WEBVTT - How Gold Works 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.160 Brought to you by the two thousand twelve Toyota Camera. 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:08.039 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know? 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:16.920 From House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.200 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:22.480 We're doing this again. It's been a little while, been 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:24.479 a little while, but it's still stuff you should know. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.040 But I thought the name had changed since we took 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.560 our little Christmas break. No, don't you remember our race 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:36.040 to the Patent Office trademarket again at the eleven That 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.600 was a close one boom and they stamped it. Yeah, 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:40.839 s Y s K. Actually they said s N s 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.239 K right now. Wait, s Y s N is what 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.479 we get from people a lot sometimes, And I'm like, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.480 you know, no starts with the K. One of them does, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:57.160 one of Yes, it's not stuff you should know? Is right? 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.480 It doesn't make any sense. How do you doing? Oh? 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.680 I'm great man? Are you okay? Good? Um? You want 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.280 to do this one? We're talking about gold? Yeah, man, 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:07.880 I've got a little bit of an intro. It might 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:13.640 be a stretch. We'll find out. Okay, that's here. Today's January, 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:19.160 tomorrow's January Day. It is Big Newton Day. And also 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:23.640 on this day in history, in the Mayan general, fire 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:28.600 is born. Uh conquered the Mayan city to Call, which 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.240 was recently rediscovered, well not recently, it's been rediscovered, the 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.600 rediscovered anyone. Uh and Uh. What this did was it 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:42.200 enlarged the kingdom of King spear thrower Owl. The Minas 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.240 had the best names, great name um. And all of 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.120 this was going on in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:54.120 If you went just a little to the north, you 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.880 would run into another group of people called Aztecs, which 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.120 were actually the Triple Federation, is what it's what they're 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.560 really called. Um. But if you were to stumble northward 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.840 and run into the Aztec Empire and ask for gold, 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.799 what they would give you is what they would call 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.280 excrement of the gods. Do you want to try to 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:23.360 pronounce it? Yeah, I'm gonna go with teo would. I 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.200 think that's pretty close. I think you may have done it, Chuck. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.800 I think the last part is I love that language. 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.639 It's similar to like the some of the native languages 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.919 we heard in Guatemala. The that's because they're mine, yeah exactly, 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.400 but it's got that same like I don't know. It's 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.720 very staccato. It's kind of cool to hear, I think, right, 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.040 like the Mayan City, the heart of King, spirit thrower 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:52.520 owls um empires tetotactan, right, which sounds pretty close to 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:57.240 that word tilt, which means excrement of the gods. And 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.400 that's what the the the Aztecs considered gold. That was 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.640 a holy metal, a very very precious metal in every 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.320 sense of the word. And by three sight a d 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.520 they weren't the only ones to have loved gold for 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:15.400 a very long time. No, Egyptians were all over it. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.320 They thought it was also divine. Wait, hold on, how 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.320 would you rate that intro? I would say that was 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:24.880 on a scale of what one to ten, I was 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:31.400 one to twenty. I would give it a solid like sixteen. Wow, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.000 thanks Chuck, higher than you thought, way higher. I thought 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:38.280 I was gonna get a ten. That's why I extended it. No, no, no, um. 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:40.400 So the Egyptians, like I said, they also thought it 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:44.840 was divine of the gods, indestructible and uh they called 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.320 it uh. I guess Nube and ub and if you 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.640 know of the African region in Northeast Africa, Nubia or 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.080 if you're a fan of the rap group brand Nubians, 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.040 sure you would have heard of this. I was actually yeah, 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.440 yeah they were and um that that that name so 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.720 holds today because of the original original Egyptian word for 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.480 gold and um. Africa, of course, has always been a 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:10.720 major supplier of this stuff. Yeah. One of the first 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.600 world Nubia was I guess, yeah, like the first heavily 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.920 mined area for gold um. And then on the periodic table, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:22.560 the shorthand for gold is a U, which I've never 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.479 understood until I realized that it's Latin, which makes a 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.520 lot of sense. I thought it would be g O right, right, 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.159 you had something like that. No, No, we had to 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.039 go with the Latin or um, which means um shining dawn. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.200 That's nice. Yeah, And we said all this to say 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.680 that people have loved gold for a very very, very 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.719 very long time. Can I drop one of the stats 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:47.240 of the show for me? Right when I saw this, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:48.919 I was like just gonna say this is this is 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:50.719 the fact. I think it's pretty good. I told Emily 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:52.800 this last night, and she was not as impressed as 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.720 I would hope. She would have been Um forever and ever, 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.960 all the gold we've ever mind from the beginning of time, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.640 time is only a hundred and sixty one thousand tons, Yeah, 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.200 which sounds like a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of gold, 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.960 right for all of time. That's not a lot of gold. 