Turning 100 Pounds of Silver Ore Into A Ring! 

Thank you all so much for checking out the video! If you'd like to enter to win the second ring, it's free, and linked here: kingsumo.com/g/an70ts/win-a-cerro-gordo-silver-ring I really appreciate all the support for the channel over the past year or so. I hope if you haven't already, you consider subscribing for more content around the town and beyond!

He's done it! He's made the ONE RING! It can only be destoyed by casting into the 900 level of the Cierra Gordo mines!

Postman: What’s in those boxes… lead bricks?! Jason: Yes.

That timelapse around 18:00 of the metal cooling is mesmerizing

Brent really seems like a genuine soul. I'd love to hangout with him and explore. Great guy.

I always hated school, but I can listen to Brent’s history lessons all day long by accident 😂

A common misconception about abandoned mines is that they've been completely stripped of any valuable minerals, but in many cases mines become abandoned if it's simply no longer profitable to extract the wanted minerals in a large scale.

Brent is infectiously likable and yet at the same time a remarkably quiet LEADER. Very impressive.

This was an amazing process. Bringing back “How It’s Made” on a whole new scale. Many forget the processes of how something is made or extracting raw material to enjoy the things we have today. Bravo!

As a jeweller in Australia, I'm insanely jealous of the jeweller who got the chance to make this ring for you! What an awesome experience! I absolutely love the videos you've done on refining ore into silver. Great work :D

This was a great mix of the best parts of this channel: history, craftsmanship, and community. Be well, everyone.

Wow.. They say you learn something new every day... But I just learned A TON!! You're such a nice guy, Brent. Your connection with Cerro Gordo is so... 'present'..in every video. CG is your true love ❤️❤️❤️ And I appreciate that you share your journey with us. Thank you! XX Love and prayers from Australia!🙏🏻 🇦🇺❤️🇺🇸

Wow! I can't believe I've gone from watching Josh and friends explore Cerro Gordo to seeing you start building back the hotel and actually mining for Galena then turning it into an actual ring. Simply fantastic!

It really struck me as almost strange to see Brett in a modern hotel room, after only having 'known' him in the other world of Cerro Gordo :) This was such a cool video!

Was it just me, or did anyone else feel a wave of emotion when the finished ring was shown for the first time? This has been a great trip as I have been totally invested in Brent's journey since the very first episode. I impatiently look forward to many more great adventures.

Just think, before that lead-silver ore was recovered from the Cerro Gordo mine, it was originally created during the fusion process billions of years ago in a distant supernovae. Moreover, it was discovered that smaller supernovae produce silver and larger supernovae is where gold is produced. These exploding stars have sufficient energy to produce heavier metals like lead, uranium, platinum and so on via fusion. Another great video, thanks.

The world could go to chaos in a zombie apocalypse and Brent would just be up in the mines, living his best life, and rediscovering historical arts and sciences.

You need to mark the inside of the rings with "Cerro Gordo mountain topo map" so in 150 years when someone finds one they will know what it represents. Stories can be lost to time so engraving the rings will be a way to make sure the story of the rings aren't lost or at least it will be known what mountain topography map is on the rings. Better yet you could have Cerro Gordo engraved on the outside of the ring with Cerro on one side of the mountain and Gordo on the other. That would for sure make it known what's represented on the rings. Very cool video. Stay well. -Wil 👍

Those jewelers are so talented!! What a wonderful way to honor your home.

You know what always fascinates me Brent... thinking of the people who sussed it all out, as like you said it goes back thousands of years, smelting ores, just how did they do it, because the thing in my mind about rocks is how nice they look, I wouldn't think of trying to melt them down ever! 😊

That ring is awesome! From the story behind it, the work you put in yourself, the community around you that helped, and the final aesthetics to boot!

The amount of energy that goes into such a small thing is insane. It brings a new understanding to the phrase "precious metal".

This guy is living the dream, but one hell of a difficult one... Maximum respects

this was such a cool series from literally every facet. I watched Matt's whole refining process, and this video that brought it all together was absolutely outstanding. The work you're doing and the connection to history resonates so much. thank you for sharing your journey and your process. can't wait to see more!

