A Toxic but Easy Way to Remove Quartz Off Gold 

Public service announcement for all the blokes out there. "Yeah na mate she'll be right." Is not appropriate PPE! Grab a respirator and do it outside, not in the man cave.

Chris just a heads up, I work in construction with silica dust and chemicals like epoxy and solvents....you might need to change the type of filter you have, the one your wearing I believe is for dust, you need a filter for chemicals....volatile gases, or a Multi gas filter for a wide range of different gas threats, go to your safety store and get the right filter type champ, should be a simple change over between the 2 different types, and if you need a dust and chemical at the same time you might need to look more into the filter and the brands of mask, other brands might be more versatile for multiple things of gas and dust. Also if acid and chemicals are airborne you might risk your eyes, go a goggle or full face mask/respirator. I don't want you to get hurt...I enjoy your video too much 😁

I always used a product called Sunny Brite classic, here in the US - can be found on Amazon. It’s a water stain remover for tubs, showers and sinks. I never bothered heating it up, just put the quartz /gold into a plastic container and covered it for a few days. It worked amazingly well, and was reasonably safe to handle. Now be aware that I used this twenty some years ago, and they make 2 different formulas, the classic and sunny brite 2, which I tried and only the classic worked well, to the point that some Quartz was gone within a couple of hours. Hopefully this helps someone ! Also, nice gold !!

Hello Chris, toxic acrid fumes stop once the moisture from initial heating is gone,has to be done outdoors,if you stay upwind you do not need a respirator,any residual black stains on gold can be removed by sulphuric acid pickle,regards George

you are definitely the best. i have seen gold diggers on youtube that since 2015-2016 are still doing exactly the same with slight variations and repeating the same tips that everyone already knows. you are one of the few that innovate and go showing the secrets of the activity. you are really very lucky but lucky we are also lucky to see how you do your activity.

Well that’s definitely one of the coolest ways I’ve seen for extracting out the gold. Love the videos keep up the good work

It's nice to see gold and it's natural state the crystalline structure it was nice to see that you gave the CEO a toy for all her hard work and keeping you out of trouble keeping the great work Chris

From finding flower gold to constantly finding nuggets and spessies your doing fantastic Chris all your hard work is really paying off to see the joy on your face and happiness radiating from you and Gadzee and Mick the show is appealing to everyone young and old you forget about your illness and dark times just for a short while watching your videos.All the best to the Vogus gang from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Cheers for sharing this mate, I was actually battling wuth a specie I have myself, it's been in hydrochloric acid for a few days... hasn't done squat. I will try this when I get the chance. Good Luck & Happy Swingin' mate.

Keep a whole heap of double strength vinegar on hand. You can use it in excess neutralise any spills and any residual vinegar is weak enough that you can wash it with a hose to dilute it and shouldn't cause too many issues. Also with your tailings if you add hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid, also sold as brick cleaner) until the pH is about 7 it turns it essentially into salt water which you can safely dispose of.

Thank you for your video. I will have to give it a try much better than any other way I seen yet. Keep them coming. Soggy bottoms Prospecting

Awsome video mate. When I was a lad I went to a gem show and a guy was showing all sorts of specimens including gold through a microscope these tiny little samples came to life in a whole new way was totally amazing if you haven't done this before it's worth a look

Hydrochloric acid is easily available at Bunnings or any pool chemical shop. Sometimes sold as pool acid

Dude, you got me nervous for a bit when you talked about everything but eye protection. Then you brought up the goggles. Ahhh, my heart can go back to beating normally now. Can you tell I’ve become paranoid about eye protection over the years, specially around concentrated acids and bases?

That was just straight up exciting to watch. Too cool. Thanks for doing what you do✌️

Steve Miner Nice!! Chris thanks for showing us the methods you used to free up the native gold that was trapped in quartz by dissolving the quartz in caustic soda. They are beautiful!

Wow! Second or whatever on the PPE; with chemicals like that there is NO room for error, so shaddup and wear what's recommended, even if you are outside and the wind is blowing! Super impressive, Chris, makes me wish I had ore specimens to play with!

Awesome video, Chris. Well done buddy. Love the result.

I’m inspired to try mate always wondering and happy to have a go love ya spirit and the videos as always spot on

If you get a specimen with multiple bits of gold on the surface , there's an easy way to see if its one big McNugget worth dissolving or just Stampy food. Get a multimeter or continuity tester etc and test between the bits.

Thank you for the information. I look forward to trying this myself when I actually find some good species. So far I have a lot of what I hope to be good or and I have yet to process it.

*Fantastic Video* thanks mate for your help,, I'm new to this and will try it next time without throwing anything away👍..

