Gold source and movements over time

[Moneybox]

Ok guys this looks like an argument that is not going to be easily settled. I think it calls for some research that's going to take a considerable amount of legwork and of course we are willing to help.

We 're a long way from your area so we'll leave the first easy part to you but we'll come and assist you with the difficult bit. I suggest you Victorian guys get together with a variety of different sized nuggets and distribute them in strategic positions along a water course that floods on a regular basis.

We'll turn up after the first major flood to help you with the tough bit. We'll have to find all those little suckers and dig them out of the fresh wash. Then we can easily settle the argument as to how far they have travelled.

Who's in

 

[G0lddigg@]

A mate of mine has a theory that Gold will only travel up to 5kms from its source?
Until he said i had never given it much thought?

When i now think of all my prospecting efforts and sampling results i think he may have been spot on?
We are talking gold found in rivers and creeks here, not glacial deposits like NZ and Alaska have.
In some of the fields i have worked you can always determine with your alluvial gold as to wether its from
nearby or distant sources, gold been a soft metal it wears flat and smooth by water and rubbing against other
stream - bed materials.

When detecting gullies in the GT the gold is very rough and course, as it has shed from the reefs on nearby slopes and has not been subject to much
transportation wear.

Below major goldfields within streams as one gets further away from the primary source of the gold the gold you will get panning is very very fine.
I have found gold barely visible to see.

So i am sticking with the up to 5km from source rule.

So explain to me how gold is in smythesdale in bench deposits 50 metres high and sandstone where dod that come from? The gold e triangle was under the sea. Of corse gd has moved around the friggin state is a volcano....

 

[Twapster]

GD I take your point about global seismic events and stuff, hey I have arguments with my uncle who says it all came from outer space! lol, but I believe a lot of people talk about "gold traveling miles" are confusing the issue of localised deposits...however they got there in the first place.

My initial point was if gold you find is well rounded in the creek or whatever you are digging, then starts showing a pattern of being rough, jagged...whatever...then you are likely to be pretty close to a more significant spot where you may be able to work your way...up the bank, and you may find the spot where a bigger chunk/chunks are sitting.

An example for me is a spot where I found significant gold in the pan in one particular area......and nothing further upstream. Ive then noticed a massive patch of sandwich quartz 100m up the hill pretty much pointing down to where the nice bits are.

Im damn sure its coming from that quartz vein which was only visible due to the road being graded. If the road was not there, the quartz would not be visible and would just look like any other country grassy spot.

If it was my private property id be digging that spot like a demon, unfortunately its in a pretty open spot. So the lesson here for those that are on private spots where the gold starts to show signs of not being so water worn.......start paying attention to whats around you even if the area is just nice grass etc. Hopefully "mama' and "papa" are near by.

To say that the gold is just alluvial and probably come from miles away over millions of years....nothing significant here folks....when you find a spot like that in an isolated area id be paying attention.

 

[G0lddigg@]

I agree with you 100% mate... if its not rounded or has alot of specimens about your in the hot zone that gold has most likeky sheared off locally. I think we are talking aboyt different things... servs me right for jumping in on a conversation 3/4 through

Interesting discussion none the less. ..
Speaking of which im going to head over to a spot where i pulled 5 specimens in one shift.... i found a quartz vein running throigh the creek 100 meters up but there was too mcuh water at the time.... should have gone down..

 

[Heatho]

And then there are the theories of Gold nuggets forming in situ.

http://www.pmav.org.au/stories-a-reports/triangle-gold

 

[yobskin]

Spot on !! Growing nuggets! Im looking for a nugget nursery right now!

 

[Goldtarget]

In situ nuggets may indeed be made this way, in alot of ways this makes perfect sense. I reckon I could have a crack at a few more theories but I might be considered a bit too eccentric. There are many probable possibilities if you sit and think about it long enough. Ice glaciers come to mind.

 

[SWright]

G'Day All

All of you have made some good points and the questions you raised all have differing answers. First gold probably does come from outer space as according to current theories our sun is not capable of making anything heavier than the light elements - we are all made of "Star Stuff" as Sagan said many years ago.

Gold can form under a number of geological conditions and in many types of rocks. Gold, contrary to popular though, does dissolve in water and can then be re-precipitated like in the old river bed deposits in and around Kalgoorlie. Coarse gold is defined as any gold larger than can be extracted using gravity technology - it is a metallurgical term and some of that gold you cannot see. The only way to tell how far gold has traveled in a stream or river is to measure the fineness of the gold as natural gold in never pure and the other elements normally in gold will dissolve out the longer it is in ordinary water. Rough gold measurement is only an indicator if all other geological characteristics are missing. For example the Shoalhaven gold is thought to come from off the southern coast. No-one has ever found the origin of the gold in the Klondike. Nuggets probably do grow as concretions in certain types of soils forming processes such as in the formation of laterite soils. Gold is also taken up on clays and in some plants.

Araluen

 

[G0lddigg@]

Thanks Swright i always look forward to your contributions

 

[DavidH]

Hi all. First post after coming across this forum some weeks back and reading it frequently since.

Hopefully it's "on topic" where the theme is "how gold moves" to post a video on how gold doesn't move. I came across this short one of dredging in NZ (yes, I know, illegal in Oz, yada yada; but apparently, hopefully, legal across the pond). The footage shows the dredge hose unearthing some pretty numerous and chunky pieces of gold. What's notable is that everything else gets sucked away yet the gold remains stubbornly on the rock bed. Shouldn't be a surprise, because we all know gold is *heavy* but it's one thing to know it and another thing to see it.

As I can't yet post links, here's the youtube number: 30V_7US1zug

I expect a moderator can check it and update or post the full link.

 

[Jaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=30V_7US1zug
There you go. David.-welcome.

 

[Ryan1981]

i wish we could do that, might have to move to NZ, there fush&choops are meant to be better too