Nice Chris. The first time I held gold was when my great-great grandfather handed a young me a very large lump which bowed me over with it's weight. He was prospecting in Western Australia from the earliest days. He had a block of forest on the coast and they would cut giant Kauri trees in summer and prospect in winter when it was impossible to get the timber out of the bush. He told me about taking his load of timber to the goldfields & swapping it for gold nuggets. He was quite successful, turning the cleared land into dairy farms and owning a mine that produced a million ounces. One thing he insisted I remember was that when the waterhole he usually stopped at was dry, the Indigenous Aboriginals rescued him and he spent some time with them and if not for them....
Nice commentary on Kalgoorlie Chris. I lived there for a few years. Did you know that in addition to the Golden Mile Superpit the whole city of Old Kalgoorlie was termited underneath by old-time underground miners? In 1988 a proposal was submitted to the City Council by the largest mining company of that time to re-locate the entire city so that the remaining ore underneath it could be mined as an open pit. It was only defeated by one vote. Only in Kalgoorlie!
We are fortunate enough to work this general area as a hobby, we, along with many others, still find nice nuggets on or near the surface with metal detectors. It’s a very interesting and rewarding hobby.
My jealousy is palpable! I live in california and a good day for me is NOTHING to you guys! I dream of finding a nugget and would love to visit australia sometime and maybe go metal detecting there...
@@goldfools5445 If i get the job i am shooting for right now i may be able to work remotely... Fingers crossed i can fly over for an "extended vacation" ! Keep getting the good gold bud! Know that you are lucky and save those nuggets to pass on to your children!
You say it's too late mate I live in Australia you act like they dug and mined it all. Chris is right you would be lucky to survive let alone have enough water you would wanna take a lot of spare tyres I suggest you watch a show called I shouldn't be Alive you might understand what the desert in Australia is like.
I'm heading out soon. Troopy landcruiser, motorbike, fully set to stay a month anywhere, plus hunting equipment and communications. Can't wait to dance around the fire naked..... oh fk, I typed that out loud... 😂
It’s still very rich out there and there’s ground that has never been worked. We are a big country and there’s gold in all states. Tasmania is an odd one though. It’s illegal to sell gold you find in the state unless you are a mining company with a lease. You can find it as a private prospector and keep it but can’t sell any minerals legally there. I imagine people hop on the ferry and sell it in Victoria. I think 7 out of 10 of the biggest nuggets ever found world wide were found in Victoria where I am.
Great historical information and those specimens are amazing. I did stop in at the exhibit in Golden and spent hours just looking at the ore samples. It was the equivalent to the super lotto back then. You either blew your money or hit the jackpot. Pretty exciting for a young guy but imagine how many husbands struck out to try their luck with families depending on them to find a good claim. It makes playing the stock market a kids game nowadays.
11:33 The Comstock, the world's richest Silver Deposit had a ten to one or a 17 to one ratio of silver to gold. The gold was hard to extract while most of the silver was pure enough to ship to the US Mint for coinage. The gold was very plentiful, but required more effort to process which is why the old Comstock Silver miners through away gold ore that was less than 1/2 ounce per ton. Today's refining methods can be profitable on 1/100 ounce per ton of ore, making tailings with 1/2 ounce per ton fabulously rich. There are 4 to 11 million ounces of gold that is still in the ground.
The gold-silver ratio is close but all the rest of that was wrong. Refining was needed before coinage, the gold extracted with the silver both in the Washoe process and the later process of cyanidation, and no, they did not throw away ore that had a half ounce of gold. Gold of 0.01 oz/ton is pretty low grade, but if they are already moving it (like waste stripping) then they put that on the heap for leaching. There are 4 to 11 million ounces of gold in Nevada at various places, but not known ore on the Comstock. And the Comstock, while a very rich deposit, is not the world's richest silver deposit. You sound like you've listened too closely to the V.C. tour guides who are often inaccurate.
My father reprocessed an old Mullock heap back in the late sixties in Daylesford Victoria Australia and found profitable gold even back then at 35 dollars an ounce and hand tools. That it also contained lots of mercury is also a reason that all OLD heaps should be reprocessed just for environmental reasons!
@@adriaandeleeuw8339 I have read that several companies are reprocessing mine tailings and making a profit. The old pick-and-shovel miners just followed a gold vein they did not know how to do core sampling and resource mapping.
Since people invented and distributed mercury on the planet, people should recollect and destroy all the mercury before we all die of global warming, I mean climate change.
