Gold Movement in Streams

Gold is moved down a stream by being transported and the kind of transportation in any stream is normally described by three kinds of loads.

There is dissolved load, which is material that is carried down in solution and is usually described as hard water or mineral water. There are mineral sediments like sand, silt and clay that are called the suspended load. Depending on the velocity of the stream, a lot of them carry bigger particles of rock and some can even carry boulders by sliding and rolling action along the bottom of the stream and this is what is known as a bed load. One interesting type of movement the bed load has is when a rock is moved down the stream by jumping and this is known as saltation.

While the velocity of the stream slow down for whatever reason, the load that is being carried is then deposited on the bottom and the heaviest material sinks down to the bottom. This is a process that is known as deposition. Deposition is the last part of the process that takes place when a placer deposit is created.

The reasons a stream would stop could be due to reduced gradient, reduced amount of volume, less discharge, certain obstacles such as trees or boulders, freezing, overloading, widening of a stream bed, speeded increase in depths or pools, emptying into slower moving water or still water etc. When deposition happens the material then gets sorted to size and weight in which the biggest in size and heaviest gets deposited first at the bottom of the stream.

Now that you are somewhat familiar with the geology terminology used to describe some of the functions it performs, we hope you will be able to better understand information on placer deposits and lode prospecting. Obviously the information we have provided and are going to be providing are only basic and for those that are looking into making prospecting more than just a weekend pastime or a hobby, we highly suggest you look into material that is more advanced as far as geology is concerned.