I Can't Believe This Worked So Well! | Vinegar Gold

[@jnorton772]

absolutely brilliant and since i was going through the specimens i collected from being homeless and travelling round living in my car i tried it the Neighbours got pissed ; I found almost 2.47 ounces just in the quartz rocks , the Neighbours get a decent bottle of wine and a sorry , I get to laugh at those that sneered at me picking them up .

[@dogodogo5891]

hi great did you use any sepcial metal detector or just using common knowledge?

[@itatane]

I've said it before : the old timers generally speaking, were crafty buggers who knew what they were doing. They may not have given a crap about nature or their own health (Cyanide and Mercury, anyone?). But we can do similar things, building on the old knowledge, adding modern equipment and techniques to finesse the gold they left behind. Cheers Chris!

[@DreidMusicalX]

Well this guy is not to worry about his health either, crushing quarts without a mask and all that dust flying up he is breathing in.

[@kienhwengtai8113]

Maybe they used vinegar to attack the iron pyrites in the ore.

[@koltoncrane3099]

Mercury isn’t to bad if you take precautions. Yes the Spaniards clearly wasted it and polluted some water ways still today, but if mercury stuck to copper and then you used a mercury retort you can boil the mercury off and still retain the mercury separating it from the gold. Ask Jeff Williams channel shows how old timers used a mercury retort.

[@jodydorsett8726]

Forget how much the gold was worth, the proof of concept is priceless.

[@fyrstikken]

fire and vinegar

[@ScottishGoldHunter]

The old timers definitely knew what they were doing Chris! Thanks for sharing⛏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@albertcab]

This system of softening quartz did not know. Next time I'll try it and let you know how it went. Greetings from Catalonia

[@gadzee506]

I've been waiting for this video crazy how well.it worked. Firesetting is a ancient practice that has been found in very old mines the Romans also used it on a industrial scale. Just incase anyone get the idea for conglomerate be careful as riverrocks explode when heated

[@secretstreamsandfeverdreams]

Good point on the river rock gadzee. Interests me how early man started mining the earth

[@bradleysanderson9928]

Rock go BOOM 💥

[@gadzee506]

@@bradleysanderson9928 yes that's why you don't use them around a fires

[@kenneely7899]

It is the thermal shock that makes then explode. If you build a fire pit with river rock it will be OK if fired up slowly. Giving a chance for moisture to evaporate.

[@gadzee506]

@@kenneely7899 I'm not too sure I always got told river rocks will explode when heated. Better to be safe then sorry

[@mannyruseriousfriday171]

great stuff Chris with the vinegar who would of thunk it!!!!i must say the old timers had the best the most original ideas ever i also watch a guy do the same thing heat up the quartz then just added water instead of vinegar it had the same effect on the quartz that's why i say to my two sons if an old bloke has something to say just listen and learn helped one of my boys when he started working in the gold mines in WA but his abstract way of speaking now from listening to the old timers well i should of warned him about that . he comes home with some colourful language some ripper stories but he forgets that he can not speak this way to his mum and dad gets him in trouble all the time but he can call me Big Horse

[@frankhammer6795]

Hey Chris, nice work. Ive been using a similar method, just not with vinegar. And it has a rough element of 'assaying' the ore, to see if it's worth working I've been collecting a bucket of sample quartz from reefs I find. Then I cook the rocks for several hours in a kiln I made - get's to 500c or so, so I want to make one bigger & hotter (of course) I then shock the rocks with cold water from the hose (I'll give vinegar a go next time, to see if there's a difference) Next I take them out to a lonely place in the middle of no-where, (so I don't shit my neighbors to tears with the noise,) and crush the hell out of them in my dolly pot, by using a concrete facing bit on my hammer drill. I seive the contents of the dolly pot through a kitchen seive anything that doesn't go through the seive, goes back into the 'to be crushed' bucket and I repeat till I run out of material to be crushed, and end up with a bucket of pretty fine sand ( I gotta make a hammer mill to speed this bit up) At this point I can weigh the bucket of crush to give me a 'Before Processing weight' Then I run the crush through the blue bowl to get to the gold, which gives me a very rough 'ore to gold' ratio to see if the reef's worth working further It's a work in progress, but I have found gold with this technique Just not enough to shout 'Yippeeeee!' yet