Just from watching this video I would recommend the book. I’m an Australian who has metal detected right though this area, only finding 15gm from 3 nuggets. This was a travelling holiday and if I could I would be back out there doing again, it beats buying lottery tickets. This video missed nothing regarding the Kalgoorlie story as I’m very familiar with it. If you want to take anything away, learn about rock identification!! Know your landscape and geological history. Only 3 nuggets but with a little more time and knowledge it could have been better. My goal was to find a 2 Oz ‘er, I was shown several such nuggets as I love to chat and as long as you don’t ask the stupid question “where did you find that” many experienced people will give you good pointers. I’m 73 and have too many injuries to return but boy if I could I would. Out there the stars go from one horizon to the other and the desert nights simply magical albeit cold Thanks a very informative video and yes I would recommend your book, I’d even buy it myself sadly our pensions just don’t quite make it. Take care
What a great story of Western Australia. I know a couple out there are finding nice nuggets with detectors. Honestly, if happened to come across some of that Telluride material, I would have ignored it likewise ! Had to be a big "Oops" for the old-timers. Again, thanks for sharing this amazing story. Would love to visit there someday. Perhaps bring a Gold Rattler ? 🤔
Hey Chris Congratulations for this amazing video. Very accurate all the information about the Super Pit . I’m located in WA Australia and I know very well this area and your information is Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
would you do videos about more ores? like Bismuth, Iron , Tin , Titanium , Tungsten, Chrohium , Manganese, your other videos especialy that pyrite , copper, galena and silver videos were amazingly helpfull
Chris love your vids love the geology of minerals and where they come from and how they are formed if I could have my time again on this earth I would be a geologist I’ll get to the point about a year ago I detected a gold specimen 62.4 grams approx 50 grams of gold in it however it is encased in small quarts crystals and wot looks like zircons awsome to see in the sunlight seems very unique it is not weathered at all and has like gold nodes poking out of it is this something special or the norm 😀😀
Hope you dont mind a sugestion as you were giving the history and naming locations if a map had filled the screen we could have seen where the progression of finds occured
Thank you Chris. Well put together. A great presentation. So often the case that the original discoverer/discoverers didn't do so well. Happened many times here in New Zealand too.
What a coincidence! I'm retired in Australia but my home town is Golden where the School of Mines museum is you took the pictures at. I lived 5 blocks from there.
From the geology point of view, the Yilgarn crayon is fascinating and is some of the oldest rocks on the planet. Dating back at least four billion years
Hey Chris, I’ve got a question - what sort of payment structure did these individual workers get when running a mine? Once big areas are consolidated into a single operation like this, do individual prospectors lose their incentive to follow the “gold rush,” because they were then just working for a wage? Or did they make enough of a percentage of the profits that it was still worth working for a big operation? Fascinating video as always, thanks for continuously giving us great info!
There was wages, not profit sharing. The workers were paid in coin of the realm, and were generally not the same folks as the traveling prospectors. The prospectors sold their claims and moved on to search for new green pastures.
One acre in Victoria Australia produced tens of fist sized nuggets. The area around it is the worlds richest gold field. We just need to get to it under the magma extrusions
That was a very concise and informative presentation my friend , Well done 👍👍 Yes, and Western Australia produces some of the purest Iron ore in the world . I guess i'm a bit biased there, because i'm an Aussie Cheers Ned . ✌
In 1994 I first went to kal to did mineral exploration for a job. 1999 my first underground job was in super pit. Sam pierce decline. We drilled sum green leader. 200 oz per ton. Dark green quartz. Black water return from the hole.
Great content there, I have held a suspicion for decades that when the Earth formed it was slammed into by a solid gold asteroid in the Kalgoorlie location. It then bounced or glanced off and landed near Boddington but the solid "Pit" of this asteroid bounced again like a skipping stone and landed somewhere in the Ocean off Bunbury. Find that and you'd be the richest man on Earth.
The Boddington gold mine is a gold and copper mine - and has a geology far different from either the gold deposits of Vic or WA. Watch some of my videos on how gold deposits form if you want to learn more about gold deposit geology.
Hi Chris, really love your videos. I do a bit of hard rock mining and prospecting here in upstate South Carolina mainly within 2 miles of my house. I have found many veins in this 2 mile area. Mainly mostly silver with a little gold. However I recently discovered a vein in a ditch after this recent hurricane Helene event. This vein is so much different than anything I have ever seen/ some free mill gold but it’s extremely crumbly ( easily broken) this quartz is almost completely is very Little Rock mostly metal and super rich is gold/ silver pyrites that are in large lenses with manganese oxides mixed in… can you do a video on a similar crumbly quartz?? Please. Thank you for all your help with these videos
5 mins in and this is already an amazing video, your stories are so vivid. I think it would be worth it for you to pay someone (you can find cheaply) To add graphics to your videos to go along with what you are saying. You would probably get enough extra views to pay that person's salary. Just an idea ;)
Question: Having found a nugget patch in my claim with smooth nuggets on surface(ground 1 to 30cm deep with a metal detector) proceeded to use an excavator to dig deeper my question is when I reach bedrock in the form of clay should I go beyond (1.5m )that can I still find nuggets below the clay bedrock ? Could there be another nugget rich grabel layer below assuming the deposits are of some ancient river channel considering the smoothness of all the nuggets found ?
Not knowing anything about the geology of your claim, I cannot possibly tell you where to stop digging. All I can offer is the simple idea that when you stop finding gold, stop digging.
The gold content increases the deeper you go. Once you get to the magma it is full of it. You just need a really, really, really, big drill and a submersible to protect you from the pressure.
interesting stuff. Just took a drive through a local gold rush ghost town. Went up the creek and tried a couple spots. nothin so far. But I feel like one of these creeks has to have something. There was so much activity here in the late 1800s. Not super productive but decent enough to start a small boom.
❤ . Amazing story told by a man with the ability of just bringing it all to life . Cheers Please do a piece on American civil war . I know its not your field but it would be amazing
THanks Chris, great information. Been hoping to get out to the WA goldfields for 25 years with my sd2200d, do you think they are still a relevant detector? Another great book about early WA goldfields is, Gold and Ghosts. Cheers from New Zealand.
They found two vanes. One at costerfield, Rushworth area, the other is spring Hill. High country. The gold vane is 7km long. Also, check out dig it detecting. He found a 30 once nugget in the Ballarat area. The look at the wife face, when he showed the 10 specs only to drop the big one on the kitchen table.
