I worked underground in a small gold/silver mine in about 1979. This takes me back. I worked alone at about 400'. I would push the skip car to the the ore and then use a kind of powered "bucket" to pull the ore downhill into the skip. Then I would grab the handle of the skip and push it to gain momentum and then jump on the back (like a grocery cart) and ride it to the hoist. Dump and start over. I loved being underground.
Its because it's treated as a byproduct without much industrial use, despite it being used in so many things from electrical connections to optics and nuclear research. Part of the issue could be that you don't need much silver to perform a great number of tasks.
I love when RUclipsrs collaborate. You , Brent , HeavyD, Ian,.... It's starting to become a really cool RUclips rabbit hole following Brent then branching off into these other really cool channels.
Absolutely this. I had no idea who Brent was before this video because frankly, I never watch these types of videos. I'm less than halfway through this video and I'm already loving Brent. I knew about Dan Hurd for a while, before Jason's channel but never really watched him until he showed up on Jason's channel. How did I stumble upon Jason's channel? Well I've always been fascinated by electronics recycling and Jason has literally the most detailed and thorough videos I've *ever* found online about the topic. I ended up watching a few of Jason's other videos and I just have to say, Jason is just not only made for this type of work, he is made for sharing these adventures and teaching us all this incredible stuff. Jason, you are you and we absolutely love it. Keep on keeping on, but PLEASE be safe and avoid going spelunking into these old mines and caves solo. Not sure if you bring air quality meters and O2 sensors and such, but I'd highly recommend you get one and also bring rope and some markers to leave as you descend into new caves and mines. Leaving markers isn't *just* for you, but it's also in the rare situation you get trapped and need to be rescued.
@@MasterThief117 Dan Hurd was my teacher 12 years ago in high school. Dan has worked with Jason, Jason has worked with Brent. Brent has worked with HeavyD, HeavyD has worked with Cleetus McFarland. Cleetus has worked with Demolition Ranch. So the largest gun RUclipsr (Demo) is only 6 degrees of separation from my old high school teacher. And me only 7 degrees of separation from him. It’s a funny world.
I told my friend if I ever bought a ghost town like this I would just turn it to some old timey RUclips town, you got so many crafters and all that stuff on RUclips, black smiths, carpenters, homesteaders, engineers, etc.
I started off with Matts Off Road Recovery, then Donut, HeavyD, and Ghost Town Living. I wonder if there will be more in the chain. Edit: I just started on Sparks Motors today and didn't realise. Now, looking through the list, it appears they also collaborated with Robbie Layton ( I guess it wasn't only Matt).
These collabs really make it fun, because we get to see all angles of the process from different persepectives. Also you collab with very fun and interesting content creators, keep it up!
@@jeffbarnes395 lead... harmful? Ha that would be news to me. Lol 'start taking all the pencils and cancel the kids school' some quack says lead is harmful HA HA. 🤠🙊
@@jeffbarnes395 it won't hurt u long term unless you expose yourself to huge levels it will drop ur IQ impair your memory for a couple of years tho. My friend stripped her lead paint off with heat gun not knowing it was lead she had basically lead induced dementia she couldn't remember anything or even think properly for about 2 years. She was exposed to an extremely high levels though they will be fine if they did it for weeks maybe not.
I have much respect for miners, because of their hard work, and their processing of Silver and Gold Ore and this allows me to stack physical Silver and Gold Bullion. Thank You for your efforts sir, there are people in the stacking community that appreciate your dedication.
To help with making sure you have the stamps oriented right grind a small cross cut across the stamp where your thumb or index finger would be when holding it. So just by feel you know the stamp is oriented correctly.
Buy property, pay property tax, run utilities to bring ore to the surface after digging and hauling, time and materials spent to process & refine the ore only to find spot on silver at $23. You've just spent/invested $1K per oz. for what you've got. Being heavily invested in silver & knowing the amount of energy expended to produce opposed to it's value makes no sense to me. The history and the lessons were great. Thank goodness for Brent keeping it alive through all of his hard work & efforts. I follow and support him wish him much success. Thank goodness for YT to post these videos to earn revenue to help recover some or all your costs. Thanks for taking me along for the ride. Loved it.
That’s not the goal of the town. The goal is to restore the town back to its original condition not to mine the place. You don’t go restoring a 300 year old building in the middle of nowhere for profit.
Very interesting video. So very informative. The knowledge provided to us priceless. 54 grams of Silver @ .75 cents a gram works out to $40.50. Before mining and smelting costs with the lead bringing just .44 cents per pound today. Those silver miners sure did work hard for their wages.
Jason, I have cast hundreds of lead bullets, usually have to remelt the first 5 or 6 , maybe more. It doesn't seem to matter just how much you preheat the mold, it takes a few castings to heat it from the inside out. Then you start getting smooth pours with a nice surface!