Good stuff mate it is good to know that this can make a major difference using simple but affective Safety Measures as you have shown to come up with a better way of removing the quartz from your species. I do the same when I use Ferric Acid on Damascus Steel when I make knives that is actual Damascus steel. I also use Bicarb of Soda to neutralise the Ferric acid then wash off with water. Not sure of how Bicarb of Soda will work with Caustic Soda but it maybe worth a google search for future reference mate. That came out Awesome either way and thanks for posting 😉

Chris that was a very cool video. Those were some beautiful results.😎

The first time I saw this done was by minelab gold the legend whatever you do don’t add more water when it’s hot violent reactions occur looks like you did a great job those are some AUSOME pieces Chris 🤩 thanks for sharing see you on the next one 👍🏼👊🏼

That's way awesome! Thanks for educating.

Oooh that was awesome and that gold is so pretty when you can see how it formed

That is awesome! It's like little versions of the videos where the guy pours molten metal into a drum of water full of Orbies.

Great idea Chris and very nice result👌🏻 Another interesting and educational vid⛏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Thanks for that, brilliant. I will be definitely be trying this, Straight after I find some quartz with gold in it.

Nice and thanks for sharing I have a few specimens to try that method on too

That's awesome! The original form of gold is so beautiful

Great video thanks mate. I too have a bunch of species that I would love to do this too. Will send you some pics when I get around to it. Hope your well mate. Talk soon...ish

nice job thank you for sharing the adventure and information 😀

My grandfather would tell me a story how he’d sing the gold off the rocks. Lol. He drank a lot. Great stories though

Hi Chris, As long you use things for what they're supposed to be, it's kind of safe. If you put a spoonful caustic soda flakes (or powder) in your drain - ok. Would you fill an oil lamp with petrol? ;-) Concentrated caustic soda is as dangerous as concentrated sulfuric acid! If you heat it, you multiply its dangerousness. A drop on your skin will burn a hole. A splash in your eye will blind you continuous. If you heat it up, it can boil over and spill suddenly. There are too much people who could underestimate the risk ("Safety glasses? My sun glasses will do it too…"). P.S.: Check out 3:40 - no gloves. ;-) Best regards from Germany!

You guy just keep on spinning right round baby right round 🤣

Fantastic, never knew about using caustic soda. Which gases were you worried about

What was the price list of all the items involved? Iv got a few bits I’d like to preserve.

Great video. How long do you boil the caustic soda and water?

Amazing. I am going to have to try that.

Will this work on copper? I have a one pound native rock with calcite as the matrix, muritic acid did not work.

Been hanging for this video after your little tease the other day

That was awesome brother! very cool shit!

Very cool video Chris! Just want to say, dont leave the water in the wheelbarrow with this inside, just in case Fern wants to drink from it or some of the other dogs. Drop all contaminated water in the sewage. Maybe you did that but I wanted to just mention it.

Chris that was one of the best videos you have done, well done buddy and since my little mate has passed a huge scratch to yours

Now I have something else to work on. Thanks teacher Chris. A scratch for fern to please.

Didn't know about this technique. That's pretty cool!

Thanks have thought about this, and what a great dog is that 🙂👏👏

Don’t forget to film how you get it out of the cup!! Very interesting!!

Love you so much❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ bro. God bless you.

Well that’s a pretty awesome method man. I’ve tried the hydrochloric acid and it takes weeks and a lot more dangerous and doesn’t even get it as clean as that. Will definitely be trying this

Great video, those speccies came out amazing

Consider this. If you have a vessel to preserve that caustic acid in put that gold soup though a filter paper and glass funnel into beaker, then save that off. Now rinse the gold in the filter paper for the finish. Less waste and less induced into your local environment. Or any acid can be mixed with a base to produce water and a salt which is sometimes complex.

I would love to see one where you compare the beginning weight to the end weight. I realize you can never be sure how much gold is in the quartz but I think it would be interesting to get an average.

Sweet, im gonna have to try that! I had a similar specie but smaller and it took 2 weeks in acid to dissolve the quartz.