[@rebeccaroseannanderson8790]

oh my goodness ! thank you for sharing as it confirms I was right...super excited! wanna see my gold from Butte County California? Ive been at it for 9 years and I seriously just now can say I never stop learning as I have trudged forward and love everyminute...Even broken fongers and toes from time to time...safety first

[@hasmeadali7316]

Well good morning sunshine..... Thanks for the smile on a gloomy morning.. truly appreciated that.much love always

[@piratescrew1869]

Also great to see the safety squint coming into play🔥💥☄️

[@ItachiUchiha-br8ig]

For everyone saying why use vinegar- it's true it did nothing to the gold except cleans and brightens it and that is the point because if it were a substance that can be mistaken for gold like pyrite, old brass, chalcopyrite or mica they would react with the vinegar changing the color atleast and can alter the color of impure gold.

[@impicklerick8370]

What if it altered the color of a gold and someone threw it away?

[@mikegonzales6910]

Like a beacon for fugazzi's...Helps to fool proof your valuable work, time and ultimately your final goal, right?!

[@kathleenjensen4848]

You’re having way to much fun with this

[@VoGusProspecting]

All the fun

[@northwind7409]

It might be worth trying a sample where you use plain water after heating, instead of vinegar. You would likely get some thermal fracturing either way, but it would be interesting to see whether the acetic acid actually does anything. You could reheat your tailings after panning, treat them with vinegar, and pan to see if there is more fine gold released.

[@theThinkerator]

I'm wondering if the acid controls the steaming perhaps an antifreeze would also work, and not lose so much.

[@dionbritten]

Good morning man. Brilliant video as always stay humble stay hydrated and enjoy the day.

[@kompressahdnb]

love this one man. The slow mo moments are fantastic! This would make a nice series. Like mythbusters for prospecting!

[@jennodine]

Thank you for mentioning the heat generated by a wood burning fire isn’t hot enough to melt the gold. Great point.

[@longnamenocansayy]

just a suggestion: instead of burning wood on a fire, try using a fresnel lens to heat up the rock. it would be a good thing if you're in a desert that doesn't have fire wood, or in a place with a lot of firewood, but it rains a lot.

[@mr.giggles4995]

Or the solar death ray.

[@hobbyadventurer583]

What a good presentation that you showed us.Thanks and keep up with the good vids !

[@nathancarmichael7050]

That is so awesome, thank you have a wonderful day!

[@ingo8366]

Hi. I tried it out myself with a MAPP gas torch and industrial produced vinegar (ca. 12.5 % acid) it worked out fine.

[@JayMoore-l3n]

Good to know. Much faster. Yhanks

[@ottergrotto5850]

That just looks like fun! What a way to spend a day.....

[@DavidN144G]

Hey Chris, 2 things, 1), cut a leafblower sized hole in the firepit at the bottom, blow the fire that way with say an old vacuum cleaner on "blow". 2) would "cleaning vinegar" work better than normal - the 14% stuff.. THAT would be an interesting update to see.

[@lancer2204]

Interesting process, it'd be nice to know what function the vinegar performs, other than being a cool liquid on a hot rock. Could you get similar results from very cold water or does the hot acid (vinegar) do something to weaken the quartz matrix?

[@alanmoffat4680]

Yes, very interesting. I think that cold water would shatter the quartz. Would try a duplicate test with water and vinegar to compare. Just try with straight quartz to determine "powderability". Vinegar would have been an easily available weak acid, especially from spoilt wine production.

[@mjr543]

Just what I was thinking. Pretty sure quartz is mostly silicone dioxide, so it would have no reaction with a weak acid. Water should work just as well but worth testing to see if there's a difference.

[@MarkOfArgyll]

Minus the vinegar this is the same process used on iron ore to allow it to be crushed before putting into a kiln / bloomery. Vinegar is usually used to dissolve minerals like calcite, over a period of time [several days].

[@lancer2204]

@@mjr543 Hot vinegar is surprisingly aggressive as an acid, so that brings another question. Would H2SO4 (battery acid) also be as effective in breaking up the chunks (it reacts with the FeS to make FeSO4 which is water soluble) We'll ignore the OBVIOUS dangers for the sake of discussion.

