I live in the flat swampy coastal region of eastern N. Carolina. I had a friend digging sand off his property with a excavator to use to build a new shopping center. I noticed that once he got 15'-18' he would hit a blue clay. I examied the clay and it had white river washed quartz and rocks so i took a tuna can full of this material and took it home. I didnt hold much hope for it so didnt touch if for 2-3 months until i finally decided to pan it out... and sure enough, in that one tuna can i found 30-40 colors but by that time they had finished digging and it had filled with water!!!!! I would love to get down to it again!!!
I did buy your book at Miner's Depot in Quartzsite and a membership to their metal detectors club. Drove around scouting it out and the terrain is heavily dug. I take that as and good sign. New metal detector needed for this. Nokta gold finder looks likely. Thanks I feel more confident than 7 years ago when I gave the hobby up... With the wrong machine.
BTW thanks for explaining a lot of Australian Geology etc. Since I live here, I can tell you that a lot of people don't know a bit of what you have explained! I use manual drywashing, panning and Detecting. Mostly, anyway, and many things that you have explained in your series, up to now included, have actually got me more than a 60% increase in a couple of tenements!
Chris, Each of your videos offer more and more information. It’s amazing just how much information there is to be very successful in finding gold depending on the land and what you see on the surface. 🤩 HOW TO READ THE LAND SEEMS LIKE A VERY IMPORTANT STEP. VERY. INTERESTING. 💜❤️🤩🤩. Loving it all !! Again, thanks a million.
Hi Chris. Been enjoying learning from your videos and just placed my order for your book after reading lots of great reviews. Going to take it on our upcoming prospecting trip into the Central Sierras to read around the campfire during the evenings 😊
@Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector Hey mate, I'm a prospector up in Kalgoorlie WA Australia, I have learnt quite a few tips from this series, while its mostly targeted at the novice, I can tell you that you have increased my yield by quite a bit!
Hey Chris, I am roughly a beginner at best. I've leaned a lot from you over the past 3 weeks since I found your vlog.I went out ot do some panning this oast weekend and I found 2 nice Quartz or what looks to be Quartz. One contains some silver and the other contains what looks to be gold. I would love to show you pictures to see what you think.
@Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector hello Chris! Do you mind if I send you a couple pics of some rocks I found as well and you could take a look at them and see what you think?
Thinking forward to my pit diggings, and the potential flood burst fan. I have several logical 'timelines' and geological premises I am relying on toward the likelihood I will find gold on my 100acre glacial till/river bench. The first one is that glaciers exploit specific local weakness in the bedrock by plucking, and the final landscape reveals that bias, such that the gully I refer to is the result of preferential erosion, first by ice, then by water. The principal host rock is Meguma group, pushed up onto Avalonia during the Alleghenian orogeny, continental shelf sediments of sandstone and shale originally deposited in the Ordovician off North Africa. Monzogranite plutons, melted from the subducting oceanic plate, rose to emplace in the 'now metamorphosed' Meguma, liberating and concentrating gold into the quartz-rich water, and filling the fractures as the standard model. Those fractures are the very weakness the hydrologic system exploits, and the deepest erosion features are likely evidence toward First year stuff so far, I think. Behind the cliffs where the gully is eroded there sits the plateau crown of a monzogranite pluton, and I find hard white bull quartz outcrops sitting proud on the tops of the ridge that surrounds my claim to the N, W and S. Those qualities give rise to my interest. I still have a question about how much the standard freeze-thaw cycle and solution activity would affect a quartz sample as it sits under a living forest for 10000 years. Will I find the gold continues to be liberated, and thus sunk to the first impermeable surface, or is that time period too short to see much change in the 'ore' released. I plan to examine every stone I pull out while I'm digging, I'm going to try and identify the source location as local or distant. The Younger Dryas only created local glaciers, moving fresh sediment only a couple miles in my direction, but a lot of the original sediment was left by the Laurentian ice sheet, with stones as far away as northern Quebec. I also want to identify the cross-section of the paleo-channel to gain a better understanding of how deep the till bench was worked. I have questions about how quickly clay layers form, the progress of water settling the glacial till before soil develops. I expect I will discover a lot more once I start to dig with a scientific interest in front of my lust for gold :)
While some of your videos are obviously oriented for the inexperienced prospector, I can sometimes glean some knowledge from them. Then when you get into the more advanced subjects, I definitely learn! I wish I knew what I know now, back when I was able to get out wandering the hills. I’d love to see a video about how to interpret the geologic maps, they are pretty confusing to me!
I'm doing the outdoor stuff now, while the weather is still good. I'll get to more indoor or around the shed stuff when the weather cools off and its a lot harder to get out to the hills. I'll be sure to do one on geologic maps in the coming months when I do get into that "indoor" mode.
you can read the maps all you want but we just had 2 major earth quakes in california and they will change the landscape a bit or my interpretation mother nature just pushed up more gold you have o to get around people that know what they are doing to teach you all you want to know to look at the terrain and go this looks good out comes the rock hammer ,scoop ,classifier ,and pan
kenny cadarett, I’m not talking about topographic maps, I’m referring to the geologic maps! The ones that show the types of rock,where the fault lines are, etc. These are very technical, and they use weird aphfa-numeric abbreviations for the different rock types that seem to change from one map to another.
Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector, I can understand that! Since I’m in the southern Arizona desert, I tend to do outdoor stuff in opposite seasons due to the heat!
Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector Well thanks Chris really look forward to taking some time to listen to what you had to say in the subject I would be interested to know what you’re looking at when you’re looking at the horizon or the level fields in the desert mountains crop up what are you looking for color change breaks in the skin of a mountainside SandSlides what are you looking for thanks in advance R
Thanks for what you're doing, and I did pick up your book due to a recommendation from Jeff Williams, I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I would also like to buy the gold-bug 2 metal detector that you recommended. We bought land up above Forest Hill . 2 miles from Sugar Pine Lake .a 10-acre parcel that has a gold mine on it with a 185 ft deep air shaft. Also going across the property are lots of ditches which I presume took the water down to Iowa Hill so that they could do hydraulic mining. I can only speculate on how they dug that air shaft straight up from the mine. Do you know any good books that describe how they would dig such an air shaft as far as did they build scaffolding or just prop boards against the walls as they went up. Using only candles it must have been quite a dangerous job with rocks falling at your feet and on the board you're standing on. I have not gone far into this mine of ours as the ceiling rocks appear loose but I have built a platform over the air shaft so we could drop a camera and just marvel at the job that was done. I'm specifically looking for history on the Sugar Pine Lake area which includes Iowa Hill and upper Forest Hill Road. Thanks for your videos and book.
I think that I read in your book that gold doesn't physically break because it's so malleable. Could one of the specimen nuggets that you showed in the beginning have a piece break off by natural processes? Or will it just get banged up with the edges rounded off and reshaped, and the mass will remain the same. I've seen so many other videos where people make it sound like little flour gold came from being ground -off another bigger piece. Or I will see someone worried about breaking a nugget by hitting it with their pick ax while digging it out of the ground. My theory is that there's no natural process that could break gold or cause a piece to loss its mass, it will only get reformed into another shape with the same mass. This means that small flakes were always small flakes liberated from the original host material. The only way for gold to grow or gain mass would be when it comes out of solution. Would it take a man-made process like an impact mill to provide enough energy to physically break gold down into smaller pieces?
No problem that gold will break off of quartz. - quartz does shatter and break, while gold mashes down. Rounded pieces of gold can be mashed into flakes, but it does not generally break down to dust like a chunk of quartz. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Smartest thing I've heard watching all theses different videos about gold!! It's not gold is where u find it . It's ,,gold is how you find it. Big ,little, it's still gold!!
@@ChrisRalph Would you clarify please? I understand that gold will break off from or be liberated from host material like quartz, and that the gold in quartz is generally very small. It sounds like what you're saying is that gold can break down into smaller pieces by mechanical processes? I guess my question is can the mass of a piece of placer gold change? Thanks
great videos Chris, i enjoy them immensely. when you explain that gold doesn't grow, i understand how they wouldn't grow like other crystals, but wouldn't they as they traveled get pounded together forming larger nuggets on their journey, and would that explain their growth and different sizes , shapes, with the agitation with rounded river boulders , ?
Just like rocks - sand does not get pounded together into boulders, boulders get pounded into sand and smaller rocks. So no, little gold does not get pounded up into nuggets.
When the the Scientists dissected the nuggets & found it to be crystalline; are those crystalines similar to Golden flakes like Mica-flakes (although mica can have a gold with burnt residue appearance).
Thank you so much for this, I’m based in the southern savannah region I’ve found some nuggets precisely on the downstream you speak of, however I’m interested in tracing the quarts vein as explained in your diagram, I suspect i may have located it somewhere corresponding to your diagram. Not sure if I should proceed
Hey Chris, awesome vids! I wish you could have showed a pic of a shear in a fault zone maybe with VG. Now that we know where nuggets come from, could you do a video on how nuggets form and the geology to look for. Especially if metal detecting? I really enjoyed reading that in your book and would like to see some real world pics, descriptions and interpretations. Thanks and keep’em coming.
Hi Chris, Professor, sir friend great one I was wondering if you could tell me where I could sell some of my gold or without going online I prefer to just go into a shop who is interested in buying these specimens because I have some amazing pieces I didn’t like to share with you, but you’ve been around doing this for decades I hope you’re doing well and I hope your family is doing well. I’m doing really well from the last time we spoke or communicated you know I was like pennyless wondering which mine am I gonna go to because I had extra amount of money and always wanted to hunt for gold so white, I was like oh never mind the typos the scavenger around I was like well why not go to last chance mine it’s my last chance lo and behold on my way there I stopped because the tree was in the road in science pieces of quartz and what not I read that is how old was discovered in that particular area by a tree that fell over. I also learned to a French or Italian guy discovered some gold next day went crazy, I’m still drunk from the gold but I haven’t turned into Gullom
There are not that many buyers - its not like there are dozens in every town. From your comment, I have not the slightest idea where you are located - there are "last chance" mines all over the country. I would recommend you contact Dave Varabioff of Goldbay. You cant speak with him through the internet, send photos, etc. then actually meet up person to exchange gold and payment if he is interested. Dave travels all over the place.
