WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Gold Works 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.480 Good afternoon, folks, Happy weekend. You ever wanted to know 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.280 how gold works? You're thinking that does gold work? It's 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.840 just gold, It just is. Well, there's a lot more 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.000 that goes into it, and we talk about all the 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.759 history of gold, very very fascinating stuff from February first, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:24.560 two thousand thirteen, How Gold Works. Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:33.680 Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.519 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.000 w Chuck Bryant. We're doing this again. It's been a 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.080 little while. It's been a little while, but it's still 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.720 stuff you should know that. I thought the name had 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.120 changed since we took our little Christmas break. Don't you 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.640 remember our race to the patent office, right, trademarket again 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.120 at the eleventh hour. Yeah, that was a close one. 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.680 Boom and they stamped it. Yeah, that's y s K. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.400 Actually they said s N s K right now. Wait, 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.360 s Y s N is what we get from people 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.600 a lot sometimes, and I'm like, you know, no, it 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.800 starts with a K. One of them does one of Yes, 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.520 it's not stuff you should know is because it doesn't 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.640 make any sense. How are you doing Oh, I'm great man. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.600 Are you okay? Good? Um? You want to do this one? 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.320 We're talking about gold. Yeah, man, I've got a little 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.000 bit of an intro. It might be a stretch. We'll 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:33.039 find out. Okay, let's here. Today's January. Okay, tomorrow's January 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.560 fig Newton Day. It is Big Newton Day. And also 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.640 on this day in history in the Maya in general, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.640 fire is born. Uh. Conquered the Mayan city to Call, 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.560 which was recently rediscovered, well not recently, it's been rediscovered, 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.400 the rediscovered a new one. Uh. And Uh. What this 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.880 did was it enlarged the kingdom of King spear thrower Owl. 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.200 The Maya's had the best names. That's pretty great name. Um. 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.600 And all of this was going on in the heart 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.120 of the Yucatan Peninsula. If you went just a little 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.280 to the north, you would run into another group of 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.520 people called Aztecs, which were actually the Triple Federation, is 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.040 what it's what they're really called. Um. But if you 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.520 were to stumble northward and run into the Aztec Empire 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.480 and ask for gold, what they would give you is 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.120 what they would call excrement of the gods. Do you 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.600 want to try to pronounce it. Yeah, I'm gonna go 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:43.640 with do. I think that's pretty close. I think you 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:49.400 may have done it, Chuck. The last part is I 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.880 love that language. It's similar to like the some of 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.920 the native languages we heard in Guatemala. The that's because 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.520 they're mine, yeah, exactly, but it's got that same like, 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.160 I don't know, it's very staccato. It's kind of cool 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.800 to hear, I think, right, like the Mayan city, the 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:08.320 heart of King, spear thrower, owls um empires, tetoto acton right, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:13.080 which sounds pretty close to that word teo quilt, Yeah, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.040 which means excrement of the gods. And that's what the 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:20.280 the Aztecs considered gold. It was a holy metal, a 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.800 very very precious metal in every sense of the word. 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.919 And by three sev a d. They weren't the only 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.079 ones to have loved gold for a very long time. No, 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.480 Egyptians were all over it. They thought it was also divine. Wait, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.120 hold on, how would you rate that intro? I would 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.360 say that was on a scale of what one to ten, 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.360 I still one to one to twenty. I would give 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.960 it a solid like sixteen. Wow, thanks, Chuck, higher than 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:51.720 you thought, way higher. I thought I was going to 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.360 get a ten. That's why I extended it twenty. No, no, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.480 no um. So the Egyptians, like I said, they also 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.440 thought it was divine of the gods, indestructive and uh 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.280 they called it uh, I guess Nube and ub And 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.720 if you know of the African region in Northeast Africa Nubia, 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.480 or if you're a fan of the rap group Brand Nubians, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.440 sure you would haven't heard of this. I was actually yeah, 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:17.880 yeah they were, and um that that that name so 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.120 holds today because of the original original Egyptian word for 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:25.839 gold and um. Africa, of course, has always been a 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.280 major supplier of this stuff. Yeah. One of the first well, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.320 Nubia was I guess, yeah, like the first heavily mined 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:35.279 area for gold um. And then on the periodic table, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.920 the shorthand for gold is a U, which I've never 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.880 understood until I realized that it's Latin, which makes a 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.920 lot of sense. I thought it would be g O, right, right, 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.520 you had something like that. No, No, we had to 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:53.440 go with the Latin or um, which means um shining dawn. 