@ChrisRalph yes it a very interesting topic. But in the news, they said Victoria is going to be a new boom to out pass WA. The geologists have found the miners in the old times were digging the wrong way deep underground. The gold per ton is higher, and there are new mines and money starting to be spent here. It is an interesting topic and gold is very interesting and we have to see which way it goes.
I have visited this area by traln and by airline. the India Pacific stops here but only for a few hours with a night time look at the pit. daily trains to and from perth and several flight per day from perth . fly one way and ride the train the other. stay a couple of days. you can visit the top of the pit but a tour by small plane is great. several old pubs to visit and local tours. it does get hot in December to march.
It is estimated that there are well in excess of one million wild camels in Australia.... wild live camels are expired to Saudi Arabia for camel racing.
There are some of these types of rocks in Colorado did extremely rich that you can detect. You cannot tell is there gold even if you crush it there’s nothing gold color . I kept one of the pretty rocks. I had a friend that was going to Mackey so let him take the rock To school . Rock got all kinds of attention I had it back in two days it was over 6 ounces of gold in it he gave me a receipt from it being tested there with the course your phone numbers and stuff on their case I want to sell it. Sold it to a guy that does rock carvings.
I have a separate video about S. Africa - The Witwatersrand is huge but lower grade. It produced a lot more gold, but was over all a lot lower in grade. See: th-cam.com/video/MM6ItbdeuJ4/w-d-xo.html
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank. So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency. Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc.
@@ChrisRalphOnly twice that I noticed. It’s not a criticism, you did an OK video overall for sure. It’s just that Sandgropers who have visited Kalgoorlie and seen Paddy’s bronze statue on the street corner - will all know it was Paddy Hannan is all. Heck I think we had to learn that in primary school. 😂😂
@@ChrisRalph trust me you're nowhere's near as smart as you think you are. During the 1980s Prof. Anthony Philpotts and his geology class from the University of Connecticut discovered gold that assayed as high as 6 ounces per ton in the shaft of the old cobalt mine in Cobalt Connecticut.
Friend, 6 oz/ton is good ore, but there are many places with lots of ore much richer. Kalgoorlie is one of these. Historically speaking, Conn. is among the least and smallest producers of gold in the USA.
The richest gold deposit in the world is located on YT with all these "gold prospector" channels pulling in 100 tons of ad revenue per 100 tons of video.
It’s way better now. 500bc mines were terrible. Slaves worked to death in unbelievable brutal conditions. Mining was more destructive and wasteful also.
I say in all my videos that I respond to every comment. However, I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. 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 i don’t need that ! I think i have a meteor’s strike zone ! But cant find one person in the geo field to show my findings too ! Im 59 years old not some da ha so ? Your choice would love to show you ? Panther Branch NC do a topic view. I have thousands of meteorite’s! Micro diamonds! Things you don’t see anywhere else 🦕 bones your choice like i said friend me then delete me after
@@ChrisRalph the sad part they put a water plant on top of the main spot n garner nc ? radiation ☢️ i think in the water 💧 found a t lava tube close to it ! They hide it
Chris, I know it's common, in fact almost expected, for Americans to screw up names and pronunciations, but If you're going to make an historical informative type of You Tube documentary, then you really should make an effort to at least get the main character's names right. The name is not 'Paddy Hanahan' - it's PADDY HANNAN.
AND AS YOU WELL KNOW I SAID IT WRONG ONCE AND RIGHT SEVERAL TIMES. And as I also know from experience its common for self absorbed Aussies to cut down the tall poppies - saw it many times when I was there. Sorry you feel so insignificant that you need to do some poppy cutting.
If your finding Veins the Giant Died on its back or side or front , be it Animal or Human. If you find 2 Pockets of Gold then the Giant Died on its feet . If U find 4 pockets in the same area then the Gold came from an Animal possibly . I learned all this from Roger Spurr @ Mud Fossil University. . He really is Amazing at showing How and Why you find Gold Pockets Silver as well as Gems and Minerals and where they come from and how they are formed.
@@ChrisRalph The Bible States the Earth is Nothing but a Dead Carcase , Where do U think these Gems & Minerals come from thin air? .. All bodies including Animals have Minerals inside but Giants that First Roamed our Earth were 600 Ft. tall , with heads brushed the Clouds had far more Minerals then us mere Mortals. . Everything is a Body Part. Sorry. Just go watch Roger Spurr open your Mind to TRUTH not Academic BS they want you believing. GOD sent me to Roger now I send You if you Choose TRUTH . You decide Academic LIES or FACTS? I can not Force I can only Suggest, it's up to You now.
@@ChrisRalph Maybe you should go watch Mud Fossil University then or Reread your Bible. Sorry. . How else would you get Pockets and or Veins of Gold and Minerals.if if these Creatures or Humans didn't Die as Roger states. Everything in Egypt and all over the world , the Pyramids Buildings Statues All were Carved and made from Carcasses . Red Rust is Blood , every stone we see and touch is a Body part. Go ask a Clergy if you don't believe us but you don't get to say we are Wrong just because you refuse to Believe Facts and Truth , that's what a Leftist does believes Main Stream Media. Time to step outta the Box and learn the Real Truth.
Nope. Your wrong. We have a discovery so valuable that the US assay firm stopped to send it to a firm in Germany. And its 50k acres. You would have to have an area that the earth dropped refined gold bricks to be in the same class. My channel has my email unlike yours.
