Silver rich minerals, silver ores, and silver geology - What you need to know to find natural silver
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
- Would you like to find your own silver? Would you like to be able to recognize silver ores? To find stuff like that you have to know what you are looking at. Silver is a valuable metal and silver bearing minerals are found naturally in ores here and there all over the earth. Even silver bearing minerals have a notable value in and of themselves, even without the silver metal being extracted from them. In this video I am talking about silver minerals, silver ores, silver geology and hints about how you can find valuable silver out in the field. It out there to be found by those who know what they are doing.
For those who want to learn more about prospecting and finding gold check out my book, Fists full of Gold. It’s an encyclopedia of everything on the topic of prospecting. It’s available on Amazon. You can find it at (affiliate):
www.amazon.com/gp/product/098...
For even more information on prospecting, minerals, gems and other related information you can also check out my website at:
nevada-outback-gems.com/prospe... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I am a GPAA member and have purchased your book. I want to thank you personally for all the knowledge I am learning from it. Awesome book and I do recommend it for all new prospectors..
Awesome, thank you for the kind words!
Smugglers Mine, Aspen, Colorado. The largest documented silver nugget was discovered in Aspen in 1894. It weighed 1,840 pounds, roughly 834 kilograms and assayed as 96% pure silver.
They have a piece of that in the mineral museum in Denver.
It was found in the Mollie Gibson, but hauled up the Smuggler shaft.
Thanks Chris, love this video!! Will watch it more than once
I'm glad you found it helpful.
Wow! Im impressed with your knowledge of the silver minerals. Nice silver mineral examples and silver ore too...Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Glad to see you touching on things I've read in usgs reports but didn't fully understand what was meant until now. Thank you!
I'm glad to know it was helpful for you!
Chris, You are amazing at explaining. Thanks
Thanks for the kind words.
Great information again thanks Chris, enjoy the New Year!
Thanks much and a Happy new year to you and yours!
Absolutely love this and the other ore videos ❤
Yay! Thank you! And there are more to come.
@ChrisRalph do you happen a fan email account I'd love to send you pics of what I've found using your videos and book
Thankyou for defining Acanthite. We have Argentite (AKA Acanthite we did not know that) and was defined by old reports. For us the acanthite is an indicator metal for a gold pocket which we have found. Nice job. Love your videos. Keep em comin!
I'm glad to hear that they have been helpful.
I like the more in depth videos, thanks Chris.
Glad you do.
Thank you Chris for the valuable information I have read your book and I'm going to go to Arizona
Best of luck to you. There is lots of gold and some silver mines that produce silver metal in AZ.
Hey Chris, nice presentation!..Should really help greenhorns understand what they are looking at in the field. Really good job with the mineral samples, it is really important to be able to recognize them by sight. Thanks for your time!
Thanks 👍 Glad to hear you found it helpful
Thanks , I got ideas now . Been a rock collector but did not know until now . Again TY .
Glad you found it helpful.
Dude Chris i love your shirt and this info. ty
I like that shirt too.
Hello from ontario canada loving the content
Awesome! Thank you!
I've been doing some prospecting and it led me to your channel. I'll sub, because i think i've just found a tonne of silver ore LOL just waiting for the XRF data.
Sounds interesting. Best of luck with your discoveries.
Shoot. My father found both gold and silver. But he never showed me were he found it. He would always say one of these days but one of these days never happened .
that is unfortunate.
ask again
@@barhunter2394 Unfortunately he died back in the 90s
I'm at that age where I'll never make it back up in those mountainous spots ever again that I know of. And there's no trails to follow. I'm disabled now & into old age which prohibits those hikes ever again. But damned rich areas I discovered back in my 20s & 30s
One spot off the Downy River was a 4 day hike in and out up a steep Mountian to a waterfall I heard of. Where at the base of the falls was full of chunky gold. My girlfriend and I picked up 19oz of sizable gold nuggets in one afternoon. Was the steepest climb ever with a back pack I ever made. Even the man who told us of this spot was unwilling to go up in there with us. And we were not disappointed in his information when we found his waterfall. But that climb was so steep we literally had to pull ourselves up the hill one scrub oak branch at a time 2 day's up & 2 day's back down. Even I was unwilling to make a return trip back into that waterfall while I was still in peek physical condition.