Hi Chrisjust watching your videos and you said you answer all the questions I moved to independent California and I was wondering if you know where to start looking for gold or how I can find out where in the Owens Valley got 100 miles from Mammoth 95 near big Pine lumber independence in Schat California and there is a spot to have a hot hot pool maybe you could show me thank you and I enjoy your videos that one on the
Thank you for your video, I always like to learn more, I found a few nice pices out on my claim today. I have a slide show on RUclips with some of my findings.
Hi & thank you so very much for your great informative videos..🙏 I have a question that might be stupid to ask..but hey...asking is better then not knowing..😉 can you explain why can't we grow gold inside the labs..? With soooo much technology that we have available these days. ? Thanks again and wishing you all the best..🙏🙏😳
Gold crystals can be grown in a lab from gold bearing chemicals. However gold is an element, not a mixture of other things. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, but gold is one of the basic elements of the universe.
@@ChrisRalph thanks again for your reply..so that means no more of this element can be produced..? Whatever is created at the time of formation of the earth would be available and no more..? Thanks & Regards.🙏
Hello Chris, much obliged. Are you knowledgeable about Gold in South Africa, except for the known deep mining places? Does your encyclopedia cover any such places? . I understand that the information in your book might help me and I`m considering in procuring one. I enjoyed your video and it opened up some things to me. Be blessed.
I've been to West Africa and found gold but never to South Africa. Lots of general stuff about gold in my book that applies all over the world, but nothing specific about South Africa.
Have been enjoying your videos and just purchased your book on Amazon. Thanks for sharing all the information and tips. I'm leaving for a detecting trip near Wickenburg, AZ in two weeks and am trying to learn about the origins of the deposits in that area. My understanding is that there is a combination of both sulfur deposited growth and quartz deposits. Is this correct?
I've been watching your videos and have 3 questions. Q1: what is placer.? Q2: what is lode? Q3: when one pans for gold, is it placer or lode or something else?
Q1: what is placer.? A> loose particles of gold that have weathered and eroded out of the original host rock. Q2: what is lode? A> gold still in its original solid host rock in witch it originally formed. Q3: when one pans for gold, is it placer or lode or something else? A> When one is panning for gold, you are seeking the loose particles in gravels and soils that have weathered and eroded out of the original host rock.
@@ChrisRalph Alrighty, I now understand. Now I know why everyone was trying to find the mother lode in the movies. They were panning for gold and hoped to find the mother lode nearby. I really love your videos! I just started watching them, because my parents just moved to Henderson, NV. I found out that Nevada has lots of gold, but it's all microscopic particles. How did those particles get so small and scattered everywhere? Was there a mother lode and water and wind erosion scattered it?
Hello Mr. Ralph, I did order a copy of your book. Because you kindly offered at the conclusion of your video, I've been wanting to ask someone about this: I live in the Fairbanks area/ Tanana region and am under the impression there is quite a bit of overburden covering the somewhat fine gold. Is this as good a region as any for a person with only a pan and sluice? I never see any bedrock and the old timers often dug very deep drifts before hydraulic mining and dredges. Just wondering if this is as good as it gets for surficial deposits out west, or is the gold here less accessible without heavy equipment, if you know and have the time, of course. On the data sites they always say the paystreak is about 15' to 90' down, which doesn't encourage me. Thank you!
Thanks for your videos, I'm learning a lot. In a location where gold is normally associated with quartz, does it matter whether it's quartz that cooled slowly and has pockets of nice well-defined crystals or if it's quartz that cooled quickly? Is one more likely?
This was a very informative video. Thank you. I went to check out your book and see it’s only being sold used. Are you going to do a new run or digital release soon? I’ll read it. Keep on.... rocking....
Amazon didn't order enough of them so they ran out of stock. But more are in shipment and on the way to them. They will get them shortly. There are plenty of books in print. I have a couple thousand copies in my shed. No digital release is planned as digital is really made for books without illustrations - there are sizing problems with pictures and different platforms that digital books display on. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Many different detectors, including GPZ 700, SDC 2300 and Gold Monster 1000 by Minelab as well as the Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro by Fisher. Glad you enjoyed the video.
you live in california I have 2 places way to hot lately san bernadino forest quartz bomb went off (all over the place veins in rocks that have broken off) and in sylmar to hot to walk around to see where it comes from
Hey chris, newly subscribe to your channel. I have learned a lot watching your videos, and wanted to say thank you for being very educational and professional. I found some green rocks, and have never seen anything like them not sure what it is but very weird. Its a lighter shade of green, but in areas bleed through a really dark green. The outer part does reflect tiny crystals, since i don't know what it is im afraid to break it open. What do you suggest i do in this situation ?