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.279 They compare it to something like aluminium. We we get 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.840 a five point six million tons a year in the 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.599 United States alone of aluminum. And again, a hundred and 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.280 sixty one thousand tons of gold is all that's ever 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.760 been mined. Yeah. And the secondary stat that comes later, 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.960 which I'll go ahead and ruin now, is of all 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.880 the gold we've ever found is still around, We've only 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.240 lost or cannot account for fifteen percent of the gold 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.400 since the beginning of time. It's pretty good. Well, that 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.200 is pretty good. And it suggests two things that William 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.120 Harris points out. One, Um that means that if you 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.279 are wearing a piece of gold jewelry, it may have 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.200 belonged to somebody else a very very long time ago. Uh. 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.840 And two where exactly did they get that? Who are 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:59.080 they getting these like, um, gold masks and headpieces and 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.640 stuff of milking anch of time and then melting down 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.080 and reselling them. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.760 efficient and it's good because gold is really bad for 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.480 the environment, as we'll see you later on. But it's 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.119 really recyclable though. Yeah, it makes you It makes me wonder, 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.159 like how are they acquiring that? Yeah? What is your 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.800 wedding ring? Sir? My wedding ring is platinum. Platinum. It's lovely, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.960 isn't it. It's very nice? What is yours? Oh? Minus? 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:28.440 I think titanium. It's very cheap. And it's like that 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.240 I could. And it's actually my second one. I lost 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.800 my first one and inside of a turtle, inside of 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:34.400 a turtle. I have no idea where it is. Maybe 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.520 it's inside of a turtle. But I luckily I like 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.320 had the old email and I just sent like the 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.400 same order for the same ring, and boom, I'm married 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.680 all over again. It's it's a second time. Did you 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.880 guys have another mini ceremony? He's just like, you need 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.880 to buy another damn ring? Yeah? Alright. So, um, that's 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.279 a lot of gold stats. And as I've been trying 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.440 to um hammer out people of like gold for a 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.279 really long time, let's talk about your gold shower. Speaking 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.599 of hammering out, though I knew one more cool little 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:09.320 fact gold one ounce of gold. One ounce of gold 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:13.120 can be drawn out into a fifty mile wire or 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.160 hammered into a sheet five millions of an inch thick. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.600 So it's really well we'll get to all this, but 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.640 it's it's not only, you know, a beautiful thing for jewelry, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:26.280 but it's super handy and malleable and chemically inert and 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:28.440 all these great things you can do with gold. Yeah, 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.280 because of its property. It also makes it kind of 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.640 ironic that the Egyptian is considered it indestructible because one 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:36.320 of the more malleable medals around. It's so malleable that 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.520 it has like almost no practical purposes as far as 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.000 like hammering things go, Like you make a gold hammer, 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.520 you're dummy, you know. Alright, so element number seventy nine, 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.440 let's let's get in it. Okay, So gold again, uh? 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.080 Was people go back to the Egyptians because they were 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.680 the first ones to have like gold fever. Well, we've 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:01.640 actually found evidence of gold being um smithed i guess 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.000 um during the transition from the Stone Age, the Neolithic 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.920 Age to the Bronze Age, which is the first metal 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.800 age before Bronze even right, some some places that had 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:16.680 easy access to gold like Bulgaria. I believe in a 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:22.320 four thousand BC. Um, we're already working with gold long 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.119 before the Egyptians ever cut their hands on it. Yeah. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.240 And the Egyptians, um, like you said, they really had 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:32.959 an appetite for the stuff um Hira glyphs as early gold, 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.040 and by b C they were it was like currency 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.160 basically in Egypt. Well, yeah, very much so, Um, it 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.480 was not that I don't know did they actually minted 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.760 is for is currency? Uh? The Egyptians, Yeah, I don't 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:51.800 know if they minted it. I don't think the menting 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:57.280 came until the Greeks and Romans. Actually King Crosius, the 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.040 ruler of ancient Lydia, which is a loss of list A, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.280 really he was the first two mint in mint gold currencies. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:10.480 Gold coins um in widespread use in sixt but it 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.400 was the Greeks and then the Romans that really started 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.840 to mint about a hundred years later though, So that's 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.720 that's a pretty nice jump on things. He got. He 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:21.800 was like, Hey, I like to look at this stuff. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:23.800 I'm gonna put my face on it exactly, and you 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:26.280 guys are going to use it. Yeah. By five fifty, 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:30.640 the Greeks were doing it. Uh and then um, the 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.760 Romans of course, with their more sophisticated ways, followed suit. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.600 The orious coins called Yeah, they've pro used millions of them. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:40.840 Those are the ones that they find, like just some 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:45.000 farmer in like Devonshire in England, we'll dig up like 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.280 a chest filled with these things. Yeah, because the Romans 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.560 were everywhere they were, and they minted a lot of 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.520 these coins. So as they're doing this, the same thing 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.240 is going on about the same time in South America 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.079 because they have a lot of gold there as well. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.360 And what's it called the Middle Cicon Era. Yeah, I 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.320 couldn't tell if it was Cicon or Cissan. I bet 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:12.000 a Cissan Sisson. I bet it's not unleven hundred And 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:16.280 this is modern day Peru. They there has been, there 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.439 have been a lot of gold artifacts found in that region. 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.920 So they were usually crazy, for sure. The Peruvians were 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.640 crazy about it. The Inca like masks, ornaments, chalices, stuff, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.600 and their specialty was hammering gold into sheets and like 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.480 wrapping stuff in it, like creating gold leaf. Interesting. Yeah, 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.240 they were pretty good at that kind of thing. Um, 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:40.760 and then you know there's already a certain amount of 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:45.640 gold fever over in Europe. I think the the English 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.480 minted their first gold coin in the mid century, alright, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:55.719 the same with the Florentine du get. Yeah, those were 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:57.880 both about the middle of the thirteenth century. That's a 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:04.319 popular coin. It was still is it among collectives? Um, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.760 So there was people in Europe were exposed to gold. 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.000 They like gold, they wanted gold. Over in Central and 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.240 South America, Over in Asia they also had the thing 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.360 for gold. But the Europeans were one of the first 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.160 to say, Hey, let's see where the edge of the 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.120 Earth is and if there's gold there. And one of 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.280 the first people to do that was Marco Polo. And strangely, 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.560 a lot of people hate Christopher Columbus or think he 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.840 was one of the more evil characters in history. Possibly 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:36.599 rightfully so. Um, but you can actually trace the infection 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:42.000 that Columbus released, literally and metaphorically back to Marco Polo, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.520 because apparently there's evidence that Marco Polo directly inspired Christopher 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:50.080 Columbus to set sail in search of gold. Yeah. Growing 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.800 up in history class, you always learned about the great explorers, 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.199 and the more you learn about it, like the real histories, 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.800 as you get older, the more you learn that many 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.840 times they weren't just sailing upon the shore with like 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:03.679 by a bouquet of flowers to deliver most of the time, 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:05.640 I would say, you know, it was usually and they 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:10.480 were in conquer mode. Uh, for one reason, to spread Christianity, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.760 as the Spaniards really wanted to do. Yeah, that was 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.200 the cover story, the cover story. But King Ferdinand in 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.760 fifteen eleven also sent word quote while you're there. Well 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.640 I added that part. While you're there, then start quote 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.080 get gold humanly if you can, but by but at 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.400 all hazards, get the gold. So I mean that was 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.160 definitely a charge. And thanks to the travels of Marco Polo, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.720 the book that he wrote where he talked about palaces 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.880 of silver and gold, Uh, you know, people thought it 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:43.720 was just like the streets were lined with this stuff 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.400 in the New World. And I mean imagine though, if 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.000 you were one of the conquistadors who started sailing um 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:55.000 west and you ran into the Maya or the Aztecs 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.160 or the Inca, and you saw that they had all 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.640 this gold, you would think, well, this is all very 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.840 much true in this place gold city. So let's kill 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.320 all these people and take their gold, and there was 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.640 actually a famed gold city, El Dorado. They're all looking 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.800 for exactly like everyone was looking for Eldorado. And apparently 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.640 every time a conquistador would find a significant seam of gold, 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.560 they found El Dorado, and everybody else would come and 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.079 it becomes like a boom area. But of course it 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.560 was a mythical city, right, Yeah, it was just like legend. Yeah, 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.000 and probably the closest thing to it obviously not a 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.640 city built of gold, the closest thing to it. It 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:40.160 was in Brazil, in the meanest Gurai region, Minas Gerais. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.840 That looks good, freaky Gervais. We've been doing this like 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.320 five years in our pronunciation is maybe even worse rather 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.320 than better. Actually, we have a listener mail today where 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.960 someone lauds us just for taking a chance and being 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.679 willing to be creative. Corrected, thank you, I'm glad to 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.200 hear that. I'll read that one at the end of 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:01.480 this one. Yeah, that was in Brazil, and uh, there 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:02.679 was a lot of gold there and they were the 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:06.160 largest gold producer by seventeen twenty years. They became the 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:10.480 world's largest gold producer because of this area, using, of course, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:15.079 slave labor panning for gold in sort of rudimentary ways. 