Anyone know of large bodies of water that have gold deposits

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I'm curious after seeing all the Yankee gold shows that have been popping up all of a sudden on our TVs if there are any known areas marine or other that have known surface gold or gold under layers on bedrock here in Aust? If so are there people/companies who mine this kind of thing or do we lack the amounts/geology that is conducive to this kind of naturally occurring gold? (I'm sure that what you see on the TV is 99% salted money shot stuff) but was just curious.
Being in Victoria it stands to reason that the banks of such a lake or shore of coastline would hold some gold fever medicine. I'm not really one who'd be keen on deep dredging (especially seeing as I've had two collapsed lungs = no diving for me) but I'm picturing a lake like an indicator as to what would be in the middle as if in a giant gold pan?
Anyone heard of such a thing happening in oz? The yabbie trap full of gold panning yabbies?
 
Simple answer is - stick with the stuff we prospect now. The grade is extremely low (totally uneconomic) and the grain size of the gold so fine that it can float on the surface of water due to surface tension of the water, so does not concentrate and cannot be concentrated by water-gravity methods even where more abundant (e.g. river muds in Oregon_Washington such as Columbia River). The exceptions are well known (eg Nome, Alaska beach deposits), mostly small, and well explored (including offshore in Victoria such as the Burdekin delta, Corner Inlet). You require movement of water to concentrate gold, so it dumps out when it hits a sea or lake. Usually the river is slowing well before it reaches most lakes, so has dumped its economic gold.
 
You'll be looking for a known gold area that has scored rocks as an indicator showing that there is evidence of glaciation... you'll be looking upstream for evidence of high shelfing both sides of a vally that are all vertically related to proof your lake... there you may find the big pan riffle that no one else is looking for...yet :eek:

Edited the word scoria to scored
 
Sound like Witwatersrand Basin had special circumstances with the meteor crater and all.
I think what Nirvanadirt is imagining is the lake wave action causing shelving (unrelated to creeks and streams), pulling away at the sides of a known gold area and concentrating gold in a band on a high shelf that extends around the margins of a lake that would have been ephemeral in nature because of glaciation(ie-the giant gold pan)... and thereby overlooked in the natural thinking that drives the search for gold. Some gold however would be found down newer small creeks that cut through the shelf.. just an assumption on my part though.
And maybe much smaller in nature than the Witwatersrand Basin and it's phenomenal output. :p
 
silver said:
You'll be looking for a known gold area that has scoria rocks as an indicator showing that there is evidence of glaciation... you'll be looking upstream for evidence of high shelfing both sides of a vally that are all vertically related to proof your lake... there you may find the big pan riffle that no one else is looking for...yet :eek:
Silver, scoria comes out of volcanoes. Also the impact feature in the Witwatersrand Basin occurred long after the gold-bearing rocks had turned to hard rock (thought to be 700 million years later). Such is the complexity of geology.....
 
grubstake said:
Isn't the mighty Witwatersrand Basin (1.5 billion ounces and counting!), the exemplar of this type of deposit?:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witwatersrand#Witwatersrand_Basin

Not of the type that the question is being asked about. It is dominantly in conglomerates and conglomerates are not typical beach or lake deposits (they require strong currents to transport the pebbles).
 
goldierocks said:
silver said:
You'll be looking for a known gold area that has scoria rocks as an indicator showing that there is evidence of glaciation... you'll be looking upstream for evidence of high shelfing both sides of a vally that are all vertically related to proof your lake... there you may find the big pan riffle that no one else is looking for...yet :eek:
Silver, scoria comes out of volcanoes
thanks goldierocks ive adjusted that word now :Y: I hope I'm right this time
 
silver said:
goldierocks said:
silver said:
You'll be looking for a known gold area that has scoria rocks as an indicator showing that there is evidence of glaciation... you'll be looking upstream for evidence of high shelfing both sides of a vally that are all vertically related to proof your lake... there you may find the big pan riffle that no one else is looking for...yet :eek:
Silver, scoria comes out of volcanoes
thanks goldierocks ive adjusted that word now :Y: I hope I'm right this time
Scored sure beats scoria when talking about glaciers! :playful:
 
silver said:
Sound like Witwatersrand Basin had special circumstances with the meteor crater and all.
I think what Nirvanadirt is imagining is the lake wave action causing shelving (unrelated to creeks and streams), pulling away at the sides of a known gold area and concentrating gold in a band on a high shelf that extends around the margins of a lake that would have been ephemeral in nature because of glaciation(ie-the giant gold pan)... and thereby overlooked in the natural thinking that drives the search for gold. Some gold however would be found down newer small creeks that cut through the shelf.. just an assumption on my part though.
And maybe much smaller in nature than the Witwatersrand Basin and it's phenomenal output. :p

I should've made the point about the gold in the middle of the lake being an indicator of surrounding gold , to be more clear I thought that perhaps there are places where the giant gold pan affect would be an indicator of geology and surrounding areas that would have deposited gold into the lake and if there are known like or coastline areas that have gold in them my thinking is that there might be gold in strata somewhere close by ?!
 