There are hundreds of rocks and minerals that come in shades of green, even if you've not seen them before. So I have no idea what you are looking at. Take a look at my video on how to identify minerals and learn more about it. See: ruclips.net/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/видео.html
@@ChrisRalph thank you for the link chris, very educational about minerals. Unfortunately still unable to identify this green rock, so im going to call it the green thing lol ;) one day i will see a picture of it. Im no expert at prospecting, but i have been doing it since the early 90s and absolutely love finding weird and different things. My first gold pan i got, was from gpaa sure miss buzzard still have it actually. Anyway just wanted to share that with you. And sorry to hear of your accident and glad you and family are ok, really looking forward to watching more of your videos. O and sorry i don't expect you to identify this green thing, just wanted to share my experience with you ;) stay safe out there, cali is rough nowadays
I might have found some gold in the sulfide of rocks next to a stream where it floods. My question is that a bench placer or the lode deposit? Would the lode deposit be higher up and not so close to the stream
Hi Chris, I just came across your channel and I would like to know if there are places I can go outside of center city Philadelphia and use a metal detector for placer gold?
Can you do a video about glacial till,different clay, gravel, clay, gravel layers! Which one do I pick? So much gravel to run , I don't wanna waste time testing every layer,,, Lol
Like I say in the video, normally the glacial gravel is very, very low grade. It only gets to decent gold content by concentration washing away lighter materials. This happens in streams that cut through the glacial gravels.
@@ChrisRalph so I found a layer that had a light coating of clay covering the rocks ,some of the rocks were pretty clean. Is that a indacation that the water was flowing through it more then some of the other layers?
Chris, what about gold growing in a bacterial state, in Crystal's 5 sided, there is a guy in quartzite az claiming this to be the case, his first name is Eric, I can't even spell his last name, but has written several books, and teaches college courses, and has his students join him in the field, he is a great guy, and I am sure you know him, but my question to you is can gold grow? in your opinion, I read the journal monthly and have been for years, also a big fan of you and Steve, stopped by his shop in Anchorage a couple of years ago, but anyway give me a clue, clear up the contradiction, and thanks for your time.
I know of Eric, but never met him. The bacteriological thing works for gold that is way too small for the eye to see, no evidence is presented that it can grow anything that even a regular microscope could see.
I live in the flat swampy coastal region of eastern N. Carolina. I had a friend digging sand off his property with a excavator to use to build a new shopping center. I noticed that once he got 15'-18' he would hit a blue clay. I examied the clay and it had white river washed quartz and rocks so i took a tuna can full of this material and took it home. I didnt hold much hope for it so didnt touch if for 2-3 months until i finally decided to pan it out... and sure enough, in that one tuna can i found 30-40 colors but by that time they had finished digging and it had filled with water!!!!! I would love to get down to it again!!!
That sounds very interesting.
The fresh gold nuggets at the beginning look even more beautiful than gold that has been washing down mountains over millennia.
. 👏👏🥂🖖
Glad you enjoyed it.
This is an outstanding video. Outstanding 👍👍👍
thanks, glad you liked it.
Outstanding Chris, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
I did buy your book at Miner's Depot in Quartzsite and a membership to their metal detectors club. Drove around scouting it out and the terrain is heavily dug. I take that as and good sign. New metal detector needed for this. Nokta gold finder looks likely. Thanks I feel more confident than 7 years ago when I gave the hobby up... With the wrong machine.
Best of luck to you.
BTW thanks for explaining a lot of Australian Geology etc. Since I live here, I can tell you that a lot of people don't know a bit of what you have explained! I use manual drywashing, panning and Detecting. Mostly, anyway, and many things that you have explained in your series, up to now included, have actually got me more than a 60% increase in a couple of tenements!
That's great! I wish you continued success. I really enjoyed my time in Australia. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Chris, Each of your videos offer more and more information. It’s amazing just how much information there is to be very successful in finding gold depending on the land and what you see on the surface. 🤩 HOW TO READ THE LAND SEEMS LIKE A VERY IMPORTANT STEP. VERY. INTERESTING. 💜❤️🤩🤩. Loving it all !! Again, thanks a million.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks Chris I've always love all you do to help us find gold
You are Very welcome
Good Stuff! Very informative, Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Gday Chris thanks for the well presented info. Every little bit helps.....
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Watching your videos make me want to drive to the Bradshaws Mts every evening, but I have to wait for the weekend again. Thanks Chris..!
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Hi Chris. Been enjoying learning from your videos and just placed my order for your book after reading lots of great reviews. Going to take it on our upcoming prospecting trip into the Central Sierras to read around the campfire during the evenings 😊
Awesome, thank you! I think you will find it helpful
Chris, your a wealth of information, subscribed-shared, and I can't pass up buying your book. Thanks again..!
