How Pure is Calif. Placer Gold?

21k guess
 

Pure or not its Gold

Hi Full Pan,
I find California placer gold to be a 'Pure'delight, does that help! If not then what I've been told is, in my neck of the woods it is between 18 K and 20 K. Likely the gold shop in Auburn could give you a closer actual number, the place is on High street just off of Elm. Any place name with the word b e a r in it makes me kinda edgy! Lost my first Kelty pack to them critters...........................63bkpkr
 

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Bulletin 191(state geo report and Mines and Minerals of Shasta County)) states from 14-24kt. The areas have quite differing karats,even a 1/2 mile apart depending on geology. Clear Creek,Dog Creek have proven state analysis of .99 fine and I got plenty stashed. Dog was almost all interwoven wire and RIGHTEOUS to behold as color and interwoven strands are indeed stunning-John
 

misc pics 004.jpgmisc pics 055.jpgMerced river (my claims) 23k and pretty.
San Joaquin ( our claims) 22k

Refiners reports. testing.
 

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I've forgotten the conversions - what is that in percent? Nice gold btw!
 

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24k is 100% gold
12k is 50% gold and so on
0.0k is what the U.S. currency could be valued at soon if our government does not change its ways! IMHO.................63bkpkr
 

Awesome gold dredgeman! Looks like a bowl full of gold plated corn flakes.
 

RELATIVE VALUE OF QUARTZ GOLD AND PLACER GOLD.
Observations in all parts of the world have shown that placer gold is always finer than the gold in the quartz veins from which the placers were derived. The explanation, as has been shown in a most convincing manner by Ross E. Browne,1 among others, is that the silver alloyed with the gold is dissolved by the action of surface waters. The purity of the gold becomes greater as the size of the grains diminishes, the explanation being, of course, that the proportionate amount of surface exposed to the action of solutions is greater in the finer gold. An interesting confirmation of this view is recorded by McConnell,2 who states that examination of nuggets from the Klondike shows that their surfaces consist of gold of greater fineness than their insides. Some interesting data on the fineness of California gold have been contributed by F. A. Leach and C. G. Yale.3 A few of these data, which were obtained from mint returns for a period embracing several months of 1898, are mentioned below. The average fineness of the gold of Nevada County is given as 855; of Placer County, 792; of Plumas County, 851; of Sierra County, 858; of Calaveras County, 835; of Tuolumne County, 804. This includes both placers and quartz mines. The finest gold produced in California is that from the San Giuseppe quartz mine, near Sonora, Tuolumne County. This gold runs from 982 to 998, or $20.63 an ounce. On the whole, however, the gold from quartz veins is decidedly lower in grade than that from placers. The highest average of fineness in California is that of the gold from the placers at Folsom, Sacramento County, which runs from 974 to 978. The gold from the dredging areas of Butte County, near Oroville, is also of high grade, averaging about 922. At the localities cited the gold is obtained mainly from Quaternary deposits in the present rivers.
In Plumas County the listings of quartz gold run from 627 to about 850 and the placer gold from 800 to 950.
In Sierra County gold from quartz mines varies from 622 to 883; gold from the hydraulic mines at Port Wine (a Tertiary channel) is 948 in fineness. At Gibsonville similar deposits show a fineness of about 900.
In Nevada County the quartz veins produce gold ranging from 645 to 890. The Tertiary gravels of the Harmony channel show the lowest grade of placer gold; it is 790 fine, but is derived from a small channel immediately crossing a number of rich veins so as to offer little chance of enrichment. In the main channel, at the Manzanita mine, at Nevada City, the fineness is 830. Gold from the deep channels of North Bloomfield and Relief has a fineness of 906 to 935; at the Alpha hydraulic mine, 940 to 950; at American Hill and French Corral, all in main channels, 930 to 950.
In Placer County the quartz veins cany gold of a fineness from 580 to 921. In the main channels of Tertiary gravels may be noted the Morning Star mine, at Iowa Hill, where the gold is 900 fine; the Big Dipper, on the same channel, 884; Michigan Bluff, 940 to 970; the Red Point drift mine, 927; and the Hidden Treasure mine, on the White channel, 924 to 941.
In Eldorado County the quartz gold varies from 570 to 901 in fineness. At the Excelsior claim, at Placerville, on one of the principal channels, the gold on the bedrock had a fineness of 925, while that in an upper stratum at the same place, on ''false bedrock," reached 975. The gold in the Snow mine, above Placerville, a gravel deposit in the main Tertiary river, runs 948 fine. A drift mine at Grizzly Flat, on a small Tertiary stream near the headwaters and near some quartz veins, runs 871 fine.
In Calaveras County the quartz veins yielded gold ranging in fineness from 627 to 885; one exceptional quartz mine near Angels Camp shows a fineness of 960 to 975. The gold in the
i California placer gold: Eng. and Mil). Jour., vol. 59, 1905, pp. 1(11-102.
s McConnell, R. 0., Report on gold values in the Klondike hi^li-level gravels. Geol. Survey Canada (pub. No. 979), 1907, p. 14. » California mines and minerals, Sun Francisco, 1899, pp. 175-187. See also Bowie, A. J.. jr., Hydraulic mining in California, l885, p. '289; Hittell, J. S., Fourth Ann. Rept. State Mineralogist California, pp. 219-223.
gravels of the main Tertiary river draining this county yielded at Vallecito gold from 940 to 987 fine. In the Green Mountain hydraulic mine, at Mokelumne Hill, the fineness was 919.
The figures quoted show very clearly that in the main Tertiary streams a considerable refining of the gold has been going on, so that the average grade is now decidedly above 900. It is difficult to compare accurately the tenor of the gold in the present streams with that in the Tertiary channels, for it must be remembered that the former contain a mixture of detrital gold derived from Tertiary channels with much new gold set free during the erosion of the present canyon system.
 

Thanks medic - that's exactly what I needed!! The gold from Ancient channels (which the Bear river drains) is well above 80% pure in almost all cases.

The reason i'm asking is, the Nevada county Irrigation District (NID) recently found gold bars in a long neglected safe deposit box from past placer ops in the Bear river/Combie lake area. They
claim the gold buyer determined the purity to be 71%. I can now call them "liar, liar, pants on fire" lol.

Either the gold buyer is ripping them off, or the whole story is bogus, which is my belief. Again, thank you.
 

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Wow excellent reply Medic7a. You sure did your homework to answer that question! Awesome.
 

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