When I was a kid, my family used to vacation in the Mammoth Lakes, Ca. area. I explored a few of the old abandoned mines, but have developed enough claustrophobia that I probably wouldn’t enjoy the whole trip these guys are on. Carlsbad Caverns is fine but when my shoulders are touching the walls I’m out. I’m not a grad but was a geology major and really do enjoy “rock hounding” and seeing the technology that is used to extract the metals from the ore. Thanks for the video.
I live about 3 miles from an old lead mine. Its now all capped off as its a public park now. Some of the old buildings remain,. The smelting building had some lumps of ore in it and some slag. My house was wired by a chap who had been the mine electrician.
Funny! In the lift shaft Jason is pointing out engineering aspects of the lift shaft guides while the other guy is interested in the levels. Differing interests with the same goal.
I have several old silver bars and they are all stamped on the top with the mine’s name or the owner name and the weight in oz. It will be much easier to stamp the bars if they are sitting directly on the steel plate. Wonderful job on sharing your process to separate the metal’s!
This was the comment I was looking for. You are right him using the particle board as base was absorbing the hammers blows. He needed hard base under silver to get good strikes.
Signs pointing to exits that don't exist: shades of the Winchester Mystery House! 😀 WOW!! What a lot of steps for such a tiny amount of silver! No wonder it's so expensive! Is the "01" bar the most valuable? Maybe. Or maybe it's the one with the "TM" mistake...like that postage stamp on which they accidentally printed the airplane upside-down! 🙂
Looks like a grand adventure for this day and age. For those working the mines it was everyday punctuated by moments of fear, but now it is far from everyday. Hats off to you. Looks like it was fun!
Have you guys thought about 3D mapping the mine? It would be really cool and useful. It could be done manually or automated with drones. There's soo many things you could do with the scan. It could be used for advanced prospecting, safety improvements, and virtual exploration; imagine virtual tours or mining. It would be much faster and easier to find old mining treasures, like the Levi's, or rich untouched deposits, from the safety of your chair with a computer and VR headset.
Aw, really wanted that huge piece to come off, haha! Something I thought about: Perhaps using mouth protection for an other time so as not to breathe that lead and stuff into your bodies? :) Heavy metals in body can obj. be removed but usually takes some concious work like Anthony Williams Heavy metal removal stuff etc. :) Wishing you all a gorgeous day!
Man! That is a lot of work for $50 worth of silver. But it's fun to watch from the comfort of my living room! 😂 I really enjoyed this video. Liked & subscribed. 👍🔔
Hi Jason, Awesome video! Great timing, too! 2 weeks ago I got 4 pounds of high grade silver ore from an old silver mine in Austin, Nevada. I'll re-watch this video & take some notes. Thanks - you're a great teacher! Stay safe! Jim
Just don't expect to get rich. That 54g of silver is worth about $40.25, assuming .999 purity. Economy of scale comes into play. Unless you are playing with multi-ton lots of ore, it's just a hobby. Overall, several decades of weekends spent panning gold pretty much just worked out to "many free camping trips next to streams".
@@kevincrosby1760 And I know a guy who has been mining gold as a hobby for decades and everything he has was paid for with gold and hes made pure profit solo mining. Though he also metal detects and has multiple 50 gallon drums of coins and maybe 10k in just coins that he hasnt processed at a coin machine or something yet.
@@waywardgeologist2520 Didn't forget, just simplifying. Quite aware that, for many commercial companies, silver is just a useful byproduct of their lead mines. Intent of post was more to point out that finding a bit of gold or silver doesn't mean that one should send that nasty email to the CEO of their employer...yet.
Always pre-heat a mould, graphite conducts heat so well it self heats to a bit, graphite can take an enormous temperature.........But remember an oxidiser i.e KNO3 never meets graphite.....Amazing video.
It's amazing how much history is getting revived in this world. Watching you has been very educational for my smelting. Great video! Thanks for all you do.
Hoping to see you here , Jeff Peterson ! This is the place . This content creator is very helpful and humble ; you could probably hit him up and ask him questions .
I really like the collaborative effort between you and Brent. I watch and am subscribed to both your channels, along with a few others tied into the whole circle, on your side and Brent's. Just like to see how things come together between people and how they each have their own traits and qualities. It all comes together in a harmonious cacophony of great videos and what's essentially documentaries. Thank you
I love how you combine these mining videos with the smelting/refining videos. What a great narrative! I love it. Haha, maybe next time bring a single jack instead of a carpenter's hammer
You should invest in an XRF Analyzer. It can tell you the different ratios in your ore cones, giving you a better idea of the amounts of things needed to refine the ores.
