Salt Lake Gold Question

I have a reasonable understanding of gold deposits and how they were formed but are unsure of the dry salt lake deposits in WA, I know gold can be dissolved over millions of years in halogens which is sea water and large areas of the interior was once covered by an inland sea, I am thinking the salt lake gold nuggets may have been formed by the evaporation and concentration of the gold solutions at surface level and some reaction has caused the gold to come out of solution and I guess grow these nuggets, what would be interesting to know would be, are people finding this gold in specimens with rock and quartz attached which would show these deposits just happen to be below a salt lake or if mostly clean and of high purity and bright would lean towards the solution theory, some Sedimentary rock attached still would be possible with this theory.
It would be interesting to get members thoughts who have found this type of gold as they should be in a better position to answer this question
Cheers Mark

Hallo MS

Just returned from an interesting "excursion" on saltlakes with a very well-known and repected geologist from WA. The conclusion is that the nuggets of WA is from the "solution theory" and are of higher purity than their "land found cousins". I am no guru when it comes to salt lakes, but a lot of nuggets came from this lake and its suroundings but here is an extract: "....gold from the salt lakes is of a much higher shine and purity than gold from straight gold precipitation......" "The gold chloride complex being much more oxidising than silver chloride, is capable of dissolving small amounts of silver in gold nuggets, and in the process electroplating out gold in its place on their surfaces. This leads to a gold plating effect and gives a higher shine and golden sheen than does straight gold precipitation. This also leads to the silver depletion zones often seen around the margins of gold nuggets."

The purity of salt lake nuggets is well documented... my opinion!

Best

Kudu

It seems to me that most of the gold found in the salt lakes is on or very near the bedrock and lying in an area that is in line with an ancient river channel or at the mouth of a river that flowed from the nearby hills and fanned out into what was once an large salty sea. The gold was deposted from the river onto the sea floor into what is now a salt lake. The climate warmed and the sea dried up leaving shallow salt lakes behind along with the gold that we are now finding. much of the gold in the salt lakes shows crystaline structure indicating to me that it has not traveled far since its formation after comming out of solution as its temperature cooled.
It is interesting that a lot of the salt lake gold has gypsum attached and pretty much no qtz.

Just thoughts.

Adrian,

And very interesting thinking it is too...

thanks

Hi Kudu
That sounds along the same lines of my thoughts and if Geos are coming to the same conclusion that makes me feel a bit better, I did read a report saying that nuggets are only formed at high pressure and high temp deep underground but have been told by an old miner that a rusty steel rod that he pulled out of a water logged gold mine in the Adelaide hills clearly showed it was covered by tiny gold crystals under a microscope, to me that shows that gold can naturally participate and grow out of saturated solution.
It would be interesting to see what the gold content from bores under salt lakes over there is and as we know there is a small gold content in natural sea water so I guess if this theory is correct the levels would be much higher from the bore samples.
Hi Adrian what you are saying does seem logical but any crystalline gold with sharp edges is unlikely by my way of thinking to have come from a old river or drainage flow, gold being very soft will loose it's sharp edges during travel and even if it stayed in position with the surface material washing over will cause abrasion to the point of rounding the edges.
Anyway it would be good to see if anyone has some pics of this salt lake gold and if anyone has had any of this gold refined what the assay results came in at.
Cheers Mark

MS wrote: Anyway it would be good to see if anyone has some pics of this salt lake gold and if anyone has had any of this gold refined what the assay results came in at.
Cheers Mark

http://www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/small1.htm

Cheers,
Rick

MS wrote:Hi Kudu

Anyway it would be good to see if anyone has some pics of this salt lake gold and if anyone has had any of this gold refined what the assay results came in at.
Cheers Mark

Hope to get some of my own soon, just moved to WA right near some salt lakes for my job. Soon as my removal gets here and I have time off I will be out there looking looking.

MS wrote:Hi Kudu
That sounds along the same lines of my thoughts and if Geos are coming to the same conclusion that makes me feel a bit better, I did read a report saying that nuggets are only formed at high pressure and high temp deep underground but have been told by an old miner that a rusty steel rod that he pulled out of a water logged gold mine in the Adelaide hills clearly showed it was covered by tiny gold crystals under a microscope, to me that shows that gold can naturally participate and grow out of saturated solution.
It would be interesting to see what the gold content from bores under salt lakes over there is and as we know there is a small gold content in natural sea water so I guess if this theory is correct the levels would be much higher from the bore samples.
Hi Adrian what you are saying does seem logical but any crystalline gold with sharp edges is unlikely by my way of thinking to have come from a old river or drainage flow, gold being very soft will loose it's sharp edges during travel and even if it stayed in position with the surface material washing over will cause abrasion to the point of rounding the edges.
Anyway it would be good to see if anyone has some pics of this salt lake gold and if anyone has had any of this gold refined what the assay results came in at.
Cheers Mark

Yes I agree that salt lake sharp hackly crystal gold has not moved far, if at all and is of high purity, but a lot of the salt lake gold shows signs of being moved or tumbled to some extent although a lot of this gold also seems to be scattered rather than lying along a lead and gives the impression of having formed on location, it has afterall been lying there for quite a while and certainly long enough for water and ground movement to have altered its texture, but for some reason some of those nuggets are still pretty ragged and makes me wonder if they in fact formed not so long ago in the geological time frame after the salt lakes formed??
My grandfather found crystaline gold and wire gold in the dandenong Ranges which appeared to be growing right where he found it

Hi Adrian
That wire gold is another form that going by the high pressure, high temp theory shouldn't exist, a few years ago, over in WA there was a news story and TV news clip showing a guy who found a deposit , they had the area fenced off and the reporter asked the lease holder where is the gold, he said just pick up any rock , he picked one piece up about half the size of his hand , it was a soft sedimentary type of rock, broke it open and it was a mass of wire gold, a bit like steel wool, he then dropped it back down on the ground and the reporter had a shocked look on his face and said why would you do that, the lease holder said look around, the hillside is strewn with thousands of pieces like that.
I guess to most, gold is gold and you simply walk around known gold areas swinging a detector and digging the occasional nugget, but for me the question of how far has it traveled, what type of gold deposit did it come from and can I follow up the source, hopefully trying to work out the bigger picture will pay off one day.
cheers Mark

AraratGold wrote:

MS wrote: Anyway it would be good to see if anyone has some pics of this salt lake gold and if anyone has had any of this gold refined what the assay results came in at.
Cheers Mark    

http://www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/small1.htm

Cheers,
Rick

I have come across this website address a couple of times and it appears to be parked with go daddy awaiting further registration. perhaps someone knows Janet? Or is there a way to find the contents on the way back machine? Cheers

Hi Waveform.

Sorry to say, Janet passed away a couple of years back.

Worth her weight in gold too. So sad.


ozgold.