I love this video, and the whole vibe. Thank you for documenting and publishing this moment in your life.

You went from a "mining" guy to a "mining" AND "metals" guy and have achieved EPIC greatness by completing the full process from mining the ore out to purification and finally production of a silver ring that not only symbolizes a FULL completion of an ore but also is historic because it has been DECADES since anything was produced from that mine ! Cerro Gordo is just the BEGINNING !

I’m pretty sure the miners from back then would be proud of the hard work you’re putting into to keep their life, history, and story alive. This series is fun to watch and learn about.

I skip around to different video between your postings. My name is Steve and I am a DoD civilian employee for a U.S military, in Okinawa. I work and live her with my wonderful wife and four children. This video moved me. Once the ring was complete, I had the feeling of joy pretty close to the level you had. It's definitely amazing. From the beginning process to the end process, truly magnificent. If I would have been following you a year ago, I truly would have loved to have a ring like that. Truly amazing, congratulations.

Dude I totally respect what you're doing and understand the fascination with the process. Mad respect from Czech Republic! :)

I love that you BOUGHT a ghost town just to preserve and teach about history. That is so awesome!

I like the video before i even watch it when its you Brent i know your videos are youtube gold thank you for sharing your life at cerro gordo with us all from UK 🇬🇧

Watching the metal being melted, handled, cooled is about the most psychedelic photography I've ever seen on RU-vid (or anywhere else). Really beautiful, all of it. Thanks for reminding everyone fortunate enough to come across this video that the world is made of magic.

Recovering from lung cancer surgery and discovered your videos. I love em. Been watching RU-vid videos for some time but never seen any that I've enjoyed more. Thanks bro.

Oh my gosh! Who’s cutting onions??? So much emotion seeing the pride and feeling Brent has.

I have to admit that I was a bit emotional when the ring was revealed. It’s amazing how much work and energy went into this. I can’t imagine what it was like 5000 years ago. Bryan from Vancouver

What a wonderful edit and an amazing story about the connection with your new home in mountains. It was truly inspirational. All the best buddy

The ring looks awesome. It’s detailed and thick, it’s must feel good to wear something you helped create from rocks.

As someone with an interest in mining and geology history, it warms my heart to see this happen. If you haven't already, you should invite youtuber and prospector Dan Hurd over to Cerro Gordo to do a collab on how miners back in the day prospected for galena, before the first shafts were sunk into the local wildlands.

LOVE THAT YOU SHOWED US FROM START TO FINISH IN ONE VIDEO (RU-vidrs nowadays would’ve made it a four part series!!😂)

As a retired postal worker I can relate to the shipped boxes. I worked in processing priority mail, handling those flat rate boxes.. And spent some time in a unit that repaired boxes damaged in shipping. I was not surprised when I saw them.

Your excitement and passion for what you do makes me genuinely happy. It's good to see someone bring back the simplicity of the past, into the the increasingly complex world we live in today. Keep it up my man, and should life being me riches, I will share them with you as you have with us.

You could probably turn some of the old wood into some interesting pendants, beads, bracelets, imagine owning jewellery made from history like that, they would sell incredibly well

I teared up, when I saw that finished ring w/ the topography for the 1st time. It's beautiful and what it represents is more than the sum of it's part; it a labor of love from all, involved. It's the 1st item made from Cerro Gordo silver (besides that little thing you made, Brent) in probably, a century. Such an amazing adventure, you're on, Brent, and I'm happy for you. You're looking healthy and happy! If I could, I'd come to Cerro Gordo and just drill for and pull galena, all day. Get a small scale production, going, and make some more rings to sell, as souvenirs. My whole 2022 is open, just saying....

You truly are an inspiration....When I saw the ring for the first time it hit me and I got all choked up....a good sad kind of feeling...to watch you do all of this stuff it really hits the heart. To watch you pour out your heart to us, in other words not a lot of people these days have your kind of passion....so keep it going and keep on making this world a better place to live in. And keep that history going. Thanks so much!