You should run those silver bars through a jewelers roller mill first to flatten both sides before punching since you used an open face casting method. Honestly the graphite molds you were using didn't have big enough sprue holes for hard high temperature metal. Look for a graphite ingot mold for iron or silver use if you want a good sizing for that. You are supposed to lift the heating torch off the silver just before pouring and the exit sprue should have at least a bit of metal in it for a really good pour. As for the borax normally when casting silver we do it from shot with no flux you can remove the borax by melting your silver and waiting for it to surface and grinding it off if needed(we've had silver in our shop a bit too contaminated by flux and this is a pretty common problem that's our usual solution though a peening hammer works pretty well too).
Looks like Brent is working towards opening an adventure get-away. Those old dynamite boxes have collector or antique value. My son bought one for about $30. 10yrs ago, so don't let them decay.
Thanks Sreetips! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have been avidly watching your refining videos on inquarting gold with Ag and Cu and I am going to give that a try in the next few weeks on some of my hardrock gold/silver I recovered from my mine in Eastern Oregon. Thanks for all your videos and info! Maybe we can work together on a project in the future? I have been getting a ton of comments from my viewers on doing a collab with you :)
You guys make some very interesting videos together. I love to watch both of you guys material Individually, but when you do a combo it’s very cool ❤️🇺🇸
@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he attacks miners and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do you homework.
@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he encourages and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do your homework.
Jason that was enthralling to watch from the first minute to the end you are doing a fantastic job on the Cerro Gordo ore that mine sure has a lot of silver left it will make Brent a rich man but will take time and a lot of work but with the modern technology it’s very doable can’t wait for your next adventure all the best from Scotland 🏴
The silver shown from this run is worth just about enough for a nice steak dinner and a mixed drink... Any money Brent makes will be from tourists, not the mine.
@@kevincrosby1760 I do believe Daniel is speaking of the ore yet to be mined, there is an enormous amount left to be mined. If there is 50 grams per 50 lbs, that means there are approximately 65 troy ounces per ton of material. Not to mention the value of the lead and etc. that's a fortune in silver. If they hauled out 50lbs in a short amount of time, it would take little time to haul out a ton. This could be done at leisure or at least on the side while the rest of the business is flowing. 3 tons per week is 195 toz. That's approximately $4500 plus, if the galena yields 75% lead, there's approx 4500lbs which is around a $1 per lb. So potentially $9000. per week at a relatively slow pace. 2, maybe 3 miners could do a lot of work. It's hard work but, worth it if a man has a mind to make it work. Besides, he could market his silver and sell it at a premium for souvenir coins and bars. Potentially doubling his money.
It's fun watching your work. I thought you would do a cupel test on some of the lead after the zinc separation purification to see how much silver remained behind. I know from casting lead that any trace of zinc will contaminate lead and it doesn't magically separate out. In fact it's well known for making a 'skin' when casting and will ruin whole batches of lead if it gets in.. I suspect you still have zinc in the lead and perhaps silver.
Cool video. Thanks. I'm looking at a sample of Galena my daughter bought for .50 cents at a mineral market. It's a thumb sized shiny metallic rock, it's heavy.
I wewd 😁 love some of your small silver ingots with your design signature on them to make pendants for necklaces. Do you do that short of stuff?? ☃️🎄☃️
I’m pretty sure The bit you guys were using with the hammer is designed to be rotated somewhere between 45 degrees and 90 degrees between between hammer hits so it doesn’t get stuck in the rock, it would’ve broken that chunk off a bit easier
Nice job Jason, maybe you might have your Logo built into the Mold so once poured, the Bars have your Logo, then just add what ever numbers needed , The Silver Poured so Different then the Lead and I was amazed at how much heat the silver needed to stay liquid. Thanks for Sharing that Great Video, Merry Christmas to you and yours . Ben
Love the show, you know what would be really cool to do with the lead-silver ore? Cast mining figurines in various activities in traditional garb. I would think tig done right that they would be collectible and would honor the men who's hard work built the caves and structures. The stuff your subscribers have enjoyed all these months. Thank you for allowing me to come along on this journey of yours! Cheers! C Rose
Hi, very interesting video as always :) I have a question that has been in the back of my head a couple of times when I watched your videos. Why not go the chemical way sometimes ? In this case, your zinc and silver crust. With all your means you could easily have crushed all that to dust and dissolved the zinc in hydrochloric acid ? Of course, I love it when you do things "old school" but I sometimes wondered if you do it on purpose. Other than that, man... if I ever need a rock crusher I wont care you are on the other side of the Atlantic. These videos are excellent commercials for your business as far as I'm concerned.
Watch some of the videos like bigstackD casting. You don’t need to waste time with a two-part mold and a clamp to make an ingot that shape. I’ve seen lots of guys use an old cupcake pan for soft metals.
