Gold Veins and Nuggets

Gold, on account of its great weight, is mechanically sorted in running water from the lighter material of the sands and gravels in which it many occur. In this way hot a concentration frequently takes place in stream beds and gold placer deposits are formed. In general these deposits will be ground where the current of the water has been suddenly checked and the heaviest particles of its load dropped in the bottom of the stream. Sand bars, etc., formed in this way may contain rich placer deposits. Irregularities in the bottom of a stream frequently act as natural riffles and catch behind them the heavier gold traveling along the bottom of the stream. In general, also, such despots will be richer as the stream is ascended and the original veins from which the gold has been derived are approached. The larger masses of gold which have been rolled together by the action of the stream are called nuggets. These sometimes attain considerable size. The very fine gold which is known as float gold may be carried by the streams for long distances.

In California, at the close of the glacial epoch, large amounts of gold-bearing gravels were deposited in the stream beds. Subsequent changes in the elevation of the country and extensive lava flows have caused a rearrangement of the drainage, and in places these old gravel beds are to be found to-day upon the hillsides and are know as the hill gravels. In places they have been covered Alaska, the beach sands contained gold, where by the action of the waves the gold has been concentrates to form placer deposits.

The important gold – producing states and territories of the United States, are Colorado, Alaska, California, Nevada, South Dakota, Utahm, Montana, Arizona and Idaho. There are several other states that also produce the metal, but in comparatively small amounts. The most important gold-producing districts of California are those of the series of gold-quartz veins known as the Mother Lode which lie along the western slope of the Sierras in Nevada, Amador, Calaveras, and one-half of California’s gold production comes from placer deposits, mostly worked by dredging operations in Butte and Yuba counties. The gold of Alaska has been derived chiefly from placer deposits, but recently the vein deposits have been of increasing importance. The chief producing districts are the Yukon Basin, the Fairbanks District and the Seward Peninsula, including Nome. Although Colorado is one of the first states in the production of gold, a large part of its output comes from the Cripple Creek District in Teller Country, where the gold occurs only sparingly native, but chiefly in the from of the tellurides, sylvanite and calaverite. The other chief producing counties are San Miguel and Ouray in the San Juan District, and lake County, containing the Leadville District, and Gilpin Clear Creek and Boulder counties in the Clear Creek District. The chief gold districts of Naveda are in Elko, Storey, Ney, and Esmeralda counties. The gold from South Dakota comes from the Black Hills, the Homestake Mine at Lead being the large test producer. The gold-producing districts of Utah are the Tintic and Bingham districts in Juab and Salt Lake counties respectively, and the Mercury District in Tooele County.

Important foreign fold-producing countries are as follows: South Africa, Australia, Russia, Mexico and Canada. The region known as the Rand, near Johannesburg in the Transvaal, South Africa, is the most productive gold district in the  world. The gold occurs here scattered throughout inclined debs or “reefs” of a quartzes conglomerate, which has been mined in enormous amounts and to great depths. Australia has the following chief gold districts: Kalogeria in western Australia (largely tellurides), Ballarat and Bending in Victoria, Mount Morgan in Queensland and various fields in New South Wales. In Russia gold is mined in western Siberia and the Urals, in the Irkutsk Province, in Transbaikalia and Amour. The production of Mexico comes chiefly from the districts of Guanajuato, El Oro and Dolores.