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:56.599 That's nice. Yeah, And we said all this to say 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.000 that people have loved gold for a very very, very 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.120 very long time. Can I drop one of the stats 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:04.599 of the show for me? Right when I saw this, 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:06.280 I was like just gonna say this is this is 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.119 the fact. I think it's pretty good. I told Emily 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.160 this last night, and she was not as impressed as 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:14.120 I would hope she would have been. Um forever and ever, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.159 all the gold we've ever mined from the beginning of 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.880 time is only a hundred and sixty one thousand tons, yeah, 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.560 which sounds like a lot. Yeah, that's a lot of gold, 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.320 right for all of time. That's not a lot of gold. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.680 They compare it to something like aluminium. We we get 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:34.240 a five point six million tons a year in the 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.000 United States alone of aluminum. And again, a hundred and 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.680 sixty one thousand tons of gold is all that's ever 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.200 been mined. Yeah. And the secondary stat that comes later, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.160 which I'll go ahead and ruin now, is that of 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.000 all the gold we've ever found is still around, we've 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.359 only lost or cannot account for fifteen percent of the 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.680 gold since the beginning of time. It's pretty good. Well, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.200 it is pretty good. And it suggests two things that 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.359 William Harris points out. One UM that means that if 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:05.520 you are wearing a piece of gold jewelry, it may 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.480 have belonged to somebody else a very very long time ago. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.120 Uh And two, where exactly did they get that? Where 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.360 are they getting these like um gold masks and headpieces 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.040 and stuff of ancient time and then melting them down 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.479 and reselling them? Yeah? I don't know. I mean it's 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.159 efficient and it's good because gold is really bad for 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:26.880 the environment, as we'll see you later on. But it's 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.720 really recyclable though. Yeah, it makes you it makes me wonder, like, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.320 how are they acquiring that? Yeah? What is your wedding ring? Sir? 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.560 My wedding ring is platinum? Platinum. It's lovely, isn't it. 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:42.440 It's very nice? What did yours? Oh? Minus, I think titanium. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.760 It's very cheap. It's like take too though with that 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:47.400 I could. And this is actually my second one. I 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.120 lost my first one and inside of a turtle, inside 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:51.560 of a turtle. I have no idea where it is. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.760 Maybe it's inside of a turtle. But I luckily I 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:56.599 like had the old email and I just sent like 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.520 the same order for the same ring, and boom, I'm 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.320 married all over again the second time. Did you guys 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.400 have another mini ceremony. He's just like you need to 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:09.320 buy another damn ring. Yeah alright, So, um, that's a 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.800 lot of gold stats. And as we've been trying to 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:16.040 um hammer out people of like gold for a really 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.000 long time, let's talk about the history of gold show. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.760 Speaking of hammering out, though I knew one more cool 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.360 little fact gold. One ounce of gold. One ounce of 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.160 gold can be drawn out into a fifty mile wire 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.520 or hammered into a sheet five millions of an inch thick. 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.000 So it's really well, we'll get to all this, but 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.000 it's it's not only, you know, a beautiful thing for jewelry, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.560 but it's super handy and malleable and chemically and nert 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.160 and like all these great things you can do with 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.600 gold because of its property. It also makes it kind 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.520 of ironic that the Egyptian is considered it indestructible because 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.600 one of the more malleable medals around. It's so malleable 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:56.720 that it has like almost no practical purposes as far 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.360 as like hammering things go, Like you make a gold hammer, 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.880 you're dumb, you know. Yeah, alright, so element number seventy nine, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.360 let's let's get in it Okay, so uh gold again. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.360 Uh was people go back to the Egyptians because they 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.800 were the first ones to have like gold fever. But 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:18.720 we've actually found evidence of gold being um smithed i 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.840 guess um during the transition from the Stone Age, the 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.960 Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age, which is the first 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.960 metal age before Bronze even right, some some places that 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.960 had easy access to gold, like Bulgaria, I believe in 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.920 a four thousand BC. Um, we're already working with gold 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.480 long before the Egyptians ever got their hands on it. Yeah. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.640 And the Egyptians, um, like you said, they really had 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.760 an appetite for the stuff um hira glyps as early 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.600 as gold, and by b C they were it was 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.000 like currency basically. Yeah in Egypt, well yeah, very much so, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.959 Um it was not the I don't know if do 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:06.360 they actually minted is for is currency? Uh the Egyptians, Yeah, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.679 I don't know if they minted it. I don't think 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.640 the minting came until the Greeks and Romans. Actually King Crosius, 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.600 the ruler of ancient Lydia, which is a low civilization, 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.960 really he was the first to mint in mint gold 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:26.280 currencies gold coins um in widespread use in sixty b C. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.920 But it was the Greeks and then the Romans that 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.640 really started to to mint about a hundred years later though. Yeah, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.800 so that's that's a pretty nice jump on things he got. Yeah, 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.160 he was like, hey, I like the look at this stuff. 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.160 I'm gonna put my face on it exactly, and you 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.679 guys are going to use it. Yeah. By five fifty 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.040 the Greeks were doing it, uh, and then um, the 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.160 Romans of course, with their more sophisticated ways, followed suit. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.760 The orious coins they were called, Yeah, they produced millions 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.440 of them. Those are the ones that they find, like 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.160 to some farmer and like Devon Shy in England will 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.480 still find we'll dig up like a chest filled with 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.840 these things. Yeah, Because the Romans were everywhere they were 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.520 and they minted a lot of these coins. So as 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.240 they're doing this, the same thing is going on about 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.600 the same time in South America because they have a 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.400 lot of gold there as well. And what's it called 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.400 the Middle Skon Era. Yeah, I couldn't tell if it 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.600 was Cicon or Cissan. I bet at Cissan Sisson, I 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.000 bet it's not. Um a D nine to eleven hundred 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.120 and this is modern day Peru. They there has been, 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.839 there's been a lot of gold artifacts found in their region. 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.160 So they were usually like crazy for sure. The Peruvians 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:44.040 were crazy about the inca like masks, ornaments, chalices, stuff, 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.000 and their specialty was hammering gold into sheets and like 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.880 wrapping stuff in it, like creating gold leaf. Interesting. Yeah, 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.599 they were pretty good at that kind of thing. Um. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.120 And then you know there's already a certain amount of 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:02.439 gold fever over in Europe. Yeah. I think the the 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:07.280 English minted their first gold coin in the mid century, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:13.120 the same with the um Florentine du get. Those were 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.280 both about the middle of the thirteenth century. That's a 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:21.719 popular coin, it was still is is it among collectors? Sure? Um, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.160 so there was. People in Europe were exposed to gold. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.400 They like gold, They wanted gold. Over in Central and 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.640 South America, Over in Asia they also had a thing 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.760 for gold. But the Europeans were one of the first 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.480 to say, hey, let's see where the edge of the 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.480 earth is and if there's gold there. And one of 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.640 the first people to do that was Marco Polo. And strangely, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.920 a lot of people hate Christopher Columbus or think he 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.200 was one of the more evil characters in history. Possibly 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:54.000 rightfully so. Um, but you can actually trace the infection 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:59.160 that Columbus released literally and metaphorically back to Marco Polo, 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.439 because only it was evidence that Marco Polo directly inspired 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.800 Christopher Columbus to set sail in search of gold. Yeah. 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.480 Growing up in history class, you always learned about the 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.920 great explorers, and the more you learn about it, like 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:13.640 the real histories, as you get older, the more you 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.640 learn that many times they weren't just sailing upon the 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:20.679 shore with like a bouquet of flowers to deliver most 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:22.000 of the time. I would say, you know, it was 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.600 usually and they were in conquer mode. Uh, for one reason, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.880 to spread Christianity, as the Spaniards really wanted to do. Yeah, 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.520 that was the cover story, the cover story. But King 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.240 Ferdinand in fifteen eleven also sent word quote while you're there. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.640 Well I added that part while you're there then start 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:46.199 quote get gold humanly if you can, but by but 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.640 at all hazards get the gold. So I mean that 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.880 was definitely a charge in thanks to the travels of 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.360 Marco Polo, the book that he wrote where he talked 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.959 about palaces of silver and gold. Uh, you know, people 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.640 thought it was just like this. Treets were lined with 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.640 this stuff in the world. And I mean imagine though, 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.960 if you were one of the conquistadors who started sailing 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:11.720 um west and you ran into the Maya or the 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.400 Aztecs or the Inca, and you saw that they had 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.520 all this gold, you would think, well, this is all 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:22.040 very much true in this place, gold city, So let's 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:24.520 kill all these people and take their gold. And there 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.680 was actually a famed gold city, El Dorado. What they're 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.520 all looking for exactly like everyone was looking for Eldorado. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.920 And apparently every time a conquistador would find a significant 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.439 seam of gold, they found El Dorado, and everybody else 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:40.880 would come and it become like a boom area. But 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.520 of course it was a mythical city, right, Yeah, it 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.240 was just like legend. Yeah, and probably the closest thing 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.880 to it, obviously not a city built of gold. The 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.040 closest thing to it. It was in Brazil, in the 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:59.440 Minat Gurai region, Minas Gerais. That looks good, freaky Gervais. Oh, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.280 we've been doing it's like five years in Our pronunciation 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.640 is maybe even worse rather than better. Actually, we have 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.880 a listener mail today where someone lauds us just for 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.040 taking a chance and being willing to be creative. Corrected, 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.040 thank you, I'm glad to hear that. I'll read that 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:15.840 one at the end of this one. Yeah, that was 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.360 invent in Brazil, and uh, there was a lot of 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.120 gold there and they were the largest gold producer by sea. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.200 Twenty years. They became the world's largest gold producer because 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.120 of this area, using of course slave labor painting for 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.360 gold in sort of rudim entry ways. It's not good. No, 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:55.320 we're not too far removed from that now. No, so 0:14:55.400 --> 0:15:01.000 onto America, North America, California. The the gold rush, Like 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.040 the point here is is the gold has rewritten history 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.360 and how we form societies because of the search for gold. Yeah, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.320 it's like spread people out over the world and intermixed 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.960 and inter intermarried and inter did it. And you know, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.280 like we have entire groups of people ethnicities who are 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.680 the result of gold the gold rushes. Yeah. Um, California 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.840 gets a lot of press obviously because by the end 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.560 of the first year of the gold rush, afterwards discovered 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.880 in eighty five thousand people were mining there. By the 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.560 end of the second year, forty people were mining there. 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.960 But North Carolina actually was the first American gold rush. Yeah, 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.960 And like you're saying, California gets all the all the attention. 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.880 San Francisco forty Niners are named after the gold rush. Um. 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.200 There was that great Scooby Doo episode with the minor 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.720 forty Niner remember him, Yes, a scary guy. Yeah. When 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.800 you think of gold rush, you think of California, or 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.080 I also think of Delonaga. Yeah it was Gei. Yeah, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:00.520 he was the mayor of del on Goo was the 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.000 one who said there's gold and then our hills. Oh 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:05.200 really yeah, it was the mayor of Delanica. I had 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.880 no idea. There was todd something. I think. Have you 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.280 ever panned up there in Delana Huh? I did that 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.080 when I was a kid. And you know, it's fun 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.360 if you're a little kid, right, you think you're gonna 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.560 find a little gold flak and it would be rich. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.400 Or you just might find a little gold flak and 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.480 if you do, you won't be rich. Yeah, you're going 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.040 to find it doesn't buy you virtually anything. But you 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:28.920 were saying North Carolina doesn't usually get much attention, and 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.760 that was the first gold rush. Yeah, up until the 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.960 eighteen thirties. In fact, um, they supplied all of the 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.760 domestic gold that was coined here at the U S 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.040 Mint in Philly came from North Carolina or North Kakaaki 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:42.720 as we like to call it. Who calls it that? 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.160 You never called it that? Uh? Have you ever heard 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.680 it called that? I have. There's a tribe called quest Song. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.880 Oh really, I can't remember what it is, but somebody 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:57.160 calls it North Kakillaka and Compton check a check it out. No, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.640 I didn't make that up. Well I just ran you 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:07.000 did your j tip so uh yeah, we talked about 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.600 the gold rushes in the US. There was also a 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.399 big one in oz. Yeah, we can't leave out our 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.320 Ozzie mates. No, um, hello Australia. Yeah, they're like we 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.560 got tons of gold. They're like it's so hot. I 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.159 watched Mad Max the other day, by the way, all 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:26.160 the way through the original it was and it was, um, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.600 I don't know. Road Warrior got most of the attention 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.960 because it was bigger and more of an action adventure, 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.760 but Mad Max was a really dark kind of revenge 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.200 ee exploitation movie. Yeah, it was really good ozploitation. Osploitation. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.520 So was that the one where the guys in the 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.199 personal helicopters, that road Warrior Mad Max. That's road Warrior. 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.320 I don't think I've seen Max. Then. It's like I 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:51.600 mean it was when Mel Gibson was still a cop 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.400 and he was you know, there was this biker gang 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:56.840 led by the toe Cutter and you know what it 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.439 was something cool, you know, justin my friend. Yeah, his 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.199 uncle is that was the toe cutter in Mad Max. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.840 Wow is uh? Man, I can't remember his name now, uncle, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.479 Uncle toe Cutter. I didn't call him that, that's what 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:13.919 it saysn't as Christmas talking. Oh, I can know. He 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.800 just sends toes every year in a little guard. Oh man, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.960 I can't remember his name now, Uncle. Yeah, Uncle toe Cutter. 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.840 I think that's the better day. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:29.600 So Australia has this huge gold rush um in the 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:36.720 what eighteen fifties, Yes, Edward Ham and Hargraves found golden 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.160 New South Wales Bam gold brush. A few years later, 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.240 South Africa steps onto the scene eighteen sixty eight. George Harrison, 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:49.680 he uncovered gold in South Africa and what how many 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.639 contributions has that man made humanity? In his hundred and 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.560 sixty years. I mean he wrote here comes the Sun. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.320 He discovered gold like a hundred years before he was born. Yeah, 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.959 not a hundred, but hundred us for he was famous 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.760 right about the same time, about a full century. But 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.639 down South Africa is the leading gold producer in the world. 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:14.320 Oh today it is, oh wow, followed by the United States. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.920 In the United States, Nevada is the number one gold 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.679 producer these days. You mean Nevada, Nevada. All right, So 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.280 let's talk about how you get gold onto your finger. 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.920 It's not as easy as you would think, but it's well, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.400 it's at times rudimentary and at times a little more sophisticated. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.160 The whole process. Yeah, and it complex to say the least. Yeah, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.760 I mean, like it really shows how much we want gold. Yeah. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.080 It's sort of like fracking in a way to the 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.960 one method. Yeah, alright, So what you gotta do there's different. 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.320 You gotta start by prospecting, which is the act of 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.679 looking for gold, right, and that's what you would call 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.080 an old grizzled dude with the pack mule up in 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.359 the hills in California prospect or. Yeah, that's what you 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.200 call a geologists who finds gold today to still called prospectors, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.040 and I guess the idea is that, what are the 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.200 prospects for finding gold. I'm sure that's where it came from, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.720 right maybe so their prospecting. That makes a lot of sense. 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.640 I've never thought about that. So back in the day, 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.359 there was a lot of luck involved, uh, looking around 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.760 for it basically where you think it might be. These 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.560 days it is way more precise. Um, they have equipment 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.440 that can tell you if there is likely gold there 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.040 and then well here's the thing is there's gold everywhere, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.320 but it's just not concentrated enough to be worth mining. Yeah, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.399 that's an excellent point. In most cases it's invisible, but 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:39.200 it's still present in the soil. Isn't it crazy? Invisible 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.800 gold in dirt and rocks? Yeah, or it's in gold Schlagger. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.960 That's crazy too. It's like they're just throwing it away, 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.080 throwing away. You're drinking it for a premium price. That's crazy. 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:54.960 That's gross. That was like a college thing. Oh yeah, slager, yegger, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.840 maister anything that sounded like vaguely Germanic. That was a 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:05.080 college thing, maister brow. Um, So where they find gold 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.359 and the heaviest concentration is when they will say, all right, 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.600 you know what it's worth setting up a mining operation here. Um, 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.280 there may be other metals there, like silver, which is great. Yeah. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.879 A lot of times gold is combined with silver in 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.960 an ore, which I'm sure you're just like, okay, great, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.200 that's fine with me. That's twice the value, right, well, 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.960 not twice the value, but one in three quarters times 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:28.680 of valid. I don't know, we could figure it out. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.119 So they drill down to obtain samples, UM, analyze it, 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.000 see if there's enough gold. If there is, they're going 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:37.879 to set up a mining operation there. Right, there's not, 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:39.960 They're going to move on and look at another place 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:41.680 that they think they might have a lot of gold. Yeah. 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.000 And then depending on how the gold is present in 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.800 the area. UM, there's basically two ways. One is the 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.840 load a load deposit, which is it's combined with rock 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.960 or or and it's UM. It can be at the 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.320 surface or underground. UM. And with a load deposit, basically 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.480 you just want to blow things up when you find 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.160 gold like that. If it's at the surface, you're gonna 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.879 use what's called an open pit method, which is basically 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.280 just drill a bunch of holes into the ore the 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:11.480 gold ore, put some explosives in there and blow it 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.080 up and then haul the ore out. Yeah. I mean 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.640 your goal here is just to make I mean, if 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.240 they could load up that huge boulder and take it 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:21.600 and do it need or somewhere else, they might, but 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.200 they're just trying to make smaller rocks. Excellent point for transport. Yeah. Um. 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.560 And then if it's underground, if the load is underground, 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.080 they'll dig a shaft down to it and add it. 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.199 They go down to it, and this is a big shaft. 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.280 I'm sure they go down to it and drill holes 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:40.720 all the way through that ore rock um, and those 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.080 holes are called stops. Then they pack those full of 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:45.359 explosives and blow it up. So it's basically like the 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:48.560 open pit method, but underground because then they just truck 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:53.119 that or out and off to the um extractor. That's right. 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:56.400