How beautiful! I am a silver bug. Watching the process really makes you appreciate just how precious silver is! One troy ounce of pure silver today goes for $25.00 and to compare he only had about 13 grams and 31.1 grams is a troy ounce! It is a steal in my opinion. Silver is used in so many of today's technologies. Some experts claim that we could run out of it in the near future making it the first natural mineral that humans see go extinct. Thank you for taking us along with you through the process, I am awe struck.

I’ve never really cared to travel to America but now I would go just to see Cerro Gordo alone. Thanks for another great video Brent!

I'm a "modern day" gold miner. Started in a lab, went underground for 10 years back on surface for over 3 now. Assaying is still basically done exactly the same. Some are smaller scale some are larger. Same process. Amazing huh?

WOW! I'm so happy for you. All the work, time and mental power to create something that signifies your journey and love for Cerro Gordo.

Love the way you took us from the ore to the silver ring! Living the dream

Hello from Canada. Watching your progress is exciting. The history is unbelievable. I sit here on the wide open prairies of saskatchewn with my mind racing a hundred mile an hour of how these people survived and thrived back in the day. Great adventure.

Brent, I learned so much in these 32 or so minutes about what it takes to go from mine to finger that my brain is ready to 'splode. That ring is beyond effing AMAZING! Good luck to those entering, and an early congrats to the winner. And you're right - I hope that person cherishes it as well, as I would if I were lucky enough.

It is amazing to think that the Egyptian people way back then knew how to do what you did in this video. It's awesome that you did this. It's not only a reminder for you... It also pays tribute to ALL the miners from back in the day that worked the mine you now own. #RESPECT

This was incredible to watch. The ring is beautiful indeed with the map carving. Such a long process to refine it and I was blown away to see what all was involved!

That hidden piece won't be there long and the donkey cracked me up 😂😂😂😂

That was SO cool, and fascinating. I trained as a silversmith, so seeing how to get from buried rock to a piece of jewellery was very exciting.

i been thinking about you lately and you just happened to pop up in my recommended! beautiful job on the ring, and stay safe down in the mines!! 🖤

_I love it when RU-vid throws me something cool to watch. I was drawn in by your enthusiasm and enthralled by the story. To see the final result was amazing then to find out there's another ring that I could win was thrilling. You have a new sub brother!_

You’re killing me with the dramatic music and all the feels 😂😭 That was an awesome process to see and the ring itself came out gorgeous 🥺 Thanks for the videos brent!

Such a fantastic insight to the hard mining town living in years gone by. Love the series, thank you my friend and greetings from Australia.

What a beautiful ring! When you said topography on the ring I expected just the shape of the mountains, not actual topographic lines: that ring is fantastic. Your enthusiasm is highly contagious.

I'm so moved for your journey in general and this specific one. Leaving Galena piece there, I wish I could be in the area to run immediately there and take it! I wish to the one having it and the one winning the ring to enjoy and have the same joy you got doing the full Galena/ring process. Your journey is bigger than life. Thanks Brent

It brought me into tears of the entire process of getting the silver, and the way miners would risk their life getting the ore out. We take it for granted now days, and it is the miners who gave us this easy life. We think we have it hard, and that is totally wrong. Thank you!

Man I love this so much. He seems so happy and passionate about it. For many It could be just a silver ring, but you can feel how much passion, sentiment and hard work he put into it.

your youtube channel is probably the best youtube channel on this platform because its so interesting. keep it up man. love you vids

this was ore-inspiring. honestly, thankyou for doing this. im proud to share the modern world with someone so honestly passionate.

Just a suggestion without knowing the time or money constraints of making one but I feel like Johnny should also get one if you're making another as he was such an integral part of the early beginnings of this channel and especially all the mine exploration Just my 2 cents but I feel he deserves one even more than someone from the audience

That was awesome! Thank You for sharing your trip and the process .