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.880 Not good. No, we're not too far removed from that now. No, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:26.320 So onto America, North America, California, the gold rush. Like 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.320 the point here is is that gold has rewritten history 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.600 and how we form societies because of the search for gold. Yeah, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.640 it's like spread people out over the world and intermixed 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:39.240 and inter intermarried and inter did it. And you know, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.560 like we have entire groups of people ethnicities who are 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:48.680 the result of gold. The gold rushes. Um, California gets 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.360 a lot of press obviously because by the end of 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.960 the first year of the gold rush afterwards discovered in 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.160 eighteen eight, five thousand people were mining there. By the 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.880 end of the second year, forty people were mining there. 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.280 But North Carolina actually was the first American gold rush. Yeah, 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.240 and like you're saying, California gets all the all the attention. 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.160 San Francisco forty Niners are named after the gold rush. Um. 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.480 There was that great Scooby Doo episode with the minor 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.080 forty niner, remember him, a scary guy. Yeah. When you 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.280 think of gold rush, you think of California, or I 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.920 also think of Delawaga. Yeah. Yeah, he was the mayor 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.200 of Delanaga was the one who said there's golden then 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:29.840 our hills. Oh really yeah, it was the mayor of Delnaga. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.000 I had no idea, Stas Todd something. I think have 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.600 you ever panned up there in Delnah? I did that 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.400 when I was a kid. And you know it's fun 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.440 if you're a little kid, right right, You think you're 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.840 gonna find a little gold flag and it would be rich, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.640 or you just might find a little gold flag. And 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.760 if you do, you won't be rich. Yeah, you're going 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.360 to find it doesn't buy you virtually anything. But you 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.200 were saying, North Carolina doesn't usually get much attention, and 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.040 that was the first gold rush. Yeah, up until the 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.280 eighteen thirties. In fact um, they supplied all of the 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.040 domestic gold that was coined here at the U. S. 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.320 Mint and Philly came from North Carolina, or North Kakaki 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.000 as we like to call it. Who calls it that? 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.440 You never called it that? Uh? Have you ever heard 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.960 it called that? I have. There's a tribe called quest Song. 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.200 Oh really, I can't remember what it is, but somebody 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.760 calls it North Kakillaka and Compton take a check. Check 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.800 it out. No, I didn't make that up. Well, I 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:31.480 just wrapped you did your j tip. So uh yeah, 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.320 we talked about the gold rushes in the US. There 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.120 was also a big one in Oz. Yeah, we can't 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.080 leave out our Ozzie mates. No, um hello Australia. Yeah, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.520 they're like we got tons of gold. They're like it's 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.080 so hot. I watched Mad Max the other day, by 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.600 the way, all the way through the original it was, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.880 and it was, um, I don't know. Road Warrior got 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.240 most of the attention because it was bigger and more 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.400 of an action adventure, but Mad Max was a really 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.840 dark kind of revenge the exploitation movie. Yeah, it was 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.080 really good oxploitation osploitation. So was that the one where 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.120 the guys in the personal helicopter is that road Warrior 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.760 Mad Max? That's road Warrior? Then it's like, I mean 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.720 it was when Mel Gibson was still a cop and 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.960 he was you know, there was this biker gang led 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:22.720 by the toe Cutter, and you don't it something cool? 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.960 You know justin my friend his uncle is was the 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:31.639 toe cutter in Mad Max? Wow? Is uh man? I 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.639 can't remember his name? Now uncle U uncle toe Cutter? 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.959 Now I can call him that it said, it say, 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.280 isn't as Christmas talking? Oh, I can know. He just 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:43.080 sends toes every year in the little card. Oh man, 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:47.200 I can't remember his name now Uncle yeah, Uncle toe cutter. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.120 I think that's the better day. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.879 So Australia has this huge gold rush um in the 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:01.920 what eighteen fifties, Yes, Edward, him and Hargraves found gold 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.399 in New South Wales Bam gold brush. A few years later, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:10.199 South Africa steps onto the scene. Eight George Harrison. Uh, 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.960 he uncovered gold in South Africa? And what how many 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.840 contributions has that man made humanity in his hundred and 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.840 sixty years? I mean he wrote here comes the Sun. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.200 He discovered gold like a hundred years before he was born, 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.240 Not a hundred, but hundred years for he was famous 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.480 about the same time, about a full century. But down 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:33.919 South Africa is the leading gold producer in the world. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:39.400 Oh today it is, wow, followed by the United States. 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.200 In the United States, Nevada is the number one gold 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:47.240 producer these days. You mean Nevada Nevada? Alright, So let's 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.600 talk about how you get gold onto your finger. It's 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.160 not as easy as you would think, but it's well 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.000 it's at times drudimentary and at times a little more 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.399 sophisticated the whole process. Yeah, and it come likes to 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.600 say the least. Yeah, I mean like it really shows 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.080 how much we want gold. Yeah, it's sort of like 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.560 fracking in a way to the one method. Alright, So 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.840 what you gotta do, there's diff You gotta start by prospecting, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.960 which is the act of looking for gold, right, And 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:18.320 that's what you would call an old grizzled dude with 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.120 the pack mule up in the hills in California prospect or. Yeah, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.000 that's what you call a geologist who finds gold. Today too, 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.639 they're still called prospectors. And I guess the idea is 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.719 that what are the prospects for finding gold? I'm sure 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.240 that's where it came from, right, So their prospecting, that 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:33.919 makes a lot of sense. I've never thought about that. 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.680 So back in the day, there was a lot of 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.720 luck involved, uh, looking around for it basically where you 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:45.479 think it might be. These days it is way more precise. Um, 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.800 they have equipment that can tell you if there is 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.359 likely gold there, and then well here's the thing is, 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:56.200 there's gold everywhere, but it's just not concentrated enough to 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.679 be worth mining. Yeah, that's an excellent point. In most cases, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.320 it's a visible but it's still present in the soil. 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.159 Isn't it crazy? Invisible gold in dirt and rocks. Yeah, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.600 or it's in gold, schlagger, that's crazy too. It's like 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.439 they're just throwing it away, throwing away, you're drinking it 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:16.560 for a premium price. It's crazy. That's gross. That was 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:21.080 like a college thing. Oh yeah, schlagger, jagger, maister anything 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.840 that sounded like vaguely Germanic. That was a college thing, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:30.880 maister brow. Um. So where they find gold and heaviest 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.840 concentration is when they will say, all right, you know 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:36.840 what it's worth setting up a mining operation here. Um. 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.520 There may be other metals there, like silver, which is great. Yeah. 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.119 A lot of times gold is combined with silver in 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.200 an ore, which I'm sure you're just like, okay, great, 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.440 that's fine with me. That's twice the value, right, well, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.240 not twice the value, but one in three quarters times 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.440 the value. We could figure it out. So they drill 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.280 down to obtain samples, um, analyze it see if there's 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.679 enough gold. If there is, they're going to set up 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:03.760 a mining operation there, right, there's not They're gonna move 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:05.760 on and look at another place that they think they 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:07.920 might have a lot of gold. Yeah. And then depending 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.359 on how the gold is present in the area. UM, 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.720 there's basically two ways. One is the load a load deposit, 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:18.520 which is it's combined with rock or or and it's UM. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.960 It can be at the surface or underground. UM. And 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:24.400 with a load deposit, basically you just want to blow 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.040 things up when you find gold like that. If it's 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.480 at the surface, you're gonna use what's called an open 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.080 pit method, which is basically just drill a bunch of 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.000 holes into the ore the gold or put some explosives 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.120 in there and bloat up and then haul the ore out. Yeah. 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.720 I mean your goal here is just to make I mean, 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.400 if they could load up that huge boulder and take 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:46.680 it and do it need or somewhere else, they might, 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.280 but they're just trying to make smaller rocks excellent point 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:53.760 for transport. UM. And then if it's underground, If the 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.720 load is underground, they'll dig a shaft down to it 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.560 and add it. You go down to it, and this 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.159 is shaft. I'm sure they go down to it and 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.600 drill holes all the way through that ore rock um 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.040 and those holes are called stokes. Then they packed those 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.159 full of explosives and blow it up. So it's basically 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.359 like the open pit method, but underground because then they 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.840 just truck that or out and off to the um extractor. 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.199 That's right. If you're in Delonaga, Georgia, or maybe at 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.960 a river and Utah, why not, why not give a 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.520 Utah shout out, you might look for something called a 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:30.760 placer deposit, and that is when you find the loose 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.840 gold um in a stream bed, you know, the little 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.440 flakes for the little chunks of little nuggets in a 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.080 mountain stream or a beach, and uh, this is where 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:41.960 you would pan and you you know, you scoop it 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:45.640 up in a pan and you shake it in the Yeah, 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.359