Distance That Alluvial Gold Travels

Hi all

I have been finding some gold while panning a particular section of a creek. I noticed that some of the pieces are very jaggered and rough whilst some are smooth and well worn.

Is it likely the jaggered pieces have shed from the source immediately close by and the smooth pieces from far away? How far in metres or kilometres does gold typically travel in a creek or river to loose roughness and be become smooth?

Not to be a smarty but if there was a clear cut formula there would be a lot of happy chaps...

So many variables - The rate of flow and how much banging about and on what it was banging is all subjective... And even when one backtracks, it does not always mean there is a big pot waiting for you..

I would like to know that formula AM and I would ask you to join me.
Mackka

can travel many km if not hundreds that is were you need to start looking at maps and try to follow it back can be a lot of work and a lot of digging and samples to test

Odd really. Going by the density of gold and if it has travelled k's away from the original source and still at almost gound level in depth. Bed rock beneath maybe.
Then again people find it in salt lakes. One of lifes little mysteries ?

Also you have to be aware that some of the gold will travel downstream on its own and be water worn, while some may travel downstream in host rock and weather in situ and be 'jagged'

cairnspom said:

Also you have to be aware that some of the gold will travel downstream on its own and be water worn, while some may travel downstream in host rock and weather in situ and be 'jagged'

Click to expand...

What he said is what I would say also.
Panning and loaming is the way to go to find the source of where the gold has been shedding.

It is often a constant in a particular area. Same topography, same rainfall, same gold grain size in the source rocks results in similar transport distances. However such areas are fairly confined in extent. Around Ballarat, abundant coarse gold only travels a few km in the main (although the gold leads are longer, they are often replenished from other gold sources along their length, so go for tens of km) - sometimes only 500 km from source in the main city goldfield area. However the fine gold at Beechworth travelled at least as far as Eldorado (26 km) over granite that had no gold (so it was not replenished along the way and was still economic at Eldorado, partly because of associated tin derived from the granite). There are really two ways in which alluvial gold is deposited (1) close to source, by being largely left behind as lighter rock washes away, and (2) distant from source where a drop in stream velocity causes it to fall out from suspension in the water. The first is classical Ballarat, the latter classical Eldorado (stream velocity dropped as the stream moved pout of the granite to where it was dammed by the metamorphic aureole in sedimentary rocks adjacent to the granite (think of it as a hard rock bar formed by "cooking" of the sandstones etc by the granite). The first is great for small miners, the latter more suitable for large tonnage but low grade sluicing and dredging (e.g. Cocks Eldorado dredge is still preserved on its pond at Eldorado).