Hi Guys,

I have a newbie question. This may sound like a completely stupid question but I'll ask anyway. My experience finding gold is in areas where there is or has been obvious water flow. I understand eluvial and residual deposits and how desert deposits are great for detecting. Gullies that cut old channels etc.

What really has me stumped is how nuggets get into material like in this you tube clip - http://www.youtube.com/user/arltunga2007#p/a/u/1/tOxgivw6iRE
This material is so hard and looks like it's full of clay. I see no round rock in it either. How the heck did this gold get onto these flat areas in Australia or elsewhere for that matter?

I have an area that I am interested in that has the same type of material. It holds nice, heavy gold and it seems to be channel like in the deposition and almost identical in character to the material in the above video and yet there is very little water worn rock. It is almost all hard white clay. It has really got me confused how the heck it would get there. It is spread out in this material for miles and very little small stuff to be found.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

GP.

I think your mistake may be in the assumption that all gold gets to where it is because it has been washed there by water. While certainly a lot of gold gets deposited in streams of water, a significant amount of gold, especialy that found with metals detectors, is residual. This means it has not traveled far from its source in the original host rock. When the rock weathers, the resulting clay gets washed away, leaving behind guggets in the soil near to the surface. Placers like these are found not just in australia, but Arizona, California, Nevada and other locations.

Chris

Also I thought i would add there are many area's where glacial drift gold can be found metal detecting where the original source could be from hundreds or even thousands of miles away, gold is a funny thing I mean who knows for sure what happened on the surface of planet earth over millions of years I read someone say its the ultimate game of hide and seek and the nuggets have a HUGE head start hiding. - Ronnie

Click to view attachment This is an example of the soil in the eluvial plain below Rich Hill and Weaver Hill, near Congress, Arizona. In this case one of my guests is nugget shooting where we find nuggets regularly at 2-3" deep. This is typical hard packed high desert flats with lots of glacial gold pushed off the Colorado Plateau - as well as gold moved by water from the Weaver Mountains in the endless washes that cut through it. Look for gold where it has been found in the past, then expand your knowledge base - along with your search area from there. Hope this helps! - Terry

Thank you guys, including the great picture. Starting to put the puzzle together more. The info along with the picture tell a thousand words. Thanks for all the input. Understanding how other dry placers got to be where they are today really helps me.

BCGOLDPIG

I am no geologist and I only believe about 1/2 of what any reputable geologist tells me. There are thousands more mysteries than scientific answers. Gold outlast any surrounding rock of similar age. Where rock has decayed gold still remains. Maybe the wind blew the decaying placer material away until the nugget rested on the caliche and then was recovered in another geologic event.

That makes alot of sense actually! What about lacustrine? Do you guys find gold weathered out onto this material(Old lake beds.)