Reading placer flakes

[Matthews940]

I've been thinking about a spot on a creek that I was crevicing a little while back. I got some pretty good flakes out of this one crevice. As I learn more and more about prospecting, and finding the source, I had to go back and look closely at the gold I found there. The majority of them are somewhat worn, but still show features of their original shape. But one flake in particular is still very course. Is there any general rule of thumb for the correlation between coarseness and distance traveled, or are there too many factors involved?

 

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[mytimetoshine]

In general coarse flakes should indicate a deposit "close" by. But that doesnt mean the deposit hasn't already been found and mined. There are also many exceptions to the rule. A piece of gold could travel a long way such as an ore specimen. That just happena to break apart nearby. Doesn't guarantee it came from close by, but in general yes.

I've found a lot of coarse flakes but it ain't leading to no "undiscovered deposit" lol. My area is to worked over. But probably more true in more remote less heavily mined areas.

2 cents

 

[Matthews940]

I was hoping you'd say the deposit is directly above where I found it. The creek was heavily dredged and there are some placer mines about 4k ft upstream that run into this creek.

 

[oneguy]

It's hard to say. There also can be several sources feeding your creek, one closer (course) and another further away where they traveled some and are smoother. I'm currently working in such a spot with at least 2 different types of placer or so we think? Donated all of yesterdays nuggs to the co. and they will send them in for chemical analysis to see if our suspicions are right? Rough flakes and some bigger smoother stuff....
Good luck...!!!

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Could also be carried WAY downstream on, or in, an ice flow, too. There are some really big boulders on our local desert that were transported in big pieces of ice during an ice age flood, from WAY up in the mountains. I suspect the fist-sized pieces of copper I found in Nevada last summer may have been transported that way.
Jim

 

[bug]

Many of the CA motherload creeks have a mix of course and smooth. I personally dont get excited. Gold can travel in a host rock for a long ways, I'd imagine miles, and then be released from the matrix.

 

[arizau]

I was hoping you'd say the deposit is directly above where I found it. The creek was heavily dredged and there are some placer mines about 4k ft upstream that run into this creek.

If the deposit was very nearby then searching the hillsides adjacent to and trending upstream should yield some float material/ore...mineralized quartz or visible gold in quartz. Geologist and everyday prospectors alike do this and in some instances following float has lead to outcroppings of lode deposits.

Good luck.