Great stuff. I'm a Chemist by training, though metallurgy is not my area. I was intrigued to learn that liquid lead and liquid zinc form a phase separation. I had always assumed that liquid metals would almost always be miscible. I guess if I'm still learning, I'm not a complete idiot.
Excellent video! If I could offer one correction, Cerro Gordo is no longer a ghost town. It has been re-established and resurrected by the loving soul of Brent - with the help of some burly angels, and all of our ongoing curiosity.. also the strange allure of vintage Levis 😂 ❤
I worked in a gold mill in about 1977. It was my job to watch the huge steel containers to make sure the stirring arms kept the mud churning. I also took samples hourly at each station then dried them in old ovens. Crushed with milk bottles. Then sent to assay. Using cyanide and a vacuum process we recovered 99% of the gold and silver.
Great video! Ive been wondering about the silver mining process recently and this video explains everything really well. Question I have, can you placer mine for silver or is it usually not found in a high enough concentration to make it worth your time? Thanks!
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing. Too much investment for me. For fantasy gaming though this experiance will aid me to better understand how to assist players in using skills, tools, & providing functional ideas. Giving their game play more depth.
Fascinating! I'm amazed, how the former miners dug their way through these hard rocks with much simpler tools than are available today and managed to create this rather sophisticated, sturdy labyrinth. What concerns me though is that you guys aren't wearing any goggles (at first), gloves, and respirator masks to protect yourself from the lead, airborne rock chips, and splinters.
The mail guy delivering your package: “WTF IS IN THIS BOX, ROCKS??!” 😂😂😂 if only he knew.
I worked underground in a small gold/silver mine in about 1979. This takes me back. I worked alone at about 400'. I would push the skip car to the the ore and then use a kind of powered "bucket" to pull the ore downhill into the skip. Then I would grab the handle of the skip and push it to gain momentum and then jump on the back (like a grocery cart) and ride it to the hoist. Dump and start over. I loved being underground.
You sound like indiana jones!
Were you mining for yourself or a company
@@GLOBAL-INTIFADA A company. Ruby Mining Company.
Did you meet Breunor? 🙂
@@BubblewrapHighway The name is not familiar
Crazy how little silver you actually produced from all that labor. The price of silver is unbelievably cheap. Mindblowing.
Or massively undervalued as a resource and commodity
Its because it's treated as a byproduct without much industrial use, despite it being used in so many things from electrical connections to optics and nuclear research. Part of the issue could be that you don't need much silver to perform a great number of tasks.
@@nunyabisnass1141 yeah. it's mostly a byproduct since it is not used in coins any longer
@@nunyabisnass1141 Platinum to silver single strand wires in fast responce pt1000 temperature censors
all with a framing hammer good job boys
I love when RUclipsrs collaborate. You , Brent , HeavyD, Ian,.... It's starting to become a really cool RUclips rabbit hole following Brent then branching off into these other really cool channels.
Absolutely this. I had no idea who Brent was before this video because frankly, I never watch these types of videos. I'm less than halfway through this video and I'm already loving Brent.
I knew about Dan Hurd for a while, before Jason's channel but never really watched him until he showed up on Jason's channel.
How did I stumble upon Jason's channel? Well I've always been fascinated by electronics recycling and Jason has literally the most detailed and thorough videos I've *ever* found online about the topic. I ended up watching a few of Jason's other videos and I just have to say, Jason is just not only made for this type of work, he is made for sharing these adventures and teaching us all this incredible stuff.
Jason, you are you and we absolutely love it. Keep on keeping on, but PLEASE be safe and avoid going spelunking into these old mines and caves solo. Not sure if you bring air quality meters and O2 sensors and such, but I'd highly recommend you get one and also bring rope and some markers to leave as you descend into new caves and mines. Leaving markers isn't *just* for you, but it's also in the rare situation you get trapped and need to be rescued.
It's like mining RUclips for good videos. Follow the veins.
@@MasterThief117 Dan Hurd was my teacher 12 years ago in high school. Dan has worked with Jason, Jason has worked with Brent. Brent has worked with HeavyD, HeavyD has worked with Cleetus McFarland. Cleetus has worked with Demolition Ranch.
So the largest gun RUclipsr (Demo) is only 6 degrees of separation from my old high school teacher. And me only 7 degrees of separation from him.
It’s a funny world.
I told my friend if I ever bought a ghost town like this I would just turn it to some old timey RUclips town, you got so many crafters and all that stuff on RUclips, black smiths, carpenters, homesteaders, engineers, etc.
I started off with Matts Off Road Recovery, then Donut, HeavyD, and Ghost Town Living. I wonder if there will be more in the chain.
Edit: I just started on Sparks Motors today and didn't realise. Now, looking through the list, it appears they also collaborated with Robbie Layton ( I guess it wasn't only Matt).
