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    Placer Gold

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    Dimi ThePro
    The document discusses placer gold deposits, how they form from weathering of gold-bearing rocks, and how water transports and concentrates the gold. It provides examples of historic and ongoing placer gold mining in Canada, particularly in Yukon and British Columbia.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Placer Gold

    Uploaded by

    Dimi ThePro
    5 views2 pages
    The document discusses placer gold deposits, how they form from weathering of gold-bearing rocks, and how water transports and concentrates the gold. It provides examples of historic and ongoing placer gold mining in Canada, particularly in Yukon and British Columbia.

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    The document discusses placer gold deposits, how they form from weathering of gold-bearing rocks, and how water transports and concentrates the gold. It provides examples of historic and ongoing placer gold mining in Canada, particularly in Yukon and British Columbia.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    5 views2 pages

    Placer Gold

    Uploaded by

    Dimi ThePro
    The document discusses placer gold deposits, how they form from weathering of gold-bearing rocks, and how water transports and concentrates the gold. It provides examples of historic and ongoing placer gold mining in Canada, particularly in Yukon and British Columbia.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    ® ®

    GAC AGC POPULAR GEOSCIENCE

    PLACER GOLD 1
    Heavy Stuff
    Placer deposits are heavy minerals that, after
    being weathered out of bedrock by wind or water,
    are concentrated by gravity. Most people think of
    gold when they hear the word 'placer', but any
    1 cm
    heavy mineral can become a placer. For
    example, uranium, tin, and platinum can form
    important placers.
    R. H
    erd
    , NR
    Can

    NRCan 199558
    Gold nuggets, from near Atlin, British Columbia
    Gold mining with a sluice box, North Saskatchewan River, near Edmonton, Alberta, 1898
    Placer Gold Formation
    The first thing needed to produce a placer gold deposit is a gold-bearing source rock (sometimes called the
    'Mother Lode'). The gold in this rock may be visible, or present in particles so tiny that they can't be seen with
    the naked eye. Weathering gradually wears the rock away, leaving the gold, which is heavier, behind. With
    just weathering and no further processing, a low-grade placer can be formed, but transportation and gravity
    concentrate the gold and produce the best placers. As either rain or stream water moves over the loose gold
    it is picked up and carried. Where the current slows, such as at a river bend, or where the water encounters
    boulders in the stream bed, gravity causes the gold to drop out of the flow. This concentrates the gold into
    'pay streaks'.

    A prospector uses a pan to see if gold is present in the gravel. Swirling the
    gravel with water in the pan recreates the action of a stream. You can do the
    same with the palm of your hand. Pick up some beach or stream sand in
    your palm and gently wash it back and forth in the water. If the sand
    NRCan 21583

    contains heavy minerals (for example, small dark grains or iron-rich


    minerals), they will concentrate into a pay streak!

    Natural Resources Ressources naturelles


    Canada Canada
    ® ®
    GAC AGC POPULAR GEOSCIENCE

    PLACER GOLD 2
    When and Where
    Canada's placer deposits formed at different times: the placer
    CANADIAN gold beaches of the Queen Charlotte Islands are recent; the
    PLACER Klondike deposits in Yukon are less than five million years old;
    GOLD RUSHES the Elliot Lake uranium placers in Ontario are more than two
    billion years old! Older placer deposits are called
    paleoplacers ('paleo' means old), and because they are
    Klondike
    1896 old, they sometimes have changed since they were
    deposited. For example, the minerals can be
    Atlin dissolved, transported, and recrystallized.
    1898 Paleoplacers of gold can serve as the source
    Queen
    Charlotte of gold for more recent placers. Today,
    Islands placer gold exploration and mining are
    1852 Cariboo
    1860 taking place in Canada, especially in
    Fraser River
    the mountains of Yukon Territory and
    1858 British Columbia. More efficient
    mining methods can make new
    Kootenay
    1864 discoveries profitable.
    Chaudière River
    1862

    DID YOU KNOW?


    Placer mining accounts for about 5% of
    Canada's annual production of gold
    Placer gold was discovered in beach sands near
    Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1857, and along Ontario's
    Vermilion River in 1896
    The Klondike is Canada's richest placer gold
    area: between 1896 and 1900, 77 tonnes of gold
    were recovered; since then another 100 tonnes
    have been found
    Gold has many decorative and industrial uses,
    but is also used by governments to back
    NRCan 199645

    currency and in trade


    The Peace, Red Deer and Athabasca rivers in
    Alberta contain placer gold Heading to the Klondike, 1899

    Placer gold can be found along the North Saskatchewan River from Rocky Mountain House,
    Alberta, to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a distance of over 600 kilometres

    www.gac.ca/PopularGeoscience A.D. McCracken, E. Macey,


    © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2007 J.M. Monro Gray, and G.S. Nowlan

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