[@mjr543]

@@lancer2204 Obviously depends on the composition of the rock itself, not just the minerals present but how much of the rock they make up. If primarily quartz then I believe Si02 quartz acts as a mild acid in the right conditions so a strong base could have some effect (again very unsafe). For a strong acid and setting aside the difficulty in getting a suitably strong acid to actually impact more than just surface FeS, you'd then also be balancing the heat of the reaction, presuming there was enough FeS present that it's removal made a significant change to the rock's structure. For the sake of specimen recovery, I'd want to keep the host rock mostly in tact, so strong base is out, and I'm not certain a strong acid would achieve much more than making the whole process wildly more risky. I'd just change over to a solar kiln to heat the rocks. Slower but no fuel contamination from wood, nor fuel cost from a propane kiln. Then just stick to thermal shock from simple water. Thoughts?

[@Fatspurios]

Thank you for making these and your time in doing so. When I finished with the stuff here in UK I might take a look at the world with a prospectors eye. Be well.

[@TheHoney_Badger]

Also acids can dissolve alot of Rock when left in solution and leave behind the good stuff, much less separating needed

[@hardrockuniversity7283]

That works well on a small scale. You also have some very rich pieces. I was wondering if it was the vinegar or just the thermal shock. Have you tried it with plain water?

[@addestensfors8425]

Thermal shock...

[@abstractgamer8543]

Vinegar and lemon juice work for the best safest methods both are very acidic which help dissolve the calcium carbonate and weaken the structure within the stone a chemical reaction. The heating and cooling fracture other minerals and split the stone into smaller pieces this is a thermal reaction.

[@hardrockuniversity7283]

@@abstractgamer8543 Got it.

[@fuelban]

The dissimilar materials, rock and gold have different, expansion and contraction rates, hence fracture lines around the gold and tho the rock, during flash cooling and contraction, boiling vinnigar yes, but to flash cooling,, I wonder if cold ice water migh work as well , or better for the contractions side of prosses, if you try it I'd love know you're results... nice interesting video thanks. Thom in Scotland.

[@richardcoulson7483]

Very interesting and something that I will be trying myself. thanks for the video, Cheers Chris

[@VoGusProspecting]

Hope ot works well for you

[@ابوعليم-م1و]

​@@VoGusProspectingسلام اين اجد اله تكسير الحجر التي لديك

[@GregoryDurrance]

The same rock breaking method was used by Hannibal's military engineers to break rock in building a path across the alps in some locations, much quicker then with sledge hammers and pick axes..

[@seanpreston3653]

I very much enjoyed the old school way you just showed and will use on my quartz. Altho I use a post hole driver and flat end of a digging bar. Lol. Older school

[@wftoney1]

So cool! Tbe slow-mo shots of panning may be the most effective way ever to show how the process works. Thanks, and ; carry on, bro

[@ralphmcculley2085]

Will be trying this soon . Are Monsoon is finally here in Arizona looks like rain for the next week.I have 5 maybe 6 buckets to try . sure will help speed things up thanks

[@waynoswaynos]

I made a version of Stampy a couple of years back but instead, used a 4lb sledgehammer head that I welded a 4 foot bar to, onto one of the hammering faces. I call it a Whumper. I scavenged a 6 inch thick disk of steel from a metal profile cutter and welded a tube above that to whump into. Works good. And quenching your hot rocks in Water works just as well as vinegar.

[@bryonmason6330]

Learning more every day. Good job Brother. You're a good teacher, Keep it up 😜.

[@treasurebound]

Wow, that was an interesting way to recover gold from quartz. Thank you for sharing. I need to try that. At the very least, you will be left with some beautiful chunks of gold. However, where can one find ore like that on public, unclaimed land?

