you think if I keep digging I will find another pocket? Then she noticed that her soil contained what looked like oils or fats. What is the explanation for this phenomenon?
one cannot know if a pocket will continue or not - it might continue, but it might not.
Chris the new white gold is Spodomene,its in the end lithium oxide, Look no further than Newry,Maine 1.5 billion dollar deposit , California is loaded with it.
Spodumene is a lithium Aluminum silicate. It can be a gemstone too. It take a lot of work to convert it to lithium oxide which sells for around $30 a pound. Lots less valuable than gold.
30,000 dollars a ton of spodomene
Did u know gold sulfate is in Quartz all u need is boiling brine, add HCl to form zinc chloride, the gold cements
I have 5 gold detectors original gold bug, small and standard coil, all of White's gold detectors especially the gmx, next is the good XRf spectrometer Olympus XRf
"ONYA CHRIS" ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO,DONT WORRY ABOUT THAT COMMENT WHERE THEY SAID IT RUNS TO LONG COZ THEY ARE JUST FINE
Thanks for the kind words.
We hawe a lot of different ore but the gowerment keep the hand for all.
different countries have different laws.
Hey guy do u ever visit Utah?
No, and I dont offer a mineral/gem/fossil ID service. Find someone local to help you.
I've found big raw diamonds. Around a water source.
Think how much good you could do by selling your riches and then giving the money away to charity. Think of the needy people you could help. I don't think its being sacred, I think you are being greedy by with holding your riches when so many needy people could be helped.
I've found meteors Ruby's in just about every color they come in. I found some bad bleep bleep very awesome rocks. That rock hounds have called me a lier to the locations I've discovered all the rocks. Some have to travel too the black sea. For one certain rock. And I've found them all here in Utah
Think how much good you could do by selling your riches and then giving the money away to charity. Think of the needy people you could help. I don't think its being sacred, I think you are with holding your riches when so many needy people could be helped.
What about titanium?
Titanium is an inexpensive ore - the cost is in converting the ore to the metal. I couldn't cover every metal - it would have been a 3 hour video if I did.
there rhodium mines in california.
There are places that may have produced some Rhodium in CA, but there are no mines worked primarily for rhodium. Its a minor by-product.
I love rocks..guilty as charged. Its a love that is growing every year. The problem i am having though is breaking and cutting things that are already beautiful lol. Drives my wife nuts. Shes allways pulling rocks out of my pockets in the wash haha
Lots of pretty rocks out there.