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Would you consider doing a video on how to setup and operate the Gold Bug Pro for finding gold?
@Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector Hey mate, I'm a prospector up in Kalgoorlie WA Australia, I have learnt quite a few tips from this series, while its mostly targeted at the novice, I can tell you that you have increased my yield by quite a bit!
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hey Chris, I am roughly a beginner at best. I've leaned a lot from you over the past 3 weeks since I found your vlog.I went out ot do some panning this oast weekend and I found 2 nice Quartz or what looks to be Quartz. One contains some silver and the other contains what looks to be gold. I would love to show you pictures to see what you think.
Send them to me at Chrisralph218 at gmail
@Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector hello Chris! Do you mind if I send you a couple pics of some rocks I found as well and you could take a look at them and see what you think?
Thinking forward to my pit diggings, and the potential flood burst fan. I have several logical 'timelines' and geological premises I am relying on toward the likelihood I will find gold on my 100acre glacial till/river bench. The first one is that glaciers exploit specific local weakness in the bedrock by plucking, and the final landscape reveals that bias, such that the gully I refer to is the result of preferential erosion, first by ice, then by water. The principal host rock is Meguma group, pushed up onto Avalonia during the Alleghenian orogeny, continental shelf sediments of sandstone and shale originally deposited in the Ordovician off North Africa. Monzogranite plutons, melted from the subducting oceanic plate, rose to emplace in the 'now metamorphosed' Meguma, liberating and concentrating gold into the quartz-rich water, and filling the fractures as the standard model. Those fractures are the very weakness the hydrologic system exploits, and the deepest erosion features are likely evidence toward First year stuff so far, I think. Behind the cliffs where the gully is eroded there sits the plateau crown of a monzogranite pluton, and I find hard white bull quartz outcrops sitting proud on the tops of the ridge that surrounds my claim to the N, W and S. Those qualities give rise to my interest. I still have a question about how much the standard freeze-thaw cycle and solution activity would affect a quartz sample as it sits under a living forest for 10000 years. Will I find the gold continues to be liberated, and thus sunk to the first impermeable surface, or is that time period too short to see much change in the 'ore' released. I plan to examine every stone I pull out while I'm digging, I'm going to try and identify the source location as local or distant. The Younger Dryas only created local glaciers, moving fresh sediment only a couple miles in my direction, but a lot of the original sediment was left by the Laurentian ice sheet, with stones as far away as northern Quebec. I also want to identify the cross-section of the paleo-channel to gain a better understanding of how deep the till bench was worked. I have questions about how quickly clay layers form, the progress of water settling the glacial till before soil develops. I expect I will discover a lot more once I start to dig with a scientific interest in front of my lust for gold :)
Best of luck to you in your prospecting.
While some of your videos are obviously oriented for the inexperienced prospector, I can sometimes glean some knowledge from them. Then when you get into the more advanced subjects, I definitely learn! I wish I knew what I know now, back when I was able to get out wandering the hills. I’d love to see a video about how to interpret the geologic maps, they are pretty confusing to me!
I'm doing the outdoor stuff now, while the weather is still good. I'll get to more indoor or around the shed stuff when the weather cools off and its a lot harder to get out to the hills. I'll be sure to do one on geologic maps in the coming months when I do get into that "indoor" mode.
you can read the maps all you want but we just had 2 major earth quakes in california and they will change the landscape a bit or my interpretation mother nature just pushed up more gold you have o to get around people that know what they are doing to teach you all you want to know to look at the terrain and go this looks good out comes the rock hammer ,scoop ,classifier ,and pan
kenny cadarett, I’m not talking about topographic maps, I’m referring to the geologic maps! The ones that show the types of rock,where the fault lines are, etc. These are very technical, and they use weird aphfa-numeric abbreviations for the different rock types that seem to change from one map to another.
Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector, I can understand that! Since I’m in the southern Arizona desert, I tend to do outdoor stuff in opposite seasons due to the heat!
I will come and visit you sir to learn more about prospecting. Watching you from Zambia 🇿🇲🇿🇲
Hope you find that gold in Zambia.
Once again, GREAT information!!
Thank you Sir!
🙌🏻😎
You bet! Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Good info! I needed this 👍🏼
Glad you enjoyed the video.
amazing talk, want to get your book, just so generous , thank you! Rob you are a true a "scholar and a gentleman!
Rob??? Not sure why you think Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector is named Rob?
Thanks Chris. It helped to see how my placer formed
Glad it helped.
Nuggeggegggets!