Watched in details ur videos. Just fun seeing the collaboration.
These collabs really make it fun, because we get to see all angles of the process from different persepectives. Also you collab with very fun and interesting content creators, keep it up!
Brent is so child like happy when entering the mine. Exciting .
Thanks for the new journey
Great video! My hats off to the miners as well as the people who invented and perfected the smelting process.
.
Is the lead dust your breathing harmful ?
@@jeffbarnes395 lead... harmful? Ha that would be news to me. Lol 'start taking all the pencils and cancel the kids school' some quack says lead is harmful HA HA. 🤠🙊
Sure can be.
@@jeffbarnes395 it won't hurt u long term unless you expose yourself to huge levels it will drop ur IQ impair your memory for a couple of years tho.
My friend stripped her lead paint off with heat gun not knowing it was lead she had basically lead induced dementia she couldn't remember anything or even think properly for about 2 years.
She was exposed to an extremely high levels though they will be fine if they did it for weeks maybe not.
My hat's off to Jason & Brent, & the old school hand drilling...W/ a claw hammer? 🤪😂🤣
I have much respect for miners, because of their hard work, and their processing of Silver and Gold Ore and this allows me to stack physical Silver and Gold Bullion. Thank You for your efforts sir, there are people in the stacking community that appreciate your dedication.
What about a lead bullion collection? You could be the first Lead Stacker on RUclips.
I'm sort of jealous. I like visiting old / interesting places.
To help with making sure you have the stamps oriented right grind a small cross cut across the stamp where your thumb or index finger would be when holding it. So just by feel you know the stamp is oriented correctly.
.
That is actually really smart
Asbestos gloves & ...not a claw hammer,, 2 things you need. great video
Buy property, pay property tax, run utilities to bring ore to the surface after digging and hauling, time and materials spent to process & refine the ore only to find spot on silver at $23. You've just spent/invested $1K per oz. for what you've got. Being heavily invested in silver & knowing the amount of energy expended to produce opposed to it's value makes no sense to me. The history and the lessons were great. Thank goodness for Brent keeping it alive through all of his hard work & efforts. I follow and support him wish him much success. Thank goodness for YT to post these videos to earn revenue to help recover some or all your costs. Thanks for taking me along for the ride. Loved it.
A labor of love for sure and you can dig or muck for fun in your spare time!
Very few silver mines are only silver, the lead in the above video could bring in income along with gold.
I wonder why they film and upload everything, couldn’t be an alternative revenue source.
That’s not the goal of the town. The goal is to restore the town back to its original condition not to mine the place. You don’t go restoring a 300 year old building in the middle of nowhere for profit.
Love especially when Dan Hurd is in them you guys look like you always have a blast.
Very interesting video. So very informative. The knowledge provided to us priceless. 54 grams of Silver @ .75 cents a gram works out to $40.50. Before mining and smelting costs with the lead bringing just .44 cents per pound today. Those silver miners sure did work hard for their wages.
Jason, I have cast hundreds of lead bullets, usually have to remelt the first 5 or 6 , maybe more. It doesn't seem to matter just how much you preheat the mold, it takes a few castings to heat it from the inside out. Then you start getting smooth pours with a nice surface!
When I was a kid, my family used to vacation in the Mammoth Lakes, Ca. area. I explored a few of the old abandoned mines, but have developed enough claustrophobia that I probably wouldn’t enjoy the whole trip these guys are on. Carlsbad Caverns is fine but when my shoulders are touching the walls I’m out. I’m not a grad but was a geology major and really do enjoy “rock hounding” and seeing the technology that is used to extract the metals from the ore. Thanks for the video.
Brent, you need to get some 3 piece wedges to split the rock apart instead of just a hammer and chisel
What was your mold made from?
@@desktopevil carbon
I live about 3 miles from an old lead mine. Its now all capped off as its a public park now. Some of the old buildings remain,. The smelting building had some lumps of ore in it and some slag. My house was wired by a chap who had been the mine electrician.
You guys are brutal with that little hammer. Also, a shorter chisel available might help.
Another great video. Quiz!!! What sound do you hear if you push a piano down a mine shaft? ..... A-flat miner.
Back in the days when I was a kid we loved galena crystals for making a crystal radio.
I made a few of those little radios. No batts needed!
Funny! In the lift shaft Jason is pointing out engineering aspects of the lift shaft guides while the other guy is interested in the levels. Differing interests with the same goal.
I have several old silver bars and they are all stamped on the top with the mine’s name or the owner name and the weight in oz. It will be much easier to stamp the bars if they are sitting directly on the steel plate. Wonderful job on sharing your process to separate the metal’s!
This was the comment I was looking for. You are right him using the particle board as base was absorbing the hammers blows. He needed hard base under silver to get good strikes.
Signs pointing to exits that don't exist: shades of the Winchester Mystery House! 😀
WOW!! What a lot of steps for such a tiny amount of silver! No wonder it's so expensive!
Is the "01" bar the most valuable? Maybe. Or maybe it's the one with the "TM" mistake...like that postage stamp on which they accidentally printed the airplane upside-down! 🙂
Looks like a grand adventure for this day and age. For those working the mines it was everyday punctuated by moments of fear, but now it is far from everyday. Hats off to you. Looks like it was fun!
I've a spectacular case of claustrophobia, watching this is difficult. You guys are nuts!
Have you guys thought about 3D mapping the mine? It would be really cool and useful. It could be done manually or automated with drones. There's soo many things you could do with the scan. It could be used for advanced prospecting, safety improvements, and virtual exploration; imagine virtual tours or mining. It would be much faster and easier to find old mining treasures, like the Levi's, or rich untouched deposits, from the safety of your chair with a computer and VR headset.
Corridor Crew is on it!
Definitely one of your best videos 👍
Aw, really wanted that huge piece to come off, haha! Something I thought about: Perhaps using mouth protection for an other time so as not to breathe that lead and stuff into your bodies? :) Heavy metals in body can obj. be removed but usually takes some concious work like Anthony Williams Heavy metal removal stuff etc. :) Wishing you all a gorgeous day!
Man! That is a lot of work for $50 worth of silver. But it's fun to watch from the comfort of my living room! 😂 I really enjoyed this video. Liked & subscribed. 👍🔔
Hi Jason, Awesome video! Great timing, too! 2 weeks ago I got 4 pounds of high grade silver ore from an old silver mine in Austin, Nevada. I'll re-watch this video & take some notes. Thanks - you're a great teacher! Stay safe! Jim
Just don't expect to get rich. That 54g of silver is worth about $40.25, assuming .999 purity. Economy of scale comes into play. Unless you are playing with multi-ton lots of ore, it's just a hobby.
Overall, several decades of weekends spent panning gold pretty much just worked out to "many free camping trips next to streams".
@@kevincrosby1760 And I know a guy who has been mining gold as a hobby for decades and everything he has was paid for with gold and hes made pure profit solo mining. Though he also metal detects and has multiple 50 gallon drums of coins and maybe 10k in just coins that he hasnt processed at a coin machine or something yet.
@@kevincrosby1760you forgot about the lead.
Yes, it’s a hobby. Could one scale up, yes.
@@waywardgeologist2520 Didn't forget, just simplifying. Quite aware that, for many commercial companies, silver is just a useful byproduct of their lead mines.
Intent of post was more to point out that finding a bit of gold or silver doesn't mean that one should send that nasty email to the CEO of their employer...yet.
Always pre-heat a mould, graphite conducts heat so well it self heats to a bit, graphite can take an enormous temperature.........But remember an oxidiser i.e KNO3 never meets graphite.....Amazing video.
It's amazing how much history is getting revived in this world. Watching you has been very educational for my smelting. Great video! Thanks for all you do.
For sure looks like a fun experience. 56 Gams of Silver is worth $43.89.
You guys should have had a 3# hand sledge. 👍
Hoping to see you here , Jeff Peterson ! This is the place .
This content creator is very helpful and humble ; you could probably hit him up and ask him questions .
I really like the collaborative effort between you and Brent.
I watch and am subscribed to both your channels, along with a few others tied into the whole circle, on your side and Brent's.
Just like to see how things come together between people and how they each have their own traits and qualities.
It all comes together in a harmonious cacophony of great videos and what's essentially documentaries.
Thank you
So do I, watch a few of them. I enjoy watching stuff I've never seen before.
He also does a colab with Dan Hurd Prospecting that I'm equally impressed with. Keep em coming!
I used to watch cerro gordo, until brent starting attacking miners and mining...
Love your museum !
I absolutely 💯 percent loved this video. Thank you for sharing your adventures and videos
I was out looking for quartz crystals this winter and ended up chiseling through a quartz vein. It was full of galena!
Cool looking stuff.
I love how you combine these mining videos with the smelting/refining videos. What a great narrative! I love it.
Haha, maybe next time bring a single jack instead of a carpenter's hammer
That was a really awesome video.
Man, those 2 person pours were intense!
You should invest in an XRF Analyzer. It can tell you the different ratios in your ore cones, giving you a better idea of the amounts of things needed to refine the ores.
Thanks for the time stamp. I had to “nope” out of the mine…
You should run those silver bars through a jewelers roller mill first to flatten both sides before punching since you used an open face casting method. Honestly the graphite molds you were using didn't have big enough sprue holes for hard high temperature metal. Look for a graphite ingot mold for iron or silver use if you want a good sizing for that. You are supposed to lift the heating torch off the silver just before pouring and the exit sprue should have at least a bit of metal in it for a really good pour. As for the borax normally when casting silver we do it from shot with no flux you can remove the borax by melting your silver and waiting for it to surface and grinding it off if needed(we've had silver in our shop a bit too contaminated by flux and this is a pretty common problem that's our usual solution though a peening hammer works pretty well too).