I'm still thankful for that old timer gold miner Mr Chips, that lived in a cave. He started my gold fever years when I was only looking to fish a river. Everything he taught us turned into gold that summer of 1986. We returned to his camp 8X that summer.
We know a spot or two where we can find the occasional silver crystals with metal detectors. They are fascinating and quite attractive...The "Silver Dog" was a heck of a find, and I believe more were found after and before that . As always Chris, you got my 👍⛏
I have a couple Nevada locations in mind but have never trekked out to test them.
On TH-cam here there are 2 Professionals that I subscribe to their channels to get Educated on the subject of Prospecting even though I have been a prospector and miner for over 50 years, I find their knowledge and expertise invaluable, one of these is Chris Ralph and the other is Jeff Williams. Darrell Lane
Glad the video was helpful.
I agree. I love them both.
I brought home silver ore samples from Mc Cracken area just last week so this video is perfect.
Chris hello, you made very informative video. We operate small silver mine in Chile but the main mineral is Stromeyerite AgCuS replacing chalcopyrite boxwork.
Stromeyerite is another silver rich mineral - its fairly rare but in some places there is a good amount of it.
Silver and Gold my two favorites !!!!!!!!!!!!
The gold version of this coming soon
Chris hello, you made very informative video. We operate small silver mine in Chile but the main mineral is Stromeyerite AgCuS
Stromeyerite is another silver mineral - its fairly rare but in some places there is a good amount of it.
Some of the ore I found looks similar to some of the specimens. Mostly white quartz with lots of black to grey minerals with some pyrite. Still need to test it. Great information 😊
Glad you found the info useful.
Great video!! Lucky for me I live hours away from the richest silver camp in the early 1900's. Cobalt, Ontario. Going to cut some ore right now hoping for some dendritic or herringbone structures!!
Very cool! Cobalt does produce a lot of metallic silver.
love it!
I'm glad you found it helpful.
Here in Missouri I’ve found several silver ores in the volcanic zone of the St Francois Mountains. Some very strange crystallized metals as well
sounds interesting.
there is a new cobalt mine in Fredericktown....probably near where you find your silver (I grew up in Rolla, parents had a place near Fredericktown)
@@frederickmatthews4259 - yeah, the local landowners are getting worried-they’re all too familiar with what can happen.
Great video
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks from Australia
You're welcome Glad it was helpful
Hi Chris, thanks for all your videos! Always informative! I found some silver nuggets in Arizona. One weighed 2.5 lbs! The old timers did some minor digging in the area but only chip sampled the vein directly above the nuggets. I assayed two places that showed some copper staining and got .06 Au- .50 Ag and .04 Au- .90 Ag. I expected some higher numbers on the silver, but is what it is. My question is, what are the chances of concentrated native silver within this vein? I just cant believe that it produced nuggets that are .97 fine and no more? That big one was laying right on surface! I got the signal, saw that grey thing laying there, thought, no way! Brushed it aside with my foot and went Yep! At the very least it was a fun find! What do you think? Worth digging?
Knowing nothing about your spot, I can't say what the exact geology is - and I don't offer consultation to try to figure it out. I'd check out the area below the vein along its whole length and check out other veins in the area.
Where do you sell your rocks and how do you get your rock/mineral samples verified? Thanks for the videos! I love your work!
This is a big topic - there are whole books written about it. You are finding a market and developing a sales strategy. You will want to learn enough about minerals to verify your own samples. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/w-d-xo.html and Part 2 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/w-d-xo.html and Part 3 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/w-d-xo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
@ChrisRalph Will do! Thank you for the video referrals! ❤
Is it possible to find metallic silver in the same vein of silver sulfide down below? If yes, how deep?
Thank you Chris for all of your videos,, you are an encyclopaedia .. man 👍
Yes, I explained that in detail in the section on secondary enrichment. Watch that section again.
@@ChrisRalph yes, heard you saying can be 7-50 feet ,, your videos are very rich in information that one gets dizzy 😂
In North Little Rock Arkansas were once zinc mines and the old Spanish name was Silver Argenta... one fella say excavation of Camelot hotel foundation kicked up a good size Silver nugget. Interesting to note is abt 5miles SE is large igneous (granet)sp plug parts of which are mined by 3M as roofing cover. Abt 25mi SSE is old barite mine. TWIXT Argenta and the Barite deposit are bauxite deposits that were mined around Bauxite AR in WW2 for Al.