😎
Straight forward
Educated
Compelling
Entertaining
Thx
R
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector
Well thanks Chris really look forward to taking some time to listen to what you had to say in the subject
I would be interested to know what you’re looking at when you’re looking at the horizon or the level fields in the desert mountains crop up what are you looking for color change breaks in the skin of a mountainside SandSlides what are you looking for thanks in advance
R
Another great video
Glad you enjoyed the video
Thanks for what you're doing, and I did pick up your book due to a recommendation from Jeff Williams, I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I would also like to buy the gold-bug 2 metal detector that you recommended. We bought land up above Forest Hill . 2 miles from Sugar Pine Lake .a 10-acre parcel that has a gold mine on it with a 185 ft deep air shaft. Also going across the property are lots of ditches which I presume took the water down to Iowa Hill so that they could do hydraulic mining. I can only speculate on how they dug that air shaft straight up from the mine. Do you know any good books that describe how they would dig such an air shaft as far as did they build scaffolding or just prop boards against the walls as they went up. Using only candles it must have been quite a dangerous job with rocks falling at your feet and on the board you're standing on. I have not gone far into this mine of ours as the ceiling rocks appear loose but I have built a platform over the air shaft so we could drop a camera and just marvel at the job that was done. I'm specifically looking for history on the Sugar Pine Lake area which includes Iowa Hill and upper Forest Hill Road. Thanks for your videos and book.
The Iowa Hill / Forrest Hill area is one with a lot of gold mining history. Glad you enjoyed the video.
very insightful and helpful information!
thanks!
👍
Glads you enjoyed the video.
I think that I read in your book that gold doesn't physically break because it's so malleable. Could one of the specimen nuggets that you showed in the beginning have a piece break off by natural processes? Or will it just get banged up with the edges rounded off and reshaped, and the mass will remain the same. I've seen so many other videos where people make it sound like little flour gold came from being ground -off another bigger piece. Or I will see someone worried about breaking a nugget by hitting it with their pick ax while digging it out of the ground. My theory is that there's no natural process that could break gold or cause a piece to loss its mass, it will only get reformed into another shape with the same mass. This means that small flakes were always small flakes liberated from the original host material. The only way for gold to grow or gain mass would be when it comes out of solution. Would it take a man-made process like an impact mill to provide enough energy to physically break gold down into smaller pieces?
No problem that gold will break off of quartz. - quartz does shatter and break, while gold mashes down. Rounded pieces of gold can be mashed into flakes, but it does not generally break down to dust like a chunk of quartz. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Smartest thing I've heard watching all theses different videos about gold!! It's not gold is where u find it . It's ,,gold is how you find it. Big ,little, it's still gold!!
@@ChrisRalph Would you clarify please? I understand that gold will break off from or be liberated from host material like quartz, and that the gold in quartz is generally very small. It sounds like what you're saying is that gold can break down into smaller pieces by mechanical processes? I guess my question is can the mass of a piece of placer gold change? Thanks
great videos Chris, i enjoy them immensely. when you explain that gold doesn't grow, i understand how they wouldn't grow like other crystals, but wouldn't they as they traveled get pounded together forming larger nuggets on their journey, and would that explain their growth and different sizes , shapes, with the agitation with rounded river boulders , ?
Just like rocks - sand does not get pounded together into boulders, boulders get pounded into sand and smaller rocks. So no, little gold does not get pounded up into nuggets.
When the the Scientists dissected the nuggets & found it to be crystalline; are those crystalines similar to Golden flakes like Mica-flakes (although mica can have a gold with burnt residue appearance).
No, the nuggets were very different from that.
Thank you so much for this, I’m based in the southern savannah region I’ve found some nuggets precisely on the downstream you speak of, however I’m interested in tracing the quarts vein as explained in your diagram, I suspect i may have located it somewhere corresponding to your diagram. Not sure if I should proceed
First make sure you have the rights to proceed - that you own the property or have written permission from the owner.
@@ChrisRalphyes all is in order I have certificates and mining rights from the government
Hey Chris, awesome vids! I wish you could have showed a pic of a shear in a fault zone maybe with VG. Now that we know where nuggets come from, could you do a video on how nuggets form and the geology to look for. Especially if metal detecting? I really enjoyed reading that in your book and would like to see some real world pics, descriptions and interpretations. Thanks and keep’em coming.
These fault zones are often covered with dirt, so are hard to get a good picture of.
Hi Chris, Professor, sir friend great one I was wondering if you could tell me where I could sell some of my gold or without going online I prefer to just go into a shop who is interested in buying these specimens because I have some amazing pieces I didn’t like to share with you, but you’ve been around doing this for decades I hope you’re doing well and I hope your family is doing well. I’m doing really well from the last time we spoke or communicated you know I was like pennyless wondering which mine am I gonna go to because I had extra amount of money and always wanted to hunt for gold so white, I was like oh never mind the typos the scavenger around I was like well why not go to last chance mine it’s my last chance lo and behold on my way there I stopped because the tree was in the road in science pieces of quartz and what not I read that is how old was discovered in that particular area by a tree that fell over. I also learned to a French or Italian guy discovered some gold next day went crazy, I’m still drunk from the gold but I haven’t turned into Gullom
There are not that many buyers - its not like there are dozens in every town. From your comment, I have not the slightest idea where you are located - there are "last chance" mines all over the country. I would recommend you contact Dave Varabioff of Goldbay. You cant speak with him through the internet, send photos, etc. then actually meet up person to exchange gold and payment if he is interested. Dave travels all over the place.