Brilliant ,why never comes in my mind something cool like this

i just bbq’d the heck out of a half ton of ore from tailings of some various old timey mines mined in the 1880’s-1940 and then abandoned- i put the Vinegar in the freezer but didn’t freeze it ( does it even ? And mixed the prewash of ore with the postwash vinegar and managed not to knock it over or drink it accidentally ( or on purpose) . i just realized i have no idea what i did with that when i got home - i really need to focus more on those “ minor “ details and focus less on drinking hard cider with way too much grit upon arriving home out of a garbage sack - i don’t even remember buying any hard cider and have no idea why it was in my 19 mil heavy duty demo sack ( the kind i usually only use for … Thanks for all your videos even this one where you’ve either been drinking hard cider or you got brain damage like i did when i tried this technique last year / oh also NEVER mix hydrogen peroxide with vinegar / it creates paracetic acid which is a slightly milder form of acetic acid ( like acetate) when c19 hit the us a 30% vinegar became widely available and some hospitals had been mixing hydrogen peroxide & 6% vinegar previously as a sporicide ( antifungal) can you see where this is going you are one up on the “ medical professionals “ in america who basically fried the hell out of the cleaning staffs lungs - how do i know this ? because i used 30% vinegar too - . i have the finest free health care in Los Angeles - an eclectic bunch of both the best and worst doctors i have ever met . I found it out after i was cleaning house and sprayed the borax on my door jamb ( there to prevent cockroaches from waltzing ( or tap dancing or superbowl shuffling ( think football but with soccer players ) into my house , causing the borax to form a crispy solid ( from its powdered state i purchased it from ) and i googled it learning of “ do not mix Hydrogen peroxide with vinegar as my top result even though i only had typed “ borax , vin..” into the search bar -/ technology is so amazing these days its almost as if the camera on the front of my phone is just always on and sort of making sure im safe - so glad for that definitely not creepy overreach of technology by a world dominating tech co !

Oh wow and I mean WOW. I have a stack of species including some heavy good sized ones I was getting ready to smash and pour into ingots. I'm going to try this (after getting the right PPE). Thanks Chris

It's also the best stuff for cleaning chainsaw chains, though you only need a relatively weak solution and warm water. Only leave them in for a few hours, if you leave them there for more than a couple of days they will start to rust. I never knew it could do that to Quartz, guess l've got another project for the weekend.

Chris!!! You didn't put it on the scale man you're killing me!!!

Truly awesome Gold. Please stay safe and outdoor use only. Lovely

What is costic soda?

Man that is cool, turned out amazing.

That’s awesome. Well done mate

It is always better to learn from other peoples mistakes. Some great lessons here.

Mate that's a particulate filter, you need a Chem filter. All also beautiful job so nice to see natural shaped pay. Love the channel

that was way cool, thanks for showing that.

Wow, that technique turned out well...AUsome❣️

Are those specimens worth 10-100 or more times their weight?

I've been doing Alibrite (Hydrofluoric acid), a little agitation and time. The method you used seems less time consuming and better results albeit a bit more finicky.

Great stuff I was waiting for someone to try this method and it worked so well. Take note Dave Varabioff 🤠

that was probably the coolest thing you have ever done.. HCL is the answer to future chris' problem. of removing the stuck(iron glue) gold in the stainless steel vessel.

Excellent, different technique 👏 👌 👍 😀 😎

That worked so well good going 😊🇬🇧

Wow! Just amazing 👏

Can the acid an rock be made back into hard rock..?

Specimens are great but I prefer gold poured into small bars, especially clean pours and the process behind it

thank you for trying that it is verry helpfull

Wow! Very very interesting!

That's cool

Awesome stuff!

Hey Chris, just thinking about this process, could you put the quartz through the fire process to soften the quartz then the chemical process to dissolve the quartz, it may get rid of the quartz quicker. Cheers Matt

You can get mo flow from Reece plumbing which is hydrochloric acid

That's awesome mate

Done well mate they came out good as

Excellent

Now I have some very interesting Ideas about a certain place I found...

Some specimens are worth more uncleaned of host material.. granted, not all but some. Its worth learning a bit more about what makes a good specimen before you destroy a really good one (price wise) for gold value.

All you videos are excellent, but this may be one of your best to-date. Educational, informative, and entertaining. Plus, you kept it moving along a a good pace. Brilliant.

Use a multi meter to test specimen gold to see if it is one piece.

Looks like there's a lot more gold than when you started. Great video

I’m gonna go find gold bearing quartz and do that

This was fricking awesome

That’s a wicked result

If you want to have more fun with caustic soda - make a watery, saturated solution add aluminium and capture the gas in a balloon. Ignite the balloon with care - it is full of hydrogen - make a fantastic fireball or a large bang! So CARE is required - I use an old school disposable camera cube flash in the bottom of the balloon and drill a small hole in the face of the 4 flash units. Trigger them at the same time. Yehaaa - good for guy fawkes night and it leaves zero evidence behind as the explosion / fireball combusts into water. This is strictly for the mad scientists - this can kill or permanently maim you.

AWSOME OUTCOME

That was pretty cool.✌️😎

You are the best 💞💞💞💞❤❤❤

Ooooohhhhhh, I wanna see clean shinny closeups. Cool episode.