Interesting geology in the area.
Thenkyo very good ❤
Glad you enjoyed it.
Greetings to you for the wonderful explanation.. I have yodargerite ore, how do I extract silver from it, and also silver chloride with limestone, how do I separate the silver from it?
I have no idea what is "yodargerite ore" and niether does google. Perhaps something needs to be translated.
Dude. You're doing God's work. I hope u know. Thank you for opening so many eyes that had forgotten how to open.
I'm glad to know that you enjoyed the video.
Chris, Have you ever made it up to Canada in Ontario to see the Silver mining town of Cobalt, Ontario?
Never been to Ontario. But I have been to Virginia City and many other famous silver districts.
You might trip on the tonnage on my dads yard in planters i hauled there. Silver silfides sure are heavy.
Yep, they are heavy indeed.
Took me YEARS to find my first piece of native silver. I lived in western mass near the old loudville lead and silver mine. Trying to distinguish the manganese from oxidized silver is tough.
I would have missed the native silver if i hadnt examined the black "manganese" well enough to see the tiny curled ends of the native silver strands.
Question...... what is a good cleaning agent to use on silver ore ?
HCL shouldn't harm metallic silver but im hesitant to clean an oxide with it.
Some mines have a lot more native silver than others.
To remove black tarnish from a specimen - Place a flat piece of aluminum at the bottom of a sauce pan. A nice short length of aluminum flat bar is best, but any solid flat piece of aluminum will work. Sand the aluminum to remove any oxide before using it. Fill the pan part way with enough distilled water to cover the specimen when it is resting on the aluminum. Create a saturated solution by heating up the water until it is warm to hot (not boiling) and adding baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and table salt (sodium chloride) in equal amounts until you can dissolve no more. A little excess undissolved salt or soda does not seem to harm anything. Place the silver specimen on the aluminum so that the silver metal makes electrical contact with the aluminum. Wait and watch, keeping the solution hot but well below boiling in temperature.
in utahs west desert there are something like giant sulfur /sulfide ant mounts , where do i sink my shaft to find these concentrated mineral deposits? whats the typical surrounding environments from a really good galena deposit/old ass mine? thanks for the videos!
I have no idea what you mean by "giant sulfur /sulfide ant mounts".
I live near leadville colorado, I recently found large grained galena,was wondering if the silver at this location is in galena,I know zinc was mined later during the district downturn
Lots of silver was in Galena near Leadville. Maybe that holds for your specimen also.
I have a piece of the vein silver, I bought a collection of silver and gold and watched this to learn more about what I got, the person who owned it before me was sort of famous, Mine looks like the one at 7:53 and has an arsenic mineral on the outside which is pink. it is a large specimen and may be rare. I sanded and polished it and it shines like a silver bar now, yes i was aware and careful of exotic elements that may be toxic. I guess you are not supposed to handle these much, wash your hands when you do. The outside has black and pin k on it and the cut face is pure silver in color and shines like silver. if it is as silver as it looks I got some free silver metal for what i spent. I also watched your gold video, some of the gold in quartz looks real nice when it is slabbed. I also got a copper nugget with silver as part of the copper from Michigan, not sure how that happened but it is called a halfbreed by some. Fascinating video!
sounds like an interesting collection.
Western cascades OR we have lots of galena, tetrahydrite and chalcopyrite that has resulted in silver recoveries historically outpacing gold 2:1. I’m finding lots of anglesite on my placer claims, what is the connection to silver if any?
Anglesite is s result of weathering and oxidation acting on Galena.
Have you considered making a Discord or other social media to interact with your following?
No - that's not been a priority.
I live in clear Creek county Colorado in empire to be clear I've herd there is a lot of silver above silver plume I've found a lot of magnetic materials coming out of a local stream does silver sick to iron magnetics as well like gold
Not really. Gold is found as metallic gold and it accumulates with heavy minerals in streams. Silver is almost never found as metallic silver. It occurs as silver bearing minerals and does not form silver placers.