Nirvanadirt said:
silver said:
Sound like Witwatersrand Basin had special circumstances with the meteor crater and all.
I think what Nirvanadirt is imagining is the lake wave action causing shelving (unrelated to creeks and streams), pulling away at the sides of a known gold area and concentrating gold in a band on a high shelf that extends around the margins of a lake that would have been ephemeral in nature because of glaciation(ie-the giant gold pan)... and thereby overlooked in the natural thinking that drives the search for gold. Some gold however would be found down newer small creeks that cut through the shelf.. just an assumption on my part though.
And maybe much smaller in nature than the Witwatersrand Basin and it's phenomenal output. :p

I should've made the point about the gold in the middle of the lake being an indicator of surrounding gold , to be more clear I thought that perhaps there are places where the giant gold pan affect would be an indicator of geology and surrounding areas that would have deposited gold into the lake and if there are known like or coastline areas that have gold in them my thinking is that there might be gold in strata somewhere close by ?!
Streams are a better indicator - lakes tend to be too still to sort gold
 
Nirvanadirt said:
What's the current state of the gold in the Witwatersrand basin by the way ?
South Africa has gone from 1st to 9th in the world since I was there - 1000 tonne per year to about 130 tonne per year. About a third the size of Australia's production now.
 
goldierocks said:
Nirvanadirt said:
silver said:
Sound like Witwatersrand Basin had special circumstances with the meteor crater and all.
I think what Nirvanadirt is imagining is the lake wave action causing shelving (unrelated to creeks and streams), pulling away at the sides of a known gold area and concentrating gold in a band on a high shelf that extends around the margins of a lake that would have been ephemeral in nature because of glaciation(ie-the giant gold pan)... and thereby overlooked in the natural thinking that drives the search for gold. Some gold however would be found down newer small creeks that cut through the shelf.. just an assumption on my part though.
And maybe much smaller in nature than the Witwatersrand Basin and it's phenomenal output. :p

I should've made the point about the gold in the middle of the lake being an indicator of surrounding gold , to be more clear I thought that perhaps there are places where the giant gold pan affect would be an indicator of geology and surrounding areas that would have deposited gold into the lake and if there are known like or coastline areas that have gold in them my thinking is that there might be gold in strata somewhere close by ?!
Streams are a better indicator - lakes tend to be too still to sort gold
thats why I recon if there were a high shelf where there shouldn't really be one, maybe any heavys from the sides could have been caught that way... but only there where the erosion zone was from lake wave action.
 
That was the idea in my head about the slow lapping of the waves being like the gold pan effect so by right if anything is in the surrounding areas it should be on shelves and crevices in or around the middle of a potential spot that has a water body near it.
 
Nirvanadirt said:
That was the idea in my head about the slow lapping of the waves being like the gold pan effect so by right if anything is in the surrounding areas it should be on shelves and crevices in or around the middle of a potential spot that has a water body near it.
Does occur but usually fine and not very impressive. Never much. I can pan it from many beaches along the SE coast, and it was a by-product of heavy mineral sand mining along the NSW coast. But it won't make you rich and it won't make you excited - many other places will.
 
That's a beautiful specimen nug in your avatar picture! Where's that beauty from goldirocks? Where would you suggest I start with the pan and eventually the high banker? I'm in Vic, any spots you would suggest that I try first? I was thinking of a spot in maldon but is a semi researched guesstimate
 
Nirvanadirt said:
That's a beautiful specimen nug in your avatar picture! Where's that beauty from goldirocks? Where would you suggest I start with the pan and eventually the high banker? I'm in Vic, any spots you would suggest that I try first? I was thinking of a spot in maldon but is a semi researched guesstimate
Ha - for me to know and you to find out. Seriously though, part of the fun is doing your own research. There are possibilities in the general Maldon district but also scores of other places. Good luck. Check legal issues re access and equipment first. Nugget is not Victorian is all I will say....
 
Looks like it's come off some host quartz,, nice!!
Yeah I've done a heap of research to the point that my heads spinning as where to go! I might get some gold maps up and get the darts out?!! I've basically been using https://gsv.vic.gov.au/sd_weave/anonymous.html and an old map of old gold fields I found online as well as some stuff from state library. But all amounts to taking the first step and moving some dirt !!
Are there restrictions that I should be aware of. In the Maldon area?! Thanks for the heads up as I'm not too knowledgeable about the laws. I figured I'd get some kind of exclusion map when I get my license sorted.
 

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