Question about gold distance to source

[maine-Marine]

So I was out testing a home made sluice in a small stream in clearfield county, PA. I did some sample sites and mostly found nothing BUT in one location at the end of a small bit of white water I dug out under a rather large rock and found about 12 small specks of gold about 2 feet down. (flour Gold?)

My question, I heard that depending on size you can sort of tell how far you are from the source. Is that true and does it tend to be a hard and fast rule or just a wifes tale.

My plan is to google earth it and see what is back about 5-8 miles and do some samples there

 

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[dave wiseman]

Perhaps you can contact your states department of mines and minerals or whatever it's called in your state.Isn't most of the gold in the northeast,glacial gold.If so your source would be Canada.Look at your gold with a loupe and see if it is rough or smooth and if it has any minute quartz attached to it.Fine gold,small or large can come from far away or close by depending on many circumstances.

 

[OwenT]

I am thinking with dave on this, but I'm not an expert on PA Au either. I thought most all the gold over there is being concentrated from stuff dropped by glaciers so there's not going to be any chance of finding the source. The answer to your question though is yes, the texture of the gold can lead you to the source if one is nearby.

 

[maine-Marine]

Perhaps you can contact your states department of mines and minerals or whatever it's called in your state.Isn't most of the gold in the northeast,glacial gold.If so your source would be Canada.Look at your gold with a loupe and see if it is rough or smooth and if it has any minute quartz attached to it.Fine gold,small or large can come from far away or close by depending on many circumstances.

My think is..if there is fine gold in spot A could/would there be larger flakes further upstream or even in a stream over the hill

 

[chlsbrns]

The source of your gold is Canada! There probably is larger flakes upstream and over the hill that also came from Canada.

The gold was dropped when glaciers melted long long ago.


http://www.usgs.gov

Learn how to use the USGS! They can put you right on gold in your area!

 

[nh.nugget]

You might find some larger stuff. If your gold came from glaciers like some of ours in NH. It will probably be fine. Finding a source may be difficult as it is here. We find pockets some with good amounts. For the most part it's all fine.

 

[Capt Nemo]

You can find sources even in glacial gold in some circumstances. On a beach near Sheboygan, WI, I'm finding flour gold mixed with bright copper flour. To the southwest, a 3/4 oz halfbreed copper/gold nugget was found. Both areas were on the dividing line of the Green Bay and Lake Michigan lobes of the glacier. Further north in the UP there's a copper claim that's also right on the dividing line. The claim report didn't list gold as being present, but being based a drilling, it may have missed the gold presence. It may not the true source of the gold, but it truly gives us a source of the copper being found with it.

The bright copper may indicate an copper electrum, as if it were pure, the copper wouldn't be bright. So I think that report doesn't tell the whole story either.

 

[triple d]

Reseach if the areas your in have. Silver, copper Or lead mines. As gold can be a by product of these. Ancient volcanic activity. Or faults could be small amonts of gold. In the area rocks. Research And old geology maps should help. A little reading can save a lot of leg work.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Those glaciers hauled gold for many many miles during the ice age. The actual lode it came out of could be 1 mile to 500+ miles away. Yes, there could be bigger gold in the other stream you mentioned but most likely it's going to be about the same size. The weight of all that ice compressed the land under the glacier and once it melted away the land would spring back up. This has been shown to happen in Alaska with the melting of the glaciers that's been going on. There is no way to really tell what the land was like before it got run over by all that ice since ancient rivers and stream beds would have been pushed right out of their course and their rocks and boulders ended up in the terminal moraine of the glacier.

I remember an article many years ago in the GPAA mag telling of some guys that mined the bottoms of glaciers during the winter months and were finding nice big nuggets. They'd cap off the opening to the mine during the warmer (for Alaska) months to keep it from melting too much. From what I gathered their operation was kind of like part placer and part lode mining. They had to tunnel through the ice and then work the gravel and rocks like a placer.

 

[maine-Marine]

The source of your gold is Canada! There probably is larger flakes upstream and over the hill that also came from Canada.

The gold was dropped when glaciers melted long long ago.


Welcome to the USGS - U.S. Geological Survey

Learn how to use the USGS! They can put you right on gold in your area!

Good info, thanks

 

[Ragnor]

A thing worth considering and it may not really help. When glaciers flow around a particularly hard object that is tenacious enough to resist the erosion more so than other surrounding ground mass. It creates eddies like a boulder in a stream. Larger and heavier materials will settle out there in the obstructions wake. Of course this also means more material will settle there and any large deposits of gold in such a location would probably be very deep. Unless of course some other form of erosion exposed the lower parts of such a deposit.