What a great video, awesome to see the whole process all the way to making a beautiful ring. I love it!

if I was ever lucky enough to win such a beautiful piece of jewellery from such an amazing place as the Cerro Gordo mine, I would wear it with pride and it would be a very treasured possession that I would pass down to my daughter, I would even ask her to pass it down to her children. You are amazing doing what you are doing at Cerro Gordo. X

TSA: "Sir, why do you have a bag of rocks?" Bet that was a fun one.

Brent, thanks so much for this amazing, educational video about how to go from rock (ore) to a finished product. I've always been into the history of mining and mining towns (I've been to Cerro Gordo several times), but I never understood the processing, smelting, etc. of mining. WOW on just how much goes into this whole process. I really LOVED your tying-in the history of silver mining back to Egyptian times and earlier. BRAVO. Thank you for all that you do for Cerro Gordo and for sharing your story.

It's so awesome to see you there and getting all of this silver at Cerro Gordo. There couldn't be a better person to own it than you. You genuinely cherish every second you spend there. All of the miners and owners before you would be proud of what you're doing there. I look forward to watching your videos every time I see you post because I know everything you say is gonna be real and from the heart. I discovered your channel almost 2 years ago when you bought Cerro Gordo and I was going through detox from drugs and through you and your journey It has giving me the power to stay 23 months sober. I have watched you give up everyday living and stick it out there with basically nothing and it has shown me that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. Thank you Jason. You have helped me more than you will ever know with your channel.

On my journey of RU-vid randomes through years, you have been refreshing content maker and bringing so much of valuable information about history to us. I'm glad to see this paying out for you big time and that ring is just icing on the cake, very beatiful and special one, that map on it is well thought idea. Thank you for showing us this journey + giving us real history of silver mining in general. Please keep going and doing this

This video has been my favorite to date! You have grown so much as a storyteller and video maker on this channel and this video is the most evident of that. Thanks for the amazing stories and for being both interesting and inspirational.

the historical knowledge of the mine and those who worked the mine is beautiful history I hope one day I can visit get to meet with people and talk more about the mine and its history keep up the great work and also stay safe

This is one of my favorite episodes! I would love to partake in something like this..just as Brent did from start to finish. Collecting the deposits from a place that is special and steeped in history. Learning the process of refinery and then watching it be turned into something that he will forever cherish. Loved how he drove around with the piece of silver in view…thought he might go off the road at one point. He cracks me up.

(19:13) "There's a line in the Greenland ice caps from all the smoke that was created from the Romans mining galena". There is a line on _graphs_ that clearly shows this, but it's not a visible black line like the image suggests. As the video shows there's a LOT of lead for a tiny bit of silver, and the Romans indeed used lead and made silver coins using a similar process involving silver, lead, and copper. What can be measured in ice cores is the concentration of lead that was emitted in the atmosphere by this process. The amounts measured in these ice cores show variations in the order of picograms of lead per gram of ice, so *1 part in 1 trillion* by mass. You can't see that as a black line, in fact you can't see it at all and need extremely precise instruments to measure it. The most interesting finding from these measurements is that both lead production and the minting of coin are good proxies for the economic output of the Roman Empire, so we can tell when things were going well or their economy was in crisis. No one's making money: no one's minting coins or installing lead pipes. For example there were massive drops in ice formed during the Antonine plague of 165-180 A.D. or during the Imperial Crisis of 235 to 284 A.D. The researchers also matched these measurements to other sources such as tree rings and volcanic eruptions, which can capture weather conditions and atmospheric bubbles respectively, so this gives a good overview of the conditions at the time. If you want to read more about this, check out the New York Times article titled "An Ice Core Reveals the Economic Health of the Roman Empire", and if you want to read the actual research paper search for "Lead pollution recorded in Greenland ice indicates European emissions tracked plagues, wars, and imperial expansion during antiquity" by authors McConnell, Wilson, and others.

Brent, this video brought me to tears, especially the ring part. That's such a beautiful journey for you. I can't describe how happy I am every time I see a video of yours drop. Thank you for sharing your exceptional story with us.

