Before getting into the really juicy tips, it is essential that
you understand gold as a physical entity, this will enable you to
envisage where gold will be in any type of river system and/or placer
mining situation. Luckily for gold prospectors all over the world gold
has some characteristics that allow it to separate itself away from
other materials in a stream or river.
Chief among these is its density or specific gravity, it is almost 20 times more dense than water, and generally up to 3 to 4 times more dense than anything else you are likely to come across in a typical river setting. It would be ideal if it were 20 times less dense than everything else in the river as this would allow it to float on the waters surface, delivering it straight into our waiting scoops, however, there's a flip side to that gold coin, if gold was to float on the rivers surface it would -
With golds density being so high and liquefaction occurring throughout the riverbed (especially during floods), the gold eventually finds its way down to the lower levels of the riverbed. It will be found in the river gravels of the current river and may also be found in the river gravels of previous rivers that may have run a long time ago, but no longer do.
So yes, you guessed it, if you want to find gold, you have to dig, then dig some more and a little bit more, and eventually, if you are in a gold bearing location you WILL find gold, all it takes is a little sweat and a little persistence.
In the above examples I am talking about alluvial gold - gold which has been broken free from its source (a gold bearing quartz vein) by the relentless forces of mother nature and eventually found its way into a river system. Alluvial gold is usually found in small grains ranging from a similar size to the average salt grain, right down to sizes almost imperceptible to the human eye.
Prospecting for alluvial gold is referred to as "Placer Mining", with Placer coming from the Spanish "to please", this term is used because placer mining is a lot easier than the other methods of gold prospecting.
Other types of gold deposits are - lode deposits, residual deposits, bench deposits, stream bed deposits, ancient rivers and flood layers,we will find out more about these later, we have enough to be learning without complicating things.
Now that you understand the physical characteristics of gold, and its density compared to the other materials in the river gravels, we can now visualize what will be happening inside the river system and where the gold will deposit itself, this will make it easier for a prospector to recover more gold for less work.
Now its time to see how gold is distributed throughout and gravels and as a result, where to find gold in a river.
Chief among these is its density or specific gravity, it is almost 20 times more dense than water, and generally up to 3 to 4 times more dense than anything else you are likely to come across in a typical river setting. It would be ideal if it were 20 times less dense than everything else in the river as this would allow it to float on the waters surface, delivering it straight into our waiting scoops, however, there's a flip side to that gold coin, if gold was to float on the rivers surface it would -
- be nowhere near as scarce
- as a result be completely worthless
With golds density being so high and liquefaction occurring throughout the riverbed (especially during floods), the gold eventually finds its way down to the lower levels of the riverbed. It will be found in the river gravels of the current river and may also be found in the river gravels of previous rivers that may have run a long time ago, but no longer do.
So yes, you guessed it, if you want to find gold, you have to dig, then dig some more and a little bit more, and eventually, if you are in a gold bearing location you WILL find gold, all it takes is a little sweat and a little persistence.
In the above examples I am talking about alluvial gold - gold which has been broken free from its source (a gold bearing quartz vein) by the relentless forces of mother nature and eventually found its way into a river system. Alluvial gold is usually found in small grains ranging from a similar size to the average salt grain, right down to sizes almost imperceptible to the human eye.
Prospecting for alluvial gold is referred to as "Placer Mining", with Placer coming from the Spanish "to please", this term is used because placer mining is a lot easier than the other methods of gold prospecting.
Other types of gold deposits are - lode deposits, residual deposits, bench deposits, stream bed deposits, ancient rivers and flood layers,we will find out more about these later, we have enough to be learning without complicating things.
Now that you understand the physical characteristics of gold, and its density compared to the other materials in the river gravels, we can now visualize what will be happening inside the river system and where the gold will deposit itself, this will make it easier for a prospector to recover more gold for less work.
Now its time to see how gold is distributed throughout and gravels and as a result, where to find gold in a river.
This is an extract taken from our head Gold Prospector at our site GoldProspectOnline.com.
Please visit our site to learn more about Gold Prospecting Tips, Maps & Supplies.
We will be adding more tips in the near future.
Thank You, and Happy Prospecting to all.
Paul @ GoldProspectngOnline.com
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_G_Flynn
Please visit our site to learn more about Gold Prospecting Tips, Maps & Supplies.
We will be adding more tips in the near future.
Thank You, and Happy Prospecting to all.
Paul @ GoldProspectngOnline.com
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