Chris, Sir, at 9:20. Is this type of oxidation a fairly good sign of sulfides? And hopefully gold.
Thank you!
maybe - the oxide iron can come from sulfides but also from the surrounding rocks. Iron is very common, the 3rd most common in the earth's crust.
Cheers Chris👍👍👍
Glad that you are enjoying these videos.
Thank you for your knowledge
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Hi Chrisjust watching your videos and you said you answer all the questions I moved to independent California and I was wondering if you know where to start looking for gold or how I can find out where in the Owens Valley got 100 miles from Mammoth 95 near big Pine lumber independence in Schat California and there is a spot to have a hot hot pool maybe you could show me thank you and I enjoy your videos that one on the
There is gold there to the east in the White Mountains.
Thank you for your video, I always like to learn more, I found a few nice pices out on my claim today. I have a slide show on RUclips with some of my findings.
Cool - good luck with your prospecting. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hi & thank you so very much for your great informative videos..🙏 I have a question that might be stupid to ask..but hey...asking is better then not knowing..😉 can you explain why can't we grow gold inside the labs..? With soooo much technology that we have available these days. ? Thanks again and wishing you all the best..🙏🙏😳
Gold crystals can be grown in a lab from gold bearing chemicals. However gold is an element, not a mixture of other things. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, but gold is one of the basic elements of the universe.
@@ChrisRalph thanks again for your reply..so that means no more of this element can be produced..? Whatever is created at the time of formation of the earth would be available and no more..? Thanks & Regards.🙏
Hello Chris, much obliged. Are you knowledgeable about Gold in South Africa, except for the known deep mining places? Does your encyclopedia cover any such places? . I understand that the information in your book might help me and I`m considering in procuring one. I enjoyed your video and it opened up some things to me. Be blessed.
I've been to West Africa and found gold but never to South Africa. Lots of general stuff about gold in my book that applies all over the world, but nothing specific about South Africa.
Have been enjoying your videos and just purchased your book on Amazon. Thanks for sharing all the information and tips.
I'm leaving for a detecting trip near Wickenburg, AZ in two weeks and am trying to learn about the origins of the deposits in that area. My understanding is that there is a combination of both sulfur deposited growth and quartz deposits. Is this correct?
Those are really not two different types, they are one type - read the section in the book for a full discussion of the geology of gold deposits.
I've been watching your videos and have 3 questions.
Q1: what is placer.?
Q2: what is lode?
Q3: when one pans for gold, is it placer or lode or something else?
Q1: what is placer.?
A> loose particles of gold that have weathered and eroded out of the original host rock.
Q2: what is lode?
A> gold still in its original solid host rock in witch it originally formed.
Q3: when one pans for gold, is it placer or lode or something else?
A> When one is panning for gold, you are seeking the loose particles in gravels and soils that have weathered and eroded out of the original host rock.
@@ChrisRalph Alrighty, I now understand. Now I know why everyone was trying to find the mother lode in the movies. They were panning for gold and hoped to find the mother lode nearby.
I really love your videos! I just started watching them, because my parents just moved to Henderson, NV. I found out that Nevada has lots of gold, but it's all microscopic particles. How did those particles get so small and scattered everywhere? Was there a mother lode and water and wind erosion scattered it?
Nevada has nuggets also, some down near Las Vegas, but most nuggets in the northern part of the state.
Hello Mr. Ralph, I did order a copy of your book. Because you kindly offered at the conclusion of your video, I've been wanting to ask someone about this: I live in the Fairbanks area/ Tanana region and am under the impression there is quite a bit of overburden covering the somewhat fine gold. Is this as good a region as any for a person with only a pan and sluice? I never see any bedrock and the old timers often dug very deep drifts before hydraulic mining and dredges. Just wondering if this is as good as it gets for surficial deposits out west, or is the gold here less accessible without heavy equipment, if you know and have the time, of course. On the data sites they always say the paystreak is about 15' to 90' down, which doesn't encourage me. Thank you!
The gold in your area is much less accessible than average.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks a lot Sir! Makes me feel better. All the local "experts" keep telling me it's lying around all over the place.
Thanks for your videos, I'm learning a lot. In a location where gold is normally associated with quartz, does it matter whether it's quartz that cooled slowly and has pockets of nice well-defined crystals or if it's quartz that cooled quickly? Is one more likely?
GOld and quartz come from hot water solutions. See my video: ruclips.net/video/v136BEdR_yU/видео.html
Hey Chris great info thanks for all your hard work ..what do you know about fossil gold ?
Gold gravels get cemented and fossilized.
This was a very informative video. Thank you. I went to check out your book and see it’s only being sold used. Are you going to do a new run or digital release soon? I’ll read it. Keep on.... rocking....