Looks like Brent is working towards opening an adventure get-away. Those old dynamite boxes have collector or antique value. My son bought one for about $30. 10yrs ago, so don't let them decay.
This is the best and most interesting video I’ve seen by your channel Jason. I watched the whole thing - Bravo!
Thanks Sreetips! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I have been avidly watching your refining videos on inquarting gold with Ag and Cu and I am going to give that a try in the next few weeks on some of my hardrock gold/silver I recovered from my mine in Eastern Oregon. Thanks for all your videos and info! Maybe we can work together on a project in the future? I have been getting a ton of comments from my viewers on doing a collab with you :)
Myself as well. That mine adventure was fascinating. It felt like I was down there with you. We’ll keep in touch.
Both these guys are so cool! 🤣😂❤️😂🤣😍. Wouldn't you LOVE to be able to live these dream lives? 😍😍😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️
Cool Jason. The trials and tribulations of a single handed videographer. The lead ingots came out really well 👍
Love your work I finished my electric oven and have 59 samples weighting GREAT FUN
Wow! That mine is incredible. The separation process was very interesting to watch. Thanks!
imagine hearing something weird down there 🙄
Good video, watched all of it !
You guys make some very interesting videos together. I love to watch both of you guys material Individually, but when you do a combo it’s very cool
❤️🇺🇸
I used to watch cerro gordo, until brent starting attacking miners and mining...
@@AUMINER1
Ok...how..I dont see Brent in that way..
@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he attacks miners and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do you homework.
@@semoneg2826 then you haven't watched many of his videos where he encourages and recruits all of his foreign supporters to fill petitions and draft complaints and letters to BLM to stop all mining in the USA. Do your homework.
What a great video. I have absolutely no critique to give. Absolutely amazing
"Is your 10 feet the same as my 10 feet?" True answer shown when Brent has a 50 foot rope for the 10 foot vertical span. Lol
Jason that was enthralling to watch from the first minute to the end you are doing a fantastic job on the Cerro Gordo ore that mine sure has a lot of silver left it will make Brent a rich man but will take time and a lot of work but with the modern technology it’s very doable can’t wait for your next adventure all the best from Scotland 🏴
The silver shown from this run is worth just about enough for a nice steak dinner and a mixed drink... Any money Brent makes will be from tourists, not the mine.
@@kevincrosby1760 I do believe Daniel is speaking of the ore yet to be mined, there is an enormous amount left to be mined. If there is 50 grams per 50 lbs, that means there are approximately 65 troy ounces per ton of material. Not to mention the value of the lead and etc. that's a fortune in silver. If they hauled out 50lbs in a short amount of time, it would take little time to haul out a ton. This could be done at leisure or at least on the side while the rest of the business is flowing. 3 tons per week is 195 toz. That's approximately $4500 plus, if the galena yields 75% lead, there's approx 4500lbs which is around a $1 per lb. So potentially $9000. per week at a relatively slow pace. 2, maybe 3 miners could do a lot of work. It's hard work but, worth it if a man has a mind to make it work. Besides, he could market his silver and sell it at a premium for souvenir coins and bars. Potentially doubling his money.
Great Result. Very entertaining!
Love the video! Would love to see more of the chemistry behind the smelting. You should be proud of your work.....it looks perfect!!!
Awesome! RUclipsrs who help other RUclipsrs kickA$$!
It's fun watching your work. I thought you would do a cupel test on some of the lead after the zinc separation purification to see how much silver remained behind. I know from casting lead that any trace of zinc will contaminate lead and it doesn't magically separate out. In fact it's well known for making a 'skin' when casting and will ruin whole batches of lead if it gets in.. I suspect you still have zinc in the lead and perhaps silver.
Great collaboration! You guys should make bullets for a six shooter revolver with the lead.
Respect for miners.
I would be terrified 20 feet into a mine
Cool video. Thanks. I'm looking at a sample of Galena my daughter bought for .50 cents at a mineral market. It's a thumb sized shiny metallic rock, it's heavy.
Make some Cerro Gordo fishing sinkers / weights!
I wewd 😁 love some of your small silver ingots with your design signature on them to make pendants for necklaces. Do you do that short of stuff?? ☃️🎄☃️
Its amazing how much lead you managed to get! Thank you for showing the whole process from mine to finished product. Merry Christmas
29:47 damn dog how did you hit that oar so fast with that hammer?!?! 30:02 your hammer skills are impeccable!😂
I’m pretty sure The bit you guys were using with the hammer is designed to be rotated somewhere between 45 degrees and 90 degrees between between hammer hits so it doesn’t get stuck in the rock, it would’ve broken that chunk off a bit easier
A pick and shovel pendant! [Framing hammer] 😉👍
OVER AN HOUR OF VIDEO! YES!!!
Love the channel, been following for ages. Love all the collabs and glad you're getting tons of new business too! :)
I’d love to have a chance to explore that mine, even if I’m not allowed to keep what I bring out
loving your videos more and more... diverse... honest and a great adventure. Thank you
I looked at the thumbnail to this video real quick and for a second it looked like you had long hair! But it was just your hood... Hahahh
Interesting as ever, Jason. Always fun to learn new stuff as you do too. Lotta effort for a little bit of silver, but still pretty cool.
I like how it's process goes
Nice job Jason, maybe you might have your Logo built into the Mold so once poured, the Bars have your Logo, then just add what ever numbers needed , The Silver Poured so Different then the Lead and I was amazed at how much heat the silver needed to stay liquid. Thanks for Sharing that Great Video, Merry Christmas to you and yours . Ben
One of my favorite video series ever! Keep up the collaborations
love it, keep up the good work Jason!
Love the show, you know what would be really cool to do with the lead-silver ore? Cast mining figurines in various activities in traditional garb. I would think tig done right that they would be collectible and would honor the men who's hard work built the caves and structures. The stuff your subscribers have enjoyed all these months. Thank you for allowing me to come along on this journey of yours! Cheers! C Rose
Hi, very interesting video as always :)
I have a question that has been in the back of my head a couple of times when I watched your videos.
Why not go the chemical way sometimes ? In this case, your zinc and silver crust. With all your means you could easily have crushed all that to dust and dissolved the zinc in hydrochloric acid ?
Of course, I love it when you do things "old school" but I sometimes wondered if you do it on purpose.
Other than that, man... if I ever need a rock crusher I wont care you are on the other side of the Atlantic. These videos are excellent commercials for your business as far as I'm concerned.
Greatest rockd
Yeah.. I don’t understand it either. All these mining channels do it for some reason. It seems to me it’s just wasting yield for no reason.
Watch some of the videos like bigstackD casting. You don’t need to waste time with a two-part mold and a clamp to make an ingot that shape. I’ve seen lots of guys use an old cupcake pan for soft metals.
Great stuff.
I'm a Chemist by training, though metallurgy is not my area.
I was intrigued to learn that liquid lead and liquid zinc form a phase separation. I had always assumed that liquid metals would almost always be miscible. I guess if I'm still learning, I'm not a complete idiot.
Can't wait to see you out there again!
Excellent video! If I could offer one correction, Cerro Gordo is no longer a ghost town. It has been re-established and resurrected by the loving soul of Brent - with the help of some burly angels, and all of our ongoing curiosity.. also the strange allure of vintage Levis 😂 ❤
True
I worked in a gold mill in about 1977. It was my job to watch the huge steel containers to make sure the stirring arms kept the mud churning. I also took samples hourly at each station then dried them in old ovens. Crushed with milk bottles. Then sent to assay. Using cyanide and a vacuum process we recovered 99% of the gold and silver.
Great video! Ive been wondering about the silver mining process recently and this video explains everything really well. Question I have, can you placer mine for silver or is it usually not found in a high enough concentration to make it worth your time? Thanks!
You two should sign your names on the walls whenever you explore down there!
I absolutely love learning about refining. Great jobs Brent and MBMM
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing.
Too much investment for me.
For fantasy gaming though this experiance will aid me to better understand how to assist players in using skills, tools, & providing functional ideas. Giving their game play more depth.
I think it would be really cool to have a custom mold with Cerro Gordo Logo or maybe limited tokens make from the ore there.
Your looking at the remnants of the vein. Good stuff guys, be careful!
Great video.
Nice to see you wearing adequate respiratory protection.
We don‘t want you getting lead poisoning.
"is your 10 feet.?.......etc" always a good question! I had an experience with misunderstanding 13 meters when it was 30! FUN
Fascinating! I'm amazed, how the former miners dug their way through these hard rocks with much simpler tools than are available today and managed to create this rather sophisticated, sturdy labyrinth.
What concerns me though is that you guys aren't wearing any goggles (at first), gloves, and respirator masks to protect yourself from the lead, airborne rock chips, and splinters.
And bacteria that hasn't been touched he'd or breathed by humans in 200 years
@@sideshow45 beats ohio
@@dipf7705 not hard to.
Really enjoyed the two parts of the video. So interesting! So much fun! Thank you. :-)
Love the videos. Did you test the lead for lost silver?
I love the how you show and teach how mining was done back in the day.
Why does this fascinate me?