leader / vein how to tell

[Goldhawk]

Hey guys doing some reading and I'm finding it a bit confusing . Is a gold bearing leader something that shoots of the main reef ? So you follow that you find the reef ? What decides if it's a leader or it's just a small reef that runs on it's own . What I'm trying to say is How does one tell if it's a small off shoot off a reef or just a small stand alone reef. Example I know there's a 70mm wide reef in the area of interest and up hill from that I have found 10mm wide pieces bearing gold could this be a leader or shoot off the reef up higher ??

 

[Goldhawk]

A piece of rock taken from down the slope . Left hand side around 40 mm wide on right 10 mm vain , has the smaller vein split off the larger ? Or could they run parallel for metres / miles ? What makes it a reef or a vein does it have to be a certain width to be classed a reef . Any info appreciated guys

 

[Goldhawk]

 

[The Green Wanderer]

Hi Gold Hawk,
Ive always understood the terms as:
Reef- the quartz veins within the host rock.
Leader- the main concentration of gold bearing quartz.
Stringer- a smaller offshoot of the leader usually shows up on the surface as quartz outcrops.

The problem is that quartz shows up in different ways depending on how the ground your working was formed.
Its possible for a lone outcrop in which case the quartz vein may carry gold but goes straight into the side of a ridge or hill and is difficult to acess.

Or they can be be like the veins of a leaf with a central vein and many many stringers that show up on the surface and dont all carry gold, most are barren.

Its also possible for stringers that show gold for a distance and then stop and start again deeper in.

For these reasons quartz is referred to as one of the 'signs' of gold and worth investigating but not a definate factor to say 'gold is here'.

As for your case in point id recommend taking more samples like the one you have, crushing and panning out the result to see which stringer is carrying gold.

Are the veins your finding outcrops? or do they run on/near the surface? How easy is it to follow the veins? What sort of terrain are they occurring in?
These are factors to consider when looking for a source.

Hope this helps some.
TGW.

 

[Goldhawk]

Thanks for your input Green wanderer. The out crop is not visible but the original find was detectable in the reef , the gold went vertical , the reef runs up hill which I haven't followed very far ( back breaking work ) one hopes it stays reachable like a saddle reef with the shape of the hill but I'm uncertain of that .i have found speciems up further but the host quartz is much smaller around the size of right hand side vein in the pic . Which leaves me wondering did it string off the lager vein or it stands alone in the small one , or the the smaller speciems lead to the larger . Thank you mate

 

[rc62burke]

Mate
The way I see it, does it really matter what you call it? it is a Reef/ vein/ stringer / leader, that carries Gold, the best method I know to find more gold!!! is to follow Gold.
cheers
Lee

 

[The Green Wanderer]

Well thats a good sign that your spot may have been overlooked, best part is that your already on the gold so just a case of working that vein till it stops. Hopefully it goes deeper and shows more colour!

TGW.

 

[OrangeNugget]

actually prob too late but the original poster was right in saying leader veins are the ones which shoot off the main bedding vein.

proper leader veins will always have gold. if it doesnt contain gold its not a leader vein its just quartz.

the bedding vein is what contains the lode source of gold. this is the primary way and reason the old timers found and sunk holes

 

[jethro]

From the specimen in the picture I would hazard a guess that if one vein of quartz is carrying gold then the altered rock between the 2 veins will be too. and maybe for a certain distance on either side. If you were going to work that you would need to take out enough stone to give yourself room to work so you may as well take the lot. even if only part of the lode is carrying gold values.