@@ChrisRalph a lot of the miners were dying of thirst and will trade an ounce of gold for 50 litres of water at Peak price in the early days...The only way to get water in was by horse or camel..... Just imagine going without washing your clothes for two months....Average life expectancy would have been very low
Q Edinburgh Castle Scotland is sitting on dollerite thier lots of lose dark grey stone with little specks of yellow my Q is jow do you extract any gold from it ive sight problems so reading is difficult white pages block out black words and white is bright blue anyways cool show 👌 I could post you a piece over intrestingn
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank. So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency. Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank. So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency. Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc
Inflation is the secret tax. It’s also called and “abomination” in the Bible. Described as “unjust weights and measures”. Andrew Jackson hated central banks and destroyed the one in America. He knew how evil they are.
Nice Chris. The first time I held gold was when my great-great grandfather handed a young me a very large lump which bowed me over with it's weight. He was prospecting in Western Australia from the earliest days. He had a block of forest on the coast and they would cut giant Kauri trees in summer and prospect in winter when it was impossible to get the timber out of the bush. He told me about taking his load of timber to the goldfields & swapping it for gold nuggets. He was quite successful, turning the cleared land into dairy farms and owning a mine that produced a million ounces. One thing he insisted I remember was that when the waterhole he usually stopped at was dry, the Indigenous Aboriginals rescued him and he spent some time with them and if not for them....
Those were very special times.
Nice commentary on Kalgoorlie Chris. I lived there for a few years. Did you know that in addition to the Golden Mile Superpit the whole city of Old Kalgoorlie was termited underneath by old-time underground miners? In 1988 a proposal was submitted to the City Council by the largest mining company of that time to re-locate the entire city so that the remaining ore underneath it could be mined as an open pit. It was only defeated by one vote. Only in Kalgoorlie!
Only in the last few years drilling was going on from some of the open areas in the town
I did not know that. The area still produces a lot of gold.
We are fortunate enough to work this general area as a hobby, we, along with many others, still find nice nuggets on or near the surface with metal detectors.
It’s a very interesting and rewarding hobby.
I spent 6 weeks north of Cue in WA, and it was a great time.
My jealousy is palpable! I live in california and a good day for me is NOTHING to you guys! I dream of finding a nugget and would love to visit australia sometime and maybe go metal detecting there...
@@GOLD_FEVER we see quite a few overseas tourists who come here specifically to go prospecting. Some do quite well, some even stay. 😁
@@goldfools5445 If i get the job i am shooting for right now i may be able to work remotely... Fingers crossed i can fly over for an "extended vacation" ! Keep getting the good gold bud! Know that you are lucky and save those nuggets to pass on to your children!
Be strong enough to be honest and kind
The greatest strength is in showing kindness and mercy.
The story of my life. Ten thousand miles away and a hundred years too late 😬
Yes, but there is always more to be found right here in the good old USA.
Never too late. Metal detectors have found lots and people are still making fortunes.
You say it's too late mate I live in Australia you act like they dug and mined it all. Chris is right you would be lucky to survive let alone have enough water you would wanna take a lot of spare tyres I suggest you watch a show called I shouldn't be Alive you might understand what the desert in Australia is like.
@@lennytime8057 There is supposed to be a lost Gold reef in Australia called Lassiters Reef....... although this may be the Tanami deposit in the NT.
I'm heading out soon. Troopy landcruiser, motorbike, fully set to stay a month anywhere, plus hunting equipment and communications. Can't wait to dance around the fire naked..... oh fk, I typed that out loud... 😂
It’s still very rich out there and there’s ground that has never been worked. We are a big country and there’s gold in all states. Tasmania is an odd one though. It’s illegal to sell gold you find in the state unless you are a mining company with a lease. You can find it as a private prospector and keep it but can’t sell any minerals legally there. I imagine people hop on the ferry and sell it in Victoria. I think 7 out of 10 of the biggest nuggets ever found world wide were found in Victoria where I am.
I spent 6 weeks in WA prospecting - though I was up around Cue and not down by Kal. There is a lot of gold out there.
You ever been to Wolf Creek? My boy Mick Taylor makes a great head-on-a-stick.
Great historical information and those specimens are amazing. I did stop in at the exhibit in Golden and spent hours just looking at the ore samples. It was the equivalent to the super lotto back then. You either blew your money or hit the jackpot. Pretty exciting for a young guy but imagine how many husbands struck out to try their luck with families depending on them to find a good claim. It makes playing the stock market a kids game nowadays.
It was a big gamble.
11:33 The Comstock, the world's richest Silver Deposit had a ten to one or a 17 to one ratio of silver to gold. The gold was hard to extract while most of the silver was pure enough to ship to the US Mint for coinage. The gold was very plentiful, but required more effort to process which is why the old Comstock Silver miners through away gold ore that was less than 1/2 ounce per ton. Today's refining methods can be profitable on 1/100 ounce per ton of ore, making tailings with 1/2 ounce per ton fabulously rich. There are 4 to 11 million ounces of gold that is still in the ground.
The gold-silver ratio is close but all the rest of that was wrong. Refining was needed before coinage, the gold extracted with the silver both in the Washoe process and the later process of cyanidation, and no, they did not throw away ore that had a half ounce of gold. Gold of 0.01 oz/ton is pretty low grade, but if they are already moving it (like waste stripping) then they put that on the heap for leaching. There are 4 to 11 million ounces of gold in Nevada at various places, but not known ore on the Comstock. And the Comstock, while a very rich deposit, is not the world's richest silver deposit. You sound like you've listened too closely to the V.C. tour guides who are often inaccurate.
My father reprocessed an old Mullock heap back in the late sixties in Daylesford Victoria Australia and found profitable gold even back then at 35 dollars an ounce and hand tools. That it also contained lots of mercury is also a reason that all OLD heaps should be reprocessed just for environmental reasons!
@@adriaandeleeuw8339 I have read that several companies are reprocessing mine tailings and making a profit. The old pick-and-shovel miners just followed a gold vein they did not know how to do core sampling and resource mapping.
Since people invented and distributed mercury on the planet, people should recollect and destroy all the mercury before we all die of global warming, I mean climate change.
I’ve stood on the edge of the super pit and looked into it , it’s breath taking . I have very fond memories of working in the mines of Kalgoorlie
I'll bet it was really interesting working in the mines.
Just from watching this video I would recommend the book. I’m an Australian who has metal detected right though this area, only finding 15gm from 3 nuggets. This was a travelling holiday and if I could I would be back out there doing again, it beats buying lottery tickets. This video missed nothing regarding the Kalgoorlie story as I’m very familiar with it. If you want to take anything away, learn about rock identification!! Know your landscape and geological history. Only 3 nuggets but with a little more time and knowledge it could have been better. My goal was to find a 2 Oz ‘er, I was shown several such nuggets as I love to chat and as long as you don’t ask the stupid question “where did you find that” many experienced people will give you good pointers. I’m 73 and have too many injuries to return but boy if I could I would. Out there the stars go from one horizon to the other and the desert nights simply magical albeit cold
Thanks a very informative video and yes I would recommend your book, I’d even buy it myself sadly our pensions just don’t quite make it. Take care
Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Excellent video Chris. Thank you.
My pleasure - Glad you enjoyed it.
What a great story of Western Australia. I know a couple out there are finding nice nuggets with detectors. Honestly, if happened to come across some of that Telluride material, I would have ignored it likewise ! Had to be a big "Oops" for the old-timers. Again, thanks for sharing this amazing story. Would love to visit there someday. Perhaps bring a Gold Rattler ? 🤔
I was not near Kalgoorlie when I was there but I'd like to return to WA myself one of these days. It would be an expensive expedition.
Excellent video brother. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Chris Congratulations for this amazing video. Very accurate all the information about the Super Pit .
I’m located in WA Australia and I know very well this area and your information is Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Much! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Super informative information Chris! This was a great video as usual. Wish Australia was closer it would be fun to get out there and explore a little.
Maybe one day there will be a High Plains / Professional Prospector expedition to Australia or perhaps Alaska.
would you do videos about more ores? like Bismuth, Iron , Tin , Titanium , Tungsten, Chrohium , Manganese, your other videos especialy that pyrite , copper, galena and silver videos were amazingly helpfull
I will eventually, but the ones on other metals that I have done have not been that popular.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge ! Excellent explanation and great information.
Glad it was helpful!
Kirkland lake & Timmins Ontario is hard to beat .
Ahh , I forgot about Australia .
I'll get to telling about gold in Canada soon.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you .
I appreciate it .
Chris love your vids love the geology of minerals and where they come from and how they are formed if I could have my time again on this earth I would be a geologist I’ll get to the point about a year ago I detected a gold specimen 62.4 grams approx 50 grams of gold in it however it is encased in small quarts crystals and wot looks like zircons awsome to see in the sunlight seems very unique it is not weathered at all and has like gold nodes poking out of it is this something special or the norm 😀😀
I think any specimen with 50 grams of gold is pretty special.
Hope you dont mind a sugestion as you were giving the history and naming locations if a map had filled the screen we could have seen where the progression of finds occured
Good idea. I'll be sure to do that next time.
Thank you Chris. Well put together. A great presentation. So often the case that the original discoverer/discoverers didn't do so well. Happened many times here in New Zealand too.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
In today's money 600 ounces of gold is worth a fortune . It was back then as well . There must be other reasons for why
What a coincidence! I'm retired in Australia but my home town is Golden where the School of Mines museum is you took the pictures at. I lived 5 blocks from there.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing 👍
From the geology point of view, the Yilgarn crayon is fascinating and is some of the oldest rocks on the planet. Dating back at least four billion years
Cratons are, by nature, made up of old rocks.
Awesome!! 😎
Thanks! 😁
Thank you for the awesome content.
Glad you enjoy it!
Fantastic and very informative video 👏
Best from Finland 🇫🇮 ❤️
Glad it was helpful!
Hey Chris, I’ve got a question - what sort of payment structure did these individual workers get when running a mine? Once big areas are consolidated into a single operation like this, do individual prospectors lose their incentive to follow the “gold rush,” because they were then just working for a wage? Or did they make enough of a percentage of the profits that it was still worth working for a big operation?
Fascinating video as always, thanks for continuously giving us great info!
There was wages, not profit sharing. The workers were paid in coin of the realm, and were generally not the same folks as the traveling prospectors. The prospectors sold their claims and moved on to search for new green pastures.
Nice history on Western Australia gold, thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks Chris, I did not realise just how big this mine is.
The super pit is really huge.
"That's knot-a-mine. THIS is-a MINE."
One acre in Victoria Australia produced tens of fist sized nuggets. The area around it is the worlds richest gold field. We just need to get to it under the magma extrusions
The Bendigo area of Victoria produced 22 million ounces of gold and the Geo VIC say that 60 percent of the gold is still in the ground
Victoria is rich, but Kalgoorlie is the richest square mile.