[@geoffyplayz9523]

Here’s an interesting fine gold solution for you The old timers in the north Otago field used to use a crusher bowl (basically a motorised mortar and pestle) to crush down quartz tailings to get more gold out. They would shovel these tailings into the crusher bowl, fill it with water and vinegar and leave it turning for a day (the idea being that the friction heated the quartz enough for the vinegar) before processing the material to get the gold out. You could use a similar system for your tailings after just a crushing to get more gold out of them

[@josephwilliamson6878]

I bet you can do this with water. The vinegar comes in if the ore is dissolvable with acid, therefore releasing, potentially, more gold. For me, with my layman's brain, the "trick" is to get the quartz red hot and shock cool it so its crystalline structure shatters, releasing the gold. FUN VIDEO!!!

[@shahmohshafi6103]

I have used this technique n it is working like you said.keep it up.

[@mkvisser]

Oooh interesting. I just picked up a few samples today i have to crush that are promising. I might try this method on half of it and see the difference. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@KillaKiRawBeats]

Silicca can be put into pill form good for your hair and nails when ingested.

[@piratescrew1869]

Thanks Chris. Great Idea to collect your ore in summer and burn and crush when it’s too cold to prospect, love ya stuff!

[@adriaannikken7519]

Ponders a mine site waste rock mountain... Cause how much super small mesh did they miss?

[@mikeplant9163]

great video and results mate,looks like it more than halved the effort needed to crush your rock samples.

[@kurtisengle6256]

HANNIBAL !!! Used fire and vinegar( spoiled wine ) to carve a trail through the Alps for his elephants. It was limestone, so acid and carbonate in addition to heat shock. Add hammers.

[@Amondera3210]

Brilliant man creating Italy ❤

[@Teddycawaling73Cawaling]

Thanks you for sharing this way to discover true 🇮🇹

[@joebasaliso2118]

I dig it! First time seeing some process it at the convince of their home lol.

[@Grumpyprospector]

Heard about burning reefs and quenching with water before but never seen it done. Awesome.

[@Mr.P.Griffith]

Would be cool to see a side by side comparison of your traditional crushing method vs. boiling vinegar. Maybe a couple buckets per, mixing the rocks together to avoid concentrations and see how economical the vinegar method is..

[@brucejohnson863]

The leaf blower is a survivor tool for fire starting in our family

[@VoGusProspecting]

How good is it!

[@ferdburphel2076]

Crushed it! Cool experiment and some specimens to boot!

[@AndyYomba]

What about calcium stone,did Dimond found in it or no

[@curlymaplebandit3107]

Hannibal used this when he crossed the Alps in 218 BC. Heat the limestone and pour vinegar on. Carved a path for his elephants to get down the other side.

[@christinebiggurlstuff7128]

Awesome video 🤣named tools & sound effects!

[@MattersNot]

Whatever you do with the rock and quarts after your finished extracting the gold, go get all of it and burn it then crush it super fine then pan all that you might get a lot of gold!!

[@MrMann703]

I really like that method, I'm new to gold and have collected lots of black sand full of fine gold, a fellow mentioned salt and vinegar to extract as much out as possible and that's how I ended up here lol. Thank you for the video, very interesting stuff

[@dakodacazier3608]

Does that separate the gold from black sand? I found this video because I am terrible at panning (getting better with practice) but mainly because after I’ve panned it down I still have trouble getting all the gold completely separated from the black sand.. so I guess am just terrible with a snifter bottle or mine sucks. Either way I have a ton of ore I’ve been crushing that is filled with gold and I have been sitting here for the past 3 DAYS trying to get all the gold out of a single pan…. So I’m searching for faster methods than a snifter bottle…. Its not really something people talk about much apparently cuz still no luck finding any methods or tips

[@jamiewatkins4178]

When you ran the water on the pan you should have added some dishwashing soap in the pan to stop any gold flakes floating away.. Good video tho, iv never thought of doing that

[@ericswain4177]

Vinegar is a mild Asid which makes sense in degrading rock to process. Fire is an old method going back thousands of years for processing rock even directly in mines and rock faces making it easier to fracture and dig out before the advent of explosives.

[@dannysearcy3373]

I've got a shit load of huge rocks covered with pyrite, do you think it would be worth a try to burn soak in vinegar?

[@derpityderp-derp4007]

dude i have been collecting quartz cause i like it.. some of it looks to have gold in it. never tested it. but i am totally gonna try this.

[@leannkennedy6568]

That was interesting. I've often wondered what the old guys went through to learn. Purty smart fellers..