I haven't watched Cerro Gordo videos in a while. But this video brought me back. Thank you for creating something educational instead of something mine numbing. Really had a enjoyable time watching your video and learning about the process of extracting silver from ore

I think that what's so special about these videos is, maybe to someone you're just "that crazy guy who bought a ghost town". But against how most people would want to live their lives, you went out and sought this life out to learn and educate. Nobody had to pay you to do it or incentivize it, but you did it out of your own interest and motivation. It's something I would wish for more people to have. Some lives don't lend themselves to a family life and not everyone will have the means/ opportunity, but it shows how we can pursue an exploration of the world, of humanity, and share that knowledge with everyone else. And at the very least, to show that we can make our living in so many different ways, that life can be so diverse outside the 9-5.

Jason's a good guy. I never tire of watching him melt down metals.

I found it absolutely fascinating and somewhat emotional. That comes from you Brent. Your passion and heart truly shines through and the whole subject is addictive. Thank you so much for sharing the history of Cerro Gordo. ❤️ Dorset, UK

I Can see his exitement in his Eyes in the end and its just shows How much he really Loves what he is doing

Your life is one awesome adventure, my friend. This story of the ring and the whole story of Cerra Gordo, and your passion, and that of Jason and Alissa and all the people that made that ring a reality had me spellbound all evening. What a fantastic tale! Congratulations!

Thank you for sharing this experience of making that ring. It is fun to watch and understand the process of making that ring Stay safe out there.

Noticed toward the end of the episode the Corridor shirt you're wearing. I heard about your channel on their podcast and very much enjoyed this video and other content you've put out! Hopefully more people will discover your channel once Corridor publishes content about their visit at Cerro Gordo.

Absolutely 💯 gorgeous! What a magnificent ring. It makes those who worked the mines in the old days appreciated. Love this video! Loved the B roll information! Loved watching the refining process! Loved watch the metamorphosis from a bead of silver transformed into such a stunning ring! Thank you, Brent, for letting us all be wowed from start to finish! 👍😃👏💫

Thank you for holding on to history. You are one of the explores in the past that makes us excited to explore ourselves. Hope I can visit one day... thanks and thanks again.....😊

This process was so mesmerizing to watch and the ring turned out amazing! Everyone involved did a great job ☺️

I can’t even tell you how much I enjoy watching this channel! I love all the hard work and effort you put into making some thing so memorable and so special. I hope the person that wins it realizes what they have. I can’t wait to be able to come and stay at Cerro Gordo someday!

i’m so happy that this was a great experience for you, every time i see the city grow in every episode it makes me so much happier, keep doing what you do and don’t stop.

I Love your enthusiasm and passionate spirit for what you are doing! So inspirational, thank you!!

The philosophical reflections are quite as interesting as the footages. I could watch this all day. It is so inspiring. Thank you!

I always enjoy your content as your passion is palpable. The ring is beautiful but knowing it’s journey and the meaning behind its design makes it priceless. I hope whoever wins it loves it as much as Brent does.

I just now found this channel yesterday, and I wish I knew about this sooner but I wanna say I am addicted because I love old towns, especially haunted ones with full of history and this is making me inspired to do a lot of things that I dreamt about for years. Hopefully one day I will get to see Cerro Gordo and many other towns alike. I'm looking forward to more videos and updates!

this is by far the coolest youtube channel i've ever stumbled upon! Thanks for sharing!

I love that your restoring it I was always interested with anything to do with our old lifestyles and history its very fascinating and important to preserve

Further proof that every job is essential. The amount of people, creativity, labor, goods and services to produce a ring all the way from mining, logistics, refining, and creation of jewelry. True economics at work.

TSA: what? why do you carry a backpack of rocks on you're domestic flight? Brent: Those are not rocks, those are minerals, Marie

You don’t cease to amaze me! When I started watching you in the beginning I thought to myself “how much can he really do hear? Where will he get content? Well, you’ve blown me & millions of others away. Clearly, this is where you were meant to be and your ambassadorship in Cerro Gordo was aimed at introducing its history to the the world putting it on the map again. Visiting Cerro Gordo is on my bucket list now. CHEERS 🥂 🍻 🥃 to meeting you along the way!