That was a very concise and informative presentation my friend , Well done 👍👍 Yes, and Western Australia produces some of the purest Iron ore in the world . I guess i'm a bit biased there, because i'm an Aussie Cheers Ned . ✌
WA also produces some good nickel ore.
In 1994 I first went to kal to did mineral exploration for a job. 1999 my first underground job was in super pit. Sam pierce decline. We drilled sum green leader. 200 oz per ton. Dark green quartz. Black water return from the hole.
Sound like an exciting time. Definitely a lot of gold is found in that area.
Thanks Chris 😊
My pleasure!
Great content there, I have held a suspicion for decades that when the Earth formed it was slammed into by a solid gold asteroid in the Kalgoorlie location. It then bounced or glanced off and landed near Boddington but the solid "Pit" of this asteroid bounced again like a skipping stone and landed somewhere in the Ocean off Bunbury. Find that and you'd be the richest man on Earth.
I don't think many geologists - including Aussie ones - would agree with your theories.
@@ChrisRalph So what explains the lesser deposits @ Boddington ?
The Boddington gold mine is a gold and copper mine - and has a geology far different from either the gold deposits of Vic or WA. Watch some of my videos on how gold deposits form if you want to learn more about gold deposit geology.
Everybody knows that the Earth is balanced on the back of a giant solid gold turtle. The turtle left some of his droppings in Kalgoorlie.
Great video. 👍 Well Done 🙏
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Hi Chris, really love your videos. I do a bit of hard rock mining and prospecting here in upstate South Carolina mainly within 2 miles of my house. I have found many veins in this 2 mile area. Mainly mostly silver with a little gold. However I recently discovered a vein in a ditch after this recent hurricane Helene event. This vein is so much different than anything I have ever seen/ some free mill gold but it’s extremely crumbly ( easily broken) this quartz is almost completely is very Little Rock mostly metal and super rich is gold/ silver pyrites that are in large lenses with manganese oxides mixed in… can you do a video on a similar crumbly quartz?? Please. Thank you for all your help with these videos
Crumbly quartz is not really a geologic category of quartz vein. it gets crumbly when its well weathered.
Great story Chris! Is there any tellurite in new england
Maybe traces. Significant amounts are found in Colorado and the California mother lode.
5 mins in and this is already an amazing video, your stories are so vivid.
I think it would be worth it for you to pay someone (you can find cheaply)
To add graphics to your videos to go along with what you are saying.
You would probably get enough extra views to pay that person's salary.
Just an idea ;)
A good idea, but it is NOT cheap. Too expensive and too slow.
Question: Having found a nugget patch in my claim with smooth nuggets on surface(ground 1 to 30cm deep with a metal detector) proceeded to use an excavator to dig deeper my question is when I reach bedrock in the form of clay should I go beyond (1.5m )that can I still find nuggets below the clay bedrock ? Could there be another nugget rich grabel layer below assuming the deposits are of some ancient river channel considering the smoothness of all the nuggets found ?
Not knowing anything about the geology of your claim, I cannot possibly tell you where to stop digging. All I can offer is the simple idea that when you stop finding gold, stop digging.
The gold content increases the deeper you go. Once you get to the magma it is full of it. You just need a really, really, really, big drill and a submersible to protect you from the pressure.
interesting stuff. Just took a drive through a local gold rush ghost town. Went up the creek and tried a couple spots. nothin so far. But I feel like one of these creeks has to have something. There was so much activity here in the late 1800s. Not super productive but decent enough to start a small boom.
Try to learn the clues for what the old miners finding that got them excited.
❤ . Amazing story told by a man with the ability of just bringing it all to life . Cheers
Please do a piece on American civil war . I know its not your field but it would be amazing
Totally not my field, and there are other folks for whom it is their field of interest.
THanks Chris, great information. Been hoping to get out to the WA goldfields for 25 years with my sd2200d, do you think they are still a relevant detector? Another great book about early WA goldfields is, Gold and Ghosts.
Cheers from New Zealand.
That certainly is an old detector and the newer technology is better, but it can find gold if you get it over a nugget.
Good going Patty, had to tell everyone.
He was probably very thirsty for a few good drinks and after sitting around in a saloon, his lips got loose and he started to brag....
Gotta brag...
They found two vanes. One at costerfield, Rushworth area, the other is spring Hill. High country. The gold vane is 7km long. Also, check out dig it detecting. He found a 30 once nugget in the Ballarat area. The look at the wife face, when he showed the 10 specs only to drop the big one on the kitchen table.
The video is about Kalgoorlie in WA. Kalgoorlie alone has produced almost as much gold as all of Vic combined.
@ChrisRalph yes it a very interesting topic. But in the news, they said Victoria is going to be a new boom to out pass WA. The geologists have found the miners in the old times were digging the wrong way deep underground. The gold per ton is higher, and there are new mines and money starting to be spent here. It is an interesting topic and gold is very interesting and we have to see which way it goes.
Finding a good vane is essential--your financial future is at steak.
I have visited this area by traln and by airline. the India Pacific stops here but only for a few hours with a night time look at the pit. daily trains to and from perth and several flight per day from perth . fly one way and ride the train the other. stay a couple of days. you can visit the top of the pit but a tour by small plane is great. several old pubs to visit and local tours. it does get hot in December to march.
Thanks for sharing.
Great video! I will like to buy your book 👍
Glad you liked the video, I am sure you will enjoy the book!
Idaho springs- central city, co was always called the richest square miles when I was growing up.
That part of Colorado was rich, but Kalgoorlie in Western Australia has produced far more gold than all of Colorado combined.
sir what is the best ways to locate vain with high grade ores of gold .
By the sound of this story go back 150 years and get your horse to throw a shoe when he thinks he is in the middle of a gold field !
To know and understand what you are looking for.
😂
Those grey telluride ore rocks look similar to one I found at USA!
Lots of sulfide minerals are gray but not all that valuable. Only some are rich tellurides.
It is estimated that there are well in excess of one million wild camels in Australia.... wild live camels are expired to Saudi Arabia for camel racing.
When I was in WA for 6 weeks prospecting, I saw the heart shaped camel footprints, but never actually saw one.
Very early on in Australia , goats were used for liquid ''milk'' and they ate anything
Interesting.
There are some of these types of rocks in Colorado did extremely rich that you can detect. You cannot tell is there gold even if you crush it there’s nothing gold color . I kept one of the pretty rocks. I had a friend that was going to Mackey so let him take the rock To school .
Rock got all kinds of attention I had it back in two days it was over 6 ounces of gold in it he gave me a receipt from it being tested there with the course your phone numbers and stuff on their case I want to sell it.
Sold it to a guy that does rock carvings.
Interesting. Yes, Colorado has some rich telluride ores.
Edgar Hoover worked 'in the day' in Kal in a managerial position, decided to return to the USA.
Hoover was a mining Engineer by education.
He was the mine supervisor at Leonora, another rich site a few hundred km away.
Interestingly, the richest mine in the area is the huge Boddington mine and it wasn’t found until the 1980’s
The Boddington mine is a large LOW grade mine - the average head grade for the ore that is mined is less than one gram per ton.
@@ChrisRalph yes but like Carlin, there’s lots of it…lol
what about Serra Pelada ? :o
a guy found alone 1000 kg in two weeks...
It was a big mine, but not so productive as the Super Pit area.
@@ChrisRalph ah okay, but wow, what are the odds/reason for Serra Pelada to be so rich in gold? :o
any videos on finding calaverite
Link to the video I did on telluride minerals in both the video at about 10 minutes in, but also in the description.
Interesting. I thought was going to be about South Africa.
I have a separate video about S. Africa - The Witwatersrand is huge but lower grade. It produced a lot more gold, but was over all a lot lower in grade. See: th-cam.com/video/MM6ItbdeuJ4/w-d-xo.html
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank.
So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency.
Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc.
Inflation after WWI was pretty much world wide - all over Europe, the US and Canada too. Mining costs increased around the world.
Thank you and keep up the good work.
Thanks, will do!
Didn't you say there wasn't any gold sourced from a basalt in another video?
Yes, but dolerite is not basalt. Its related chemically, but dolerite has been subject to heat and pressure.
@@ChrisRalphhow about all those archeon age metabasalts that the gold veins occur in that golden mile?
By the way, wikipedia says that the English term dolerite is the same thing chemically as gabbro, or a diabase dike or a "volcanic basalt".
What the brits and aussies and canucs call dolerite is the American rock term basalt.
Hmm, lots and lots of gold comes from basalt or in the British commonwealth, a dolerite.
Anyone wondering thats about $150B USD, in todays money.
That's a whole lot of money 💰
@@ChrisRalph 🙂 Have to talk to some friends about checking the area out. Cool video.
Western Australia reminds me of Zac Efron Gold movie,, 😂😢
I'd not heard of it before, but I Iooked it up.
the golden mile,,, alot of it spent on hay street
Probably so...
Paddy Hannan
Not Paddy Hanahan. 😉👍
So I said that maybe once.
@@ChrisRalphOnly twice that I noticed.
It’s not a criticism, you did an OK video overall for sure.
It’s just that Sandgropers who have visited Kalgoorlie and seen Paddy’s bronze statue on the street corner - will all know it was Paddy Hannan is all.
Heck I think we had to learn that in primary school. 😂😂
All gone, right? History may not repeat it anywhere.
They are still mining this deposit today. Not all gone.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you”
What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Amen 🙏
Have Passport will travel !!!!!!!
Ever been to Australia? Want to go?
@@ChrisRalph no but I meet a guy from there this weekend !!! so Yes sounds like Fun
Nice...
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video.
The richest gold deposit in the world is located in Connecticut
In your imagination.
@@ChrisRalph trust me you're nowhere's near as smart as you think you are.
During the 1980s Prof. Anthony Philpotts and his geology class from the University of Connecticut discovered gold that assayed as high as 6 ounces per ton in the shaft of the old cobalt mine in Cobalt Connecticut.
Friend, 6 oz/ton is good ore, but there are many places with lots of ore much richer. Kalgoorlie is one of these. Historically speaking, Conn. is among the least and smallest producers of gold in the USA.
The richest gold deposit in the world is located on YT with all these "gold prospector" channels pulling in 100 tons of ad revenue per 100 tons of video.
Go the Yilgarn
Its a great area. I prospected there up north of Cue.
@@ChrisRalph Nice! Cue is where I caught the fever 😎
The richest square mile on earth was in Colorado for a while..
Perhaps, but the video is about the richest, not just for a week or for a month.
Can't they dig a well for water
It's a pretty dry area and the ground water is very deep and poor quality.
Paddy Hannan
Glad you enjoyed the video
And the least rich in every other way once these plundering greedhounds leave.
Go live like it's 500 BC and then you can criticize. The mines work to supply your demands.
It’s way better now. 500bc mines were terrible. Slaves worked to death in unbelievable brutal conditions.