[@joshsmith9558]

Wood coals get hot enough to melt steel if you have a forced air supply. Just a heads up from someone who does blacksmithing as a hobby

[@VoGusProspecting]

Found that out afterwards lol

[@joshsmith9558]

@@VoGusProspecting yeah I found it out the hard way myself back when I first started blacksmithing. Couldn't find a coal supply so I used hardwood charcoal with a 100cfm fan as a blower. Left a railroad spike in the fire, got distracted by my phone and suddenly it was a fireworks display in my forge.

[@mikeford963]

@@joshsmith9558 By that point, you may as well throw that spike in the trash. Those sparkly bits are the carbon burning out of the steel.

[@joshsmith9558]

@@mikeford963 I'm well aware of what it was. I've been a welder for 17 years. Been doing blacksmithing for nearly 10. Railroad spikes are on the very low end of the "high carbon" steels. Granted the ones used in turns tend to be of better quality because of the sheer force put on them but they are still junk steel. Great for practice and making tongs and the like out of but useless for knives. When I first started I didn't expect charcoal to reach those temperatures. After that incident I started doing research on blacksmith and found that charcoal burns hot enough for forge welding.

[@mikeford963]

@@joshsmith9558 Also a welder, red seal in Canada. And yeah, proper charcoal, as opposed to briquettes, can get that hot with enougg forced air flow. That's how mankind did it before we discovered coal.

[@nigelaubrey7743]

Great video Chris. I'm going to try this on some species I have at home that my stampy just bounces off.

[@marcussmart3275]

Your sinister laugh is awesome!

[@Tony_VanDine]

I wonder if it has to be vinegar, or if quenching them in just water would be just as effective? I feel like it's the thermal shock more than a chemical reaction. Worth testing before buying industrial amounts of vinegar, at least 😋

[@bayougoldguy7337]

That was an awesome demonstration and excellent gold👍🤠🐊

[@xylosfurniture]

Very nice. But can someone explain why vinegar? I thought it is the thermal shock tat makes the quartz brittle. If so, it would work with cold water as well or am I missing something?🤔

[@ryanpoirier2215]

The Romans did the same thing to create roads in ancient Rome. To create passes through mountains they would drill holes into the mountainside and then pour boiling vinegar into the hole, and the rock would generally crack apart along the line the holes were drilled in, making the rock manageable to be removed.

[@kodyfrost]

Glad to hear spud engineering is yours. I thought it was someone who was just stealing your content

[@scruffpotter891]

?????How much gold do you find in the bushfire layer in the creeks.? Just a thought. Is this why the creeks keep giving?

[@2HighNoon]

I get why the ol’timers built fires on the vein. Weakening the vein would make it much easier to dig out and it’s prepared for crushing. 👍🤷‍♂️ Smart.

[@DesertTuna]

Legendary thanks for showing us

[@WyrdieBeardie]

Someone probably has mentioned this, but why vinegar? Well I think what makes the quartz so crumbly is the temperature shock, so water should do the same thing. But vinegar dissolves the sulfites, and for many reactions as temperature increases, so does the reaction rate; making the vinegar break down the sulfites very quickly. Oh, and because you're mixing a sulphur compound and an acid, only do this outdoors in a well ventilated space. Not sure how you'd do this indoors anyway 😆

[@robertpayne7957]

That was a cool way of doing a crush. Well done.

[@VoGusProspecting]

Was a bunch of fun

[@leonbarber8650]

GREAT video .MORE please.😁👌

[@mrgreeneggs6191]

if your looking at doing that on a slightly larger scale consider making like a pizza oven converted into a lime kiln. the kilning process would make the ore hot enough and it might be better to shovel it into a waiting vinegar bath. of course if it dosn't work right you'll have a pizza oven as a conselation prize

[@dakodacazier3608]

I’ve been reading the comments to see if anyone has tried to do this but in their regular oven in the house instead of in a fire? I want to try this because I am impatient and still no burning yet where I’m at. But your idea made me think of also trying a little toaster oven outdoors. But both these probably won’t get hot enough then you think?

