Geological Question

[Armitage]

Hey,

Close to me is this area, and to me it looks like it has been extremly deformed to the north.
And i wonder what you think about this kind of geological situation, and maybe someone has a idea where the best areas are for searching gold.
I will go there next weekend and check as many places as possible for placer gold. I hope to find something but according to Japanese history books there has never been a Gold mine. The next gold mines from this position are like 100km.

The black dots without a number are active fault zones and a small band of about 50m with intrusive rock, i think the lines were straight in the past but because of the deformation the middle part has been bend upwards, it looks kinda funny.

Everything is according to Japanese sources.
Material with the same colour is the same kind of material.

The number 1 is: No infos about the type of material, just that it was at the bottom of the sea and was lifted upward because of a Accretionary wedge.

The number 2 is: Its roughly 200 million years gold and some kind of glass related Not many infos avaible)

The number 3 is: Its the small band of intrusive rock that cooled out relativ shallow under the surface.

The number 4 is: Its metamorphic rock that was mudstone before it was deformed to the current type of rock.

The number 5 is: Its sandstone that was before at the bottom of the sea and had an uplift because of a Accretionary wedge .

The number 6 and 7: Both parts look like they have been connected before the whole mountain range pushed between it.
Its basalt that has been formed through volcanic eruptions at the bottom of the sea.

There are many kind of straight lines, this are fault lines with a lot of movement.
The whole area has no active or inactive past volcanoes.

Thank you very much, I hope someone knows a lot about this kind of things.

 

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[Assembler]

Hello
Don't know much about your area of interest. You could be the first person to check some of this area (intrusive rock) out. Worth a good look.

 

[Mgumby16]

Hello -

I am a geologist and a prospector in the eastern US. If I were working in this area I would start sampling in the streams and rivers just below where the faults cross or where the faults are in the same drainage as the stream. Most of the gold in my area is related to quartz mineralization along fault systems.

The second areas I would prospect would be where drainages cross the intrusive rocks and specifically the contacts between the intrusive rock and the surrounding country rock, this could have cause contact metamorphism which could have produced gold mineralization.

Those would be my starting focuses. Hope this helps, let us know how it turns out.

 

[smokeythecat]

Since you have igneous rock nearby (basalt), the chances of intrusive gold or other metals is very possible. Check out mindat.org for information on minerals found in the general area.

 

[Armitage]

Hey

Mgumby16: I was thinking exactly about doing that, I was thinking there might be a trick to it that a geologist may know.
But i guess its just, there is a gold where you find it.
I think there area is very interresting because of all the faults, the different types of rocks and a lot of ground movement.

Smokeythecat: I checked this homepage, but this kind of homepages are useless if u live in Japan.
Japan has a lot of data but that is all in Japanese, English homepages have just a fraction of the data that is avaible.
I can read Japanese so i get most of my infos from Japanese wikipedia.

I will check a portion of the area during the weekend, takes a few weekends to check it throughly.

 

[Armitage]

Faults and Mineralization [Archive] - AMDS Adventure Forum

After reading this i believe that the several kind of fault system rings in the map are from a volcano.
There is no info like this on Japanese maps, but it just feels a lot like a volcano.

 

[goldenmojo]

Does it feel a lot like there is gold there? The old miners always used to say to each other " if you got feel something, feel for gold" .

 

[Armitage]

I have never been there, and if i could feel for Gold, I would do it.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Does it feel a lot like there is gold there? The old miners always used to say to each other " if you got feel something, feel for gold" .

And that's dowsing

 

[huntsman53]

Faults and Mineralization [Archive] - AMDS Adventure Forum

After reading this i believe that the several kind of fault system rings in the map are from a volcano.
There is no info like this on Japanese maps, but it just feels a lot like a volcano.

Look at Google Earth Satellite images of the location from directly overhead. If there are any calderas or leftover volcano walls (i.e. slightly tilted from vertical, shear rock formations), then there was or still is a volcano. It may extinct or just has not been active for a very long time. Geological Relief Maps can also help locate where volcanoes were or are.


Frank

 

[TerryC]

Gold is always found in areas that have seismic and volcanic (past or present) activity. Japan should have gold as it is found all along the other parts of the Pacific Plate. Use Google Translate to help with the Japanese. ╦╦Ç

 

[Armitage]

Hey,

I am fluent in Japanese, so i find all my infos on Japanese homepages.
Today i went to a river in that area and i did sluice a lot but couldnt get any gold.
But, when digging through the gravel i noticed a little yellow shining rock.

Well, I think its gold, it looks like gold even with no direct light, or any viewing angle. If wet or not wet it just looks like gold.
I found the rock deep in the gravel of the river, if it would be pyrite, it should be rotten away and kind of cubic.
Well, its just a very small amount, here are 2 pictures, what you think about it?

If it is gold, it would be the first time that i found gold.

 

[arizau]

Checking suspected gold under varying light is always my first "go to". Picking at the spots with an ice pick or other sharp object may tell the tale if it leaves dents rather than crumbling.

Good luck.

 

[Assembler]

Checking suspected gold under varying light is always my first "go to". Picking at the spots with an ice pick or other sharp object may tell the tale if it leaves dents rather than crumbling.

Good luck.

Excellent tips and thank for posting arizau.
May not hurt to crush and pan. Maybe try out the falcon pin pointer metal detector if you can.
Good luck.

 

[Twobrothers]

Looks like gold!

 

[Assembler]

Looks like gold!

Yes does look like some gold. Time to test further. Thank you for the pictures.
Hope you do not start a 'Gold rush' there......LOL.

 

[Assembler]

Looks like gold!

Yes does look like some gold. Time to test further. Thank you for the pictures.
Hope you do not start a 'Gold rush' there......LOL.
Looks like a double post can not delete with the delete box.

 

[Armitage]

I will buy gold detectors in about 2 months, at the moment I don't have the money for them.
When I was sluicing I couldn't get anything, the river is just gravel and rocks, no sand. And I couldn't find a rock bed.
The source for the gold must be close, it may would be the best to use a metal detector and search the gravel with it.
I don't have any way to crush it, but I think I can dissolve it in acid. Probably I will try that, have to learn this.

 

[Assembler]

I will buy gold detectors in about 2 months, at the moment I don't have the money for them.
When I was sluicing I couldn't get anything, the river is just gravel and rocks, no sand. And I couldn't find a rock bed.
The source for the gold must be close, it may would be the best to use a metal detector and search the gravel with it.
I don't have any way to crush it, but I think I can dissolve it in acid. Probably I will try that, have to learn this.

If you look on this form you will find how to make some simple crushers out of caped pipe and a rod or hammer. Try to find more values first before buying to much.

 

[Armitage]

I will do that as well, it really sucks that I still don't have a gold detector. But, a small amount like this, would a detector even react to this?