One of the most beautiful sights of silver I've ever seen in Nevada was a strip mining operation between Gold Hill & Silver City in the Devils Gate area on the 343 hwy south of Virginia City .Back in the mid 80s. The only reason this fresh cut on this hill caught my eye was because the bright glint of the sun reflecting off the side of this huge hill. Which was solid silver deposit that was blinding, as the dark Grey surface was so reflective it was brightly reflecting the suns rays as dull Grey as it was. The base of this hill was probably about 300yds by 200yrds of shear vertical exposing this solid silver deposit. With half of this hill having been already removed.
I'll never forget that blinding light off that silver deposit. I stopped by the gaurd at the gate stopped me. I wanted to walkover and pickup a small sample. But there was noway this gaurd was going to allow me on this claim. But did manage to find a Drew good size samples that had fallen off the trucks by walking the road. And those were some heavy rocks. That felt more like the weight of shot puts! That was some heavy metal & beautiful.
Glad you ended up with a good specimen of ore.
I've got a green glassy rock with a few bubbles also gray too . What is your guess as to what I've got
I have no idea - your question is like me asking - I know a guy with red hair - what is his name?
Rusty, obviously.@@ChrisRalph
I'm in Buckeye I'm a Risk Inspector gone prospector Rainbow valley is rich with sulfides
Lots of places with sulfides.
Ever been to the "don Joachim Spanish gold mine" on Sierra Estrella?
All goldbearing rock can identify by Metal ditectore?? Or some not response??
If the pieces of gold are too small, the metal detector will not respond.
Thank you
سلام انا من سوريا اود التعرف من حضرتك عن طريق استخراج الذهب من الحجار عن طريق الزئبق اذا تكرمت وشكرا
Parlez vous Francais?
Had someone tell me it was slag , also ask where did you find that
All over as slag gets transported and used for various purposes.
trying to find out what neutral solution is to test for rhodium. i know it has to be a nickel silver ore. and you boil the ore if it turns orange or red the presence of rhodium is there. you know what you boil it in. have a good day.
good luck - Rhodium occurs in tiny trace amounts in ores. A test for large amounts in ore would be useless.
@@ChrisRalph whats the solution to test with. ???
I don't know of any simple test for rhodium.
Good luck
Thanks, good luck to you.
Might have been a booboo around 16 minutes too.
That specimen is apatite. No silver in the chemical formula of that mineral.
Very informative video for people who may think that metallic minerals are found in their metallic form !
No, its not an error. The photo was taken of a cabinet full of minerals and each had its own tag telling what it is. The picture is of acanthite, a silver mineral. In the background was a specimen of Apatite. You cannot see that specimen, but you see the tag for it. SO you are seeing the name tag for another mineral specimen.
@ChrisRalph ahhhhh okay, thank you for the clarification !
I only saw one specimen and one specimen tag, so I had to associate the tag with the specimen.
Chia sẽ của bạn rất là hay.
Parlez vous Francais?
Whst is a sulfide ? Lead ?
A metal combined with sulfur. Lead sulfide is a chemical which contains lead and sulfur.
Can i send you a few small samples? Just to get a professional opinion
I'm sorry for this answer, but I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral samples and photos or otherwise help them individually - you'd be surprised by the number. I do not offer a rock and mineral ID service and I never have, but still I am contacted all the time because thousands of people from all over the world view my videos every day.
@@ChrisRalphcan you tell us the name of a good fire assayer that we can send ore samples to? I have found a few good ones, but the ones locally that I called only do business to business, etc, skyline labs in Tucson I called I think they told me 400-500$ minimum? Also I heard, that some do sample preparation and they might be a decent way to crush your ore if you don't have a 🏠 or place to keep/run a mill/rock crusher? Thanks! I am very curious to know what is inside my rocks lol
How does Crystalized Silver and gold happen?
The same way all things crystalize. Under the right conditions, atoms want to come together in a certain fixed way with a specific orientation. The atoms all arranged in the same way is a crystal.
Have you ever been to georgia.??? They had a great gold rush out here in the 1830's to 1870's,then there's the trail of tears where the Indian's got up rooted by the government at the time.!!! They where sent to Oklahoma and thousands died from starvation and froze... How very sad and yet their are no reservations in Georgia to show any kind of forgiveness or help their people affected... Dahlonega and Aroroeoa were huge area's for very large gold rush'es...Yet the boy's left for Colorado and found Silver instead...❤❤❤😂 I am a beginner prospector wish you would show more stuff right in the field,some of your stuff is really hard to pick up...! I'm coin silver,like raw silver on a Gold Bug Pro read out.???!?😮❤🎉😊😊❤
Been to Atlanta like 30 years ago, but did no prospecting in that trip. Yep, there is gold in Georgia.
youre talking about porphyry as if it were a mineral. can you be more specific about the minerals you are referring to when you say porphyry?
I talk about it as if it were a kind of rock, because that is what it is. There are entire books written about porphyry deposits. Use Google to search your more info on porphyry deposits and you will find huge amounts of information.
@@ChrisRalph you're deflecting to the general, and Im asking about YOUR specific case. but if you're just winging it, fine, just say "I dont know" and move on. Im not watching anymore of your videos. Im gonna use Google instead. I recommend everyone else to do the same. Goodbye and good luck.
Friend, I talk about silver ore deposits in general in this video - I'm not talking about a specific mine or one specific deposit. So there is no "Your specific case" from this video for me to talk about. And honestly, if you are that easily insulted, I'd prefer you NOT watch my videos.
👍🏼
Thanks.
I found something that looks of silver. Now what do I do with it? 20lbs worth.
Lots of things can look like silver, including lead ore. First be really sure of what it actually is.
@@ChrisRalph thanks for the advise. How would I test if it was lead or not?
A wall of silver in northern Michigan
Pocket some of that wall and make some money.
You spelled silver wrong on the 2nd line
Yep. In just too much of a hurry I guess.
I wish the music track for this game wasn't a 30-second loop!
Its sarcasm? Commenting on the wrong video? You have me stumped pal. Your brillig isn't a slithy tove.
Whoa, It super was the wrong video. I'm not sure how that happened. So sorry - I really like your channel!@@ChrisRalph
OK, no worries. Stuff like that sometimes happens.
Is Cody your son
I have one son, his name is Ben.
@@ChrisRalph ok just wondering. A kid named Cody has a channel called Cody’s lab. He does his show on mining property that he says was his dads. The kid is brilliant and adventurous. He is how I picture u as a young man. I have a question. I forage and artifact hunt for years now. I added ores to my adventures because I can’t help but to pocket natural metals if I come across them while feild hunting Artifact’s or creek beds etc. I like to cook crush and pan stones that I find interesting. I do my collecting in Lehigh valley pa. Is there anything out here that I can make a little side cash if I find and extract or refine.
I'll be honest that I have never been to PA, and living out on the western side of the country, I don't know the geology of PA very well
@@ChrisRalph thank you. Sometimes I get interesting metals in my concentrates. I will crush pan and pull the magnetic material out. I always look for non corrosive particles. It comes down to sand particles if I send you small bags of the concentrated heavy non magnetic material would you check it out? Can you identify what Is in it?
MILITARY DEMAND FOR SILVER FAR OUT-STRIPS ALL OTHERS. A TOMAHAWK MISSILE HAS 500 OUNCES OF SILVER IN IT. BUT OF COURSE, MILITARY DEMAND FOR SILVER IS NOT TRACKED NOR REPORTED. THAT'S HOW THEY KEEP THE SUPPOSED PRICE OF SILVER HAMMERED.
I think the price of silver is finally on the move upward.
@@ChrisRalphi study your work every chance i get, Chris. i actually found what i now know is a "orogenic/mesothermic deposit" and have a actual piece of the seam where the okanogan micro continent "docked" with the then western edge of the continent. one chunk of sea floor subducting under the then continental edge. i have pics. i found this chunk with the subducting layer diving under the existing layer and the rock is melted on top on the continental side, perfectly depicting "subduction", and vocanic action at the joint.. unmistakable, the subducting layer was laying pointing due west and the overiding layer was pointing due east. just layers of silica "quartz" over black layers of sea floor. had it for three years until i realized what is was proof of. i'll be watching every time i get the chance. can't thank you enough for your work, chris.
@@ChrisRalphbeen waiting for that since the 70's. :)