[@herbertboelk7545]

Well done Chris! Although I perfectly knew that in the middle ages and earlier, mining has also been done by fire and shock cooling with water, I kept dolly potting. I never made the connection for easier breaking down ore. (Not to forget that during some sieges, city walls were torn down this way.) You saved my day, for sure! Big TNX!

[@mikegonzales6910]

WOW!! THAT'S COOL TO KNOW, BRO ...

[@Rasulkarteron]

Love staying up late and catching your videos minutes old. Lol. Keep up the awesome videos

[@Rasulkarteron]

Oh I am in Ny Lol

[@goldsucheselbstdarstellung]

What beautiful pieces very beautiful 👍 Congratulations and have fun in the future 🍻

[@Arkangel1966mc]

That is awesome 👌, I think your show is really cool 😎.

[@rvlifestylelivin]

I bet just super heating the rock then dropping it in ice cold bucket of water will be enough to temper the rock and make it brittle. and you would not have to use vinegar. You could dip it in acetone after you take it out of the ice cold bucket of water if you are in a hurry to get cracking or let it dry over night. I imagine the acid in the vinegar is mostly just used for cleaning

[@seantiz]

Gold, a fire, a great dog…add a beer into the equation and you are ticking all of the boxes!

[@TalRohan]

if you use a handcrank blower and a deep fire pot you would reduce costs and make the whole thing more environmentally friendly (no petrol expense) you could easily layer up thje rock and wood or charcoal and do a bucket or more at a time . Acetic acid does cool things with iron salts

[@georgedobrovsky3800]

Hello Chris, you could save nice specimen gold by dissolving quartz in melted sodium hydroxide (lye), all gold inc fines preserved,but I would have to describe the process fully for safety sake, it's absolutely save,if you stick to it,regards George

[@goldennuts9590]

Thought you would've known this already,the old timers would light massive fires over quartz reefs and douse with water to crack into smaller pieces to send off to be crushed

[@donscottvansandt4139]

I wonder if it would work on manganese? Of oxidized pyrite?

[@SevieBallesterous]

This is the best new/old technique for extracting the gold from the ore shown on KZbin

[@thesuburbanxplorerschannel]

I heard about this method using water, not vinegar. It was just about fire treating the super hard quartz so it could be easily crushed. Worked great for me with just water, but I'd love to try it with vinegar to discover if that works even better. It's amazing how that quartz just shatters and crumbles after the fire treatment.

[@willamettevalleycryptids164]

You have rediscovered an ancient form of smelting. Cool

[@pierremontpetit5866]

Finally! A cost efficient way to gain gold

[@jennodine]

Fantastic method. Cant wait to try it myself.

[@danstevens2204]

I use my blower all the time when burning green/wet limbs. I’ve got some interesting looking quartz so I’ll give this a go when restrictions end 👍🏻

[@leighanncronin6905]

Very COOL way to get da gold outta rocks!

[@mary-ruthflores4107]

Hot rocks, cold liquid= fractures also the chemical reaction of the acid (vinegar) on the rock. And it’s a safe acid unlike the alternatives

[@Resonance444]

Very impressive, and laughed a lot... Thank you. But honestly, why would you go through all that trouble for this extraction and where did you happen to find that vinegar? and do you still put meat on that BBQ?

[@normdeplume6492]

Did he specify what type of vinegar?I saw 30% vinegar in Loews cleaning supplies aisle yesterday. I have to assume Home Depot has it too. You can get gallon jugs of white vinegar in a supermarket which is about 5% acid. I have heated vinegar to make reductions in the kitchen for sauces and those fumes can be quite strong and unpleasant to breathe. Make sure you're upwind of the fumes if you get to trying this. The 30% vinegar will probably send you to the emergency room if you got a strong whiff of fumes from that.

[@Pa.PatriotProspecting]

Thanks for the insight brother! 💪🏻👍🏻

[@Joni-n5u]

Thank you. I was sitting at my table heating my quartz with a propane torch and watching your video. Divine intervention?

[@699hazard]

You should burn your ore more often plus it's always a bonus to have a beer around the firepit afterwards 🍻

[@VoGusProspecting]

This 🤌

[@user-ii1iy8fz1d]

Fascinating, gonna see if my old timer prospecting uncle knows about this.

[@donhoughton271]

Very cool way to do the ore.