Mining was more destructive and wasteful also.
Would you ever respond / reply ! I have a lot of stuff would like to show
I say in all my videos that I respond to every comment. However, I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rock and mineral photos. 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 i don’t need that ! I think i have a meteor’s strike zone ! But cant find one person in the geo field to show my findings too ! Im 59 years old not some da ha so ? Your choice would love to show you ? Panther Branch NC do a topic view. I have thousands of meteorite’s! Micro diamonds! Things you don’t see anywhere else 🦕 bones your choice like i said friend me then delete me after
@@ChrisRalph the sad part they put a water plant on top of the main spot n garner nc ? radiation ☢️ i think in the water 💧 found a t lava tube close to it ! They hide it
Chris, I know it's common, in fact almost expected, for Americans to screw up names and pronunciations, but If you're going to make an historical informative type of You Tube documentary, then you really should make an effort to at least get the main character's names right. The name is not 'Paddy Hanahan' - it's PADDY HANNAN.
AND AS YOU WELL KNOW I SAID IT WRONG ONCE AND RIGHT SEVERAL TIMES. And as I also know from experience its common for self absorbed Aussies to cut down the tall poppies - saw it many times when I was there. Sorry you feel so insignificant that you need to do some poppy cutting.
If your finding Veins the Giant Died on its back or side or front , be it Animal or Human. If you find 2 Pockets of Gold then the Giant Died on its feet . If U find 4 pockets in the same area then the Gold came from an Animal possibly . I learned all this from Roger Spurr @ Mud Fossil University. . He really is Amazing at showing How and Why you find Gold Pockets Silver as well as Gems and Minerals and where they come from and how they are formed.
Sorry, that is nothing at all like reality.
@@ChrisRalph The Bible States the Earth is Nothing but a Dead Carcase , Where do U think these Gems & Minerals come from thin air? .. All bodies including Animals have Minerals inside but Giants that First Roamed our Earth were 600 Ft. tall , with heads brushed the Clouds had far more Minerals then us mere Mortals. . Everything is a Body Part. Sorry. Just go watch Roger Spurr open your Mind to TRUTH not Academic BS they want you believing. GOD sent me to Roger now I send You if you Choose TRUTH . You decide Academic LIES or FACTS? I can not Force I can only Suggest, it's up to You now.
I've read the bible - have you? The bible says nothing remotely like "the Earth is Nothing but a Dead Carcass"
@@ChrisRalph Maybe you should go watch Mud Fossil University then or Reread your Bible. Sorry. . How else would you get Pockets and or Veins of Gold and Minerals.if if these Creatures or Humans didn't Die as Roger states. Everything in Egypt and all over the world , the Pyramids Buildings Statues All were Carved and made from Carcasses . Red Rust is Blood , every stone we see and touch is a Body part. Go ask a Clergy if you don't believe us but you don't get to say we are Wrong just because you refuse to Believe Facts and Truth , that's what a Leftist does believes Main Stream Media. Time to step outta the Box and learn the Real Truth.
God made the earth, the water,the trees, and the GOLD! , I believe he saw that it was perfect as he worked❤
Nope. Your wrong. We have a discovery so valuable that the US assay firm stopped to send it to a firm in Germany. And its 50k acres. You would have to have an area that the earth dropped refined gold bricks to be in the same class. My channel has my email unlike yours.
Lets say I am extremely skeptical of your claim.
Who's "we"? Are you personally involved?
50 l of water for an ounce of gold
How do you mean that?
@@ChrisRalph a lot of the miners were dying of thirst and will trade an ounce of gold for 50 litres of water at Peak price in the early days...The only way to get water in was by horse or camel..... Just imagine going without washing your clothes for two months....Average life expectancy would have been very low
Q Edinburgh Castle Scotland is sitting on dollerite thier lots of lose dark grey stone with little specks of yellow my Q is jow do you extract any gold from it ive sight problems so reading is difficult white pages block out black words and white is bright blue anyways cool show 👌 I could post you a piece over intrestingn
Not all dolerite has gold. Dolerite is much, much more common than gold.
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank.
So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency.
Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc
Inflation after WWI was pretty much world wide - all over Europe, the US and Canada too. Mining costs increased around the world.
Oh you mentioned inflation and ww1. That’s a great point! I was listening to a book about central banks and how central banks are privately owned. Australia started a privately owned central bank I believe and it ran for a while, but then the government changed it or forced ownership to change. Afterwards then the government went into more debt or something and if I remember right the monetary system of Australia changed a lot due to their change in central bank.
So if people look at price inflation they might also benefit by looking at a timeline of banking and monetary policy like when the first central bank in Australia started etc. but I can’t remember when it started. Maybe they were still under Englands system. I think I read Australia had to go off of gold just like England etc during ww1 to print money to fund the war since governments don’t raise taxes they just devalue the currency.
Jim rickards said after ww1 when England went back onto gold that England set gold at pre war levels which caused a depression since England had doubled its currency supply or something during the war. So they should have actually made gold worth twice as many pounds after the war to the pre war levels Jim rickards said to avoid crashing the economy. Ya inflation and deflation has big consequences on profitability of mining and it’s interconnected to wars and banking etc
Inflation is the secret tax. It’s also called and “abomination” in the Bible. Described as “unjust weights and measures”.
Andrew Jackson hated central banks and destroyed the one in America. He knew how evil they are.
Inflation after WWI was pretty much world wide - all over Europe, the US and Canada too. Mining costs increased around the world.