The Source of Mineral Solutions

There are a number of speculations that geologists have come up with to explain the source of the mineralizing solutions. One hypothesis indicates that the mineralizing solutions began in sedimentary rock that had water that was trapped in it. In areas where the sedimentary rocks are down folded into the crust of the earth and heated, the water is then pushed off. It travels upwards through the fractures and is supposed to dissolve the metallic minerals from the rocks. In other areas that are cooler they are precipitated as vein materials. There is also another theory in which geologists conclude that when the sedimentary rock is very deeply buried and placed in a situation of extreme heat and pressure, an amount of the water that is driven off are a very important part of the minerals that form rocks. The hot solutions in addition move upwards in fractures and deposit what is in some occasions, veins of gold. In most cases the main constituents of a fracture filling or vein consist of quartz or quartz and calcite, however the materials of veins usually also have some gold in them as well as copper, iron, lead, and other metal compounds and minerals. There are a lot of veins also that have a lot of brass like iron sulphide, as well as pyrite in abundance. Irion stained mica and pyrite in some cases has been confused for gold and is commonly known as fool’s gold.