馃攳
Gold isn鈥檛 rare. So why is it valuable? - YouTube
Channel: Verge Science
[0]
(water rushing)
[4]
- And...
[7]
That could be something.
[8]
(twangy guitar music)
[11]
Today, I'm on a very amateur hunt
[13]
for a very unique material.
[15]
Gold.
[16]
It's one of humanity's oldest treasures
[18]
but it keeps reinventing
itself with the times.
[21]
It's been a status symbol,
a currency, a garnish,
[25]
a future material, and a lot more.
[28]
It came from outer space
[30]
and ends up locked away in vaults.
[32]
It lasts forever.
[34]
I've always thought about gold
[35]
as this rarest of rare treasures,
[38]
but I also found out recently
[39]
that it's apparently not that
hard to find around here,
[43]
which completely messes with my whole idea
[45]
of what gold's about.
[47]
So welcome to my latest obsession.
[49]
I'm gonna try to understand
what makes gold so valuable
[53]
and find out whether it's
actually all that rare.
[56]
I think I might have something.
[58]
(water rushing)
(twangy guitar music)
[62]
It is tiny.
[64]
(subdued water rushing)
[67]
So if I wanna find some golden myself,
[69]
I need to understand the
journey that it goes on.
[72]
A lot of wild stuff happened
to get gold here to Earth.
[76]
Cosmic explosions that
chucked metals like gold
[79]
out into the universe.
[80]
A massive shower of metal-rich meteors
[82]
that may have pounded the early Earth.
[84]
It's all surprisingly controversial.
[87]
What we know is that there's
currently gold peppered
[90]
throughout the Earth's crust and mantle.
[92]
It collects in areas called veins.
[94]
Basically, super hot water
dissolves gold deep underground,
[98]
brings it closer to the surface,
[100]
and drops it in veins as the water cools.
[103]
If a vein surfaces via erosion,
[105]
the gold is weathered
away into little bits
[107]
and carried downstream by rivers.
[110]
This is known as placer gold,
[111]
and it's what we're after.
[113]
The key to finding placer
gold is its density.
[117]
Gold is about 19 times denser than water,
[120]
meaning only quickly-flowing
water can carry it.
[123]
So you can expect to find gold
wherever a river slows down,
[127]
like here, along an inside bend,
[129]
or here, where water
deflects around a big rock.
[133]
In either case, the current eases up,
[135]
and the gold drops to the river bed.
[138]
Which river to look in,
that part's anyone's guess.
[141]
Gold has been found all over the mountains
[143]
here in Washington,
[144]
but with the help of
a local amateur miner,
[147]
I got a tip.
[147]
And just pass the bridge,
there's a turnoff to a park?
[150]
Okay, good enough for me.
[160]
So let's talk about why humans
want gold so desperately.
[163]
According to the Gold Council,
which is a trade group,
[166]
its biggest single use
historically is jewelry.
[170]
It accounts for almost half
of all gold ever mined.
[173]
That's about 93,000 metric tons.
[176]
Then there are the industrial
or practical uses for gold.
[179]
Gold's great for dentists
[181]
because it can be shaped
into long-lasting fillings.
[183]
It's also used as a
conductor in electronics.
[186]
There's an arthritis
medicine made of gold.
[188]
There are coronavirus tests that use gold.
[191]
It really runs the gamut.
[193]
So what's up with that last 35, 40%?
[196]
Right now, there's about
75,000 tons of gold
[198]
that's just being used as
a thing that has value.
[202]
It's formed into bars or coins
[204]
and accumulated by governments
and banks and investors.
[208]
It's not being used
for anything practical,
[210]
but it holds value,
[212]
largely because we all
just agree that it does.
[219]
Out in the field, it's time to
put my research to the test.
[222]
Hey, buddy.
[224]
- [Alex] Good morning.
[226]
- Ready to go get some gold?
[228]
- [Alex] Yes.
[234]
(water rushing)
[237]
- Okay.
[240]
The whole river is kinda
arcing widely this way.
[246]
So we're on the inside
bank, which is a good thing.
[250]
I think we just start
digging and see what happens.
[255]
Now, ideally, we want to get as close
[257]
to the bedrock layer as possible.
[259]
As the gold moves through here,
[261]
it sifts down through
all this later material
[264]
until it hits that bedrock layer.
[266]
So for us, that either means
finding exposed bedrock
[270]
or it means digging.
[272]
(subdued mellow guitar music)
[276]
We filter out the biggest stuff.
[280]
Okay.
[281]
(subdued mellow guitar music)
[286]
So what I'm doing here just to start
[288]
is getting all of this gunk
suspended in a layer of water
[292]
so that I can start to filter
out the lightest stuff,
[296]
the really light stuff
is gonna be the stuff
[298]
that kind of dissolves in the water.
[301]
And then I can start to let
the lightest rocks tip off.