Amazon didn't order enough of them so they ran out of stock. But more are in shipment and on the way to them. They will get them shortly. There are plenty of books in print. I have a couple thousand copies in my shed. No digital release is planned as digital is really made for books without illustrations - there are sizing problems with pictures and different platforms that digital books display on. Glad you enjoyed the video.
What is your opinion on deep sea mining of manganese nodules for nickel?
Can be messy - depends on technique and also its expensive.
Can you do the outer space origin another time?
One of these days.
What is the best elevation to find gold nuggets in California
There is gold at all elevations in California - from sea level to over 10,00 feet!
Much better sound!
Thanks, I am working on improving the technical stuff of making videos.
Thank you Good afternoon
A Beautiful Funstastic Sky Pretty cold
Expire Asilimake Gelatin
Expired milk.
Thank you for sharing. What type of detector are you using?
Many different detectors, including GPZ 700, SDC 2300 and Gold Monster 1000 by Minelab as well as the Gold Bug 2 and Gold Bug Pro by Fisher. Glad you enjoyed the video.
you live in california I have 2 places way to hot lately san bernadino forest quartz bomb went off (all over the place veins in rocks that have broken off) and in sylmar to hot to walk around to see where it comes from
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hey chris, newly subscribe to your channel. I have learned a lot watching your videos, and wanted to say thank you for being very educational and professional. I found some green rocks, and have never seen anything like them not sure what it is but very weird. Its a lighter shade of green, but in areas bleed through a really dark green. The outer part does reflect tiny crystals, since i don't know what it is im afraid to break it open. What do you suggest i do in this situation ?
There are hundreds of rocks and minerals that come in shades of green, even if you've not seen them before. So I have no idea what you are looking at. Take a look at my video on how to identify minerals and learn more about it.
See: ruclips.net/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/видео.html
@@ChrisRalph thank you for the link chris, very educational about minerals. Unfortunately still unable to identify this green rock, so im going to call it the green thing lol ;) one day i will see a picture of it. Im no expert at prospecting, but i have been doing it since the early 90s and absolutely love finding weird and different things. My first gold pan i got, was from gpaa sure miss buzzard still have it actually. Anyway just wanted to share that with you. And sorry to hear of your accident and glad you and family are ok, really looking forward to watching more of your videos. O and sorry i don't expect you to identify this green thing, just wanted to share my experience with you ;) stay safe out there, cali is rough nowadays
Four atmospheres made of gold. And volcanoes are the ones who put it there and among other things also
among other things also.
I might have found some gold in the sulfide of rocks next to a stream where it floods. My question is that a bench placer or the lode deposit? Would the lode deposit be higher up and not so close to the stream
You have not told enough to answer the question. Placer is loose material. Lode is in the solid rock no matter if it is near a stream or not.
Крис привет
Hello.
Hi Chris, I just came across your channel and I would like to know if there are places I can go outside of center city Philadelphia and use a metal detector for placer gold?
Not that I know of. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Great info !!!!!!! congrats on 4 plus K subs
I had a video go semi-viral. It has over 160K views now and bumped up all my stats pretty strongly. Glad you enjoyed the video.
@@ChrisRalph NICE !!!!!
Can you do a video about glacial till,different clay, gravel, clay, gravel layers! Which one do I pick? So much gravel to run , I don't wanna waste time testing every layer,,, Lol
Like I say in the video, normally the glacial gravel is very, very low grade. It only gets to decent gold content by concentration washing away lighter materials. This happens in streams that cut through the glacial gravels.
@@ChrisRalph so I found a layer that had a light coating of clay covering the rocks ,some of the rocks were pretty clean. Is that a indacation that the water was flowing through it more then some of the other layers?
Thanks 😊
No problem 😊
Any deposits in mid eest central Indiana? (From greener than novice new subscriber)
Yep, there are placer gold deposits in Indiana. Big nuggets are rare but fine gold is commonly found.
Mostly glacial gold from elsewhere, eh? Very fine, I would think.
Chris, what about gold growing in a bacterial state, in Crystal's 5 sided, there is a guy in quartzite az claiming this to be the case, his first name is Eric, I can't even spell his last name, but has written several books, and teaches college courses, and has his students join him in the field, he is a great guy, and I am sure you know him, but my question to you is can gold grow? in your opinion, I read the journal monthly and have been for years, also a big fan of you and Steve, stopped by his shop in Anchorage a couple of years ago, but anyway give me a clue, clear up the contradiction, and thanks for your time.
I know of Eric, but never met him. The bacteriological thing works for gold that is way too small for the eye to see, no evidence is presented that it can grow anything that even a regular microscope could see.
The Wire Patch...
Wire gold can be very pretty...........
Hello sir, my first names Chris middle name Ralph.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Great Info Chris. Thanks. Gold on. JFKWWG1WGAJFK.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Y0. Tengo. Dayme. Gold.
OK.