What is load gold?
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The largest gold lode in the United States was the Homestake Lode.
What is a lode gold deposit?
Gold may occur as deposits called lodes, or veins, in fractured rock. It may also be dispersed within Earth’s crust. Most lode deposits form when heated fluids circulate through gold-bearing rocks, picking up gold and concentrating it in new locations in the crust.
What’s the difference between placer and lode gold?
A lode is frequently considered as a zone or belt of mineralized rock clearly separated from neighboring nonmineralized rock. Placers are superficial deposits washed down from avein or lode occupying the beds of ancient rivers, or deposits of valuable minerals found in particles of alluvium in beds of active streams.
How do you know if you have gold on your land?
Another great indicator of gold presence is iron staining—when Ferric iron turns rocks into red, yellow, or purple. Iron stains indicate that hard rock may potentially be present in the area. If you start seeing reddish soils, be sure to start searching in that area.
Has anyone ever found a motherload of gold?
Two of the largest specimens containing gold recovered from the Beta Hunt Mine. The Canadian mine owner RNC Minerals says the find, from a single cut in the mine, includes about 9,250 ounces of high grade gold. …
Does the Earth keep producing gold?
Gold sank to the Earth’s core during the planet’s formation. It’s only accessible today because of asteroid bombardment. Theoretically, it’s possible to form gold by the nuclear processes of fusion, fission, and radioactive decay. Gold cannot be produced via chemistry or alchemy.
How to prospect for lode deposits of gold?
Prospecting for lode deposits of gold is not the relatively simple task it once was because most outcrops or exposures of mineralized rock have been examined and sampled. Today’s prospector must examine not only these exposures, but also broken rock on mine dumps and exposures of mineralized rock in accessible mine workings.
What is it like to prospect for gold?
Although the exercise and outdoor activity experienced in prospecting are rewarding, there are few thrills comparable to finding gold. Even an assay report showing an appreciable content of gold in a sample obtained from a lode deposit is exciting.
How many prospectors ever found valuable gold deposits in the west?
Only a few prospectors among the many thousands who searched the western part of the United States ever found a valuable deposit.
How does a prospector find a float in a lode?
Since the float must have moved downhill from its source in the lode, the prospector will work uphill from the point of his first discovery of float, searching for further similar indications. When he reaches a height where float no longer occurs, he may assume that he is over the lode or close to it.