[307]
And the heavier stuff will
sink to the bottom of the pan
[310]
so that eventually all that's
left is the heaviest stuff.
[316]
That's gonna be some black sand.
[319]
It's made of different kinds of irons.
[321]
And then it's gonna be gold.
[324]
The point of this last step
is to get it as spread out
[328]
as possible across the bottom of the pan,
[330]
so even the tiniest
little flake will show up.
[333]
(water rushing)
[337]
Nope.
[338]
(disappointed vocalizing)
[339]
Clean plate club.
[342]
Back to it.
[343]
This process is fun, but it
does not capture the scale
[347]
and stakes of the modern gold industry.
[351]
Most gold comes from hard rock mining.
[353]
That means digging up and
processing the veins of gold
[356]
while they're still in the earth.
[358]
It's difficult and dangerous work.
[360]
And it's too easy to do poorly.
[363]
The chemicals used, like
cyanide and mercury,
[365]
can leak and pollute groundwater.
[368]
Mining can scar the
land for years to come.
[371]
Butte, Montana sits next to a former mine
[374]
that's now a massive toxic lake.
[376]
The area is one of the
largest Superfund sites
[378]
in the nation.
[380]
What's more, the demand for
gold drives millions of people
[383]
around the world to
engage in smaller scale,
[386]
often unregulated mining.
[388]
This exposes countless
workers to mercury poisoning,
[391]
many of them children.
[393]
Accidents and other dangers abound.
[396]
Overall, it's an industry
with a reputation
[399]
for crushing work and very long odds.
[403]
(water rushing)
[407]
Late in the afternoon,
a possible breakthrough.
[412]
I'm looking for any little sparkle.
[415]
Wait, wait, what's that?
[417]
Our little sparkly guy there, you see it?
[419]
- [Alex] Oh, now I see it.
[421]
- That's about the size
we're likely to find.
[424]
I don't know.
[427]
I can't even tell what I'm looking at.
[429]
It might not be.
[431]
That is gold mining in a nutshell.
[434]
After a day of digging and sifting,
[436]
hundreds of pounds of earth moved,
[438]
we've got this one tiny
little fleck of maybe gold.
[442]
Got it.
[443]
Which gets at the other side
of why gold is so valuable.
[447]
It's not rare per se,
[449]
but it's hugely difficult
to mine at any real volume.
[453]
For every ton of rock processed
at an average deposit,
[457]
you can expect about
3/100 of an ounce of gold.
[461]
That works out to about
one part per million.
[464]
So the gold supply is
often more about economics
[467]
than geology.
[469]
Mining companies today have a lot
[471]
of what they call gold resources.
[473]
It's gold they've got earmarked,
but are avoiding for now
[477]
because mining it will literally
cost more than it's worth.
[481]
And that's what gold
scarcity really means.
[484]
We know where it is and how to get it.
[487]
It's just costly in
every sense of the word.
[491]
(contemplative guitar music)
[494]
There are ongoing efforts
to improve gold mining.
[497]
Campaigns like No Dirty Gold fight
[499]
for better labor standards,
environmental protections,
[502]
and oversight.
[504]
International mining
agreements have come online
[507]
as have stronger guidelines
within mining companies.
[510]
And, in theory, there are more exotic ways
[513]
to feed our gold habit.
[515]
There are gold deposits
across the sea floor
[518]
and some early efforts to mine them.
[520]
Or there's outer space.
[522]
Asteroids in our own solar
system contain troves
[525]
of precious metals if we can get at them.
[529]
But, again, gold isn't
valuable unless you can sell it
[532]
for more than it costs to get it.
[536]
For now, that math says
[537]
to just dig some more holes in the ground.
[542]
After tearing up half a riverbank,
[544]
I kept thinking about the
why of the gold industry.
[548]
Most gold is dug up
for beauty, for status,
[551]
or just for abstract value.
[554]
It's basically mined for
the sake of a metaphor.
[557]
And it's a metaphor we
clearly still believe in.
[563]
With the onset of the pandemic,
[565]
gold shot up in value,
[567]
like it often does when
times are uncertain.
[570]
That's us betting against
the modern economy,
[573]
against our governments,
[574]
and our leaders and our future.
[577]
It's a vote for this thing
[579]
that we all like that never changes.
[582]
That'll be around long after we're gone.
[586]
(contemplative violin music)
[589]
The next morning was
38 degrees and hailing.
[592]
We were cold and wet,
[594]
but the campsite was
right next to the river.
[597]
So we took one last crack at panning.
[599]
(contemplative violin music)
[602]
Wait, wait, wait.
[603]
That is a little piece of gold.
[605]
That's fricking ridiculous.
[607]
Yeah.
[608]
We got some gold.
[611]
We found gold in a hailstorm.
[613]
And, sorry, I gotta do it.
[616]
Eureka.
[618]
(subdued contemplative violin music)
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage