Red Dirt and Desert Gold?

[tvanwho]

I found a COOL website that shows several color photos of Gossans including one laced with GOLD. They are large rusty iron caps produced when iron pyrites are exposed to air and water and the rusting process begins. I even found out they can catch on fire due to heat produced in the oxidation reaction. Apparently the copper mine at Jerome, Arizona had an underground fire due to this phenomenon. I also just learned from watching a Jeff Williams seminar on YouTube, that the Vulture gold mine in Arizona, was found by Henry Wickenburg  as a result of his examining a RED Iron gossan cap he found on Vulture Mountain. His samples were loaded with visible gold it seems.

 

-Tom V.

 

http://au-prospecting.blogspot.com/2013/02/gold-and-gossan.html

[Reno Chris]

And yet there are big gossans in Nevada with only tiny traces gold - they have more silver, lead and base metals.

[tvanwho]

Thanks Chris,

 

I will remember that not all gossans are rich in gold  but at least I kinda know now what a gossan looks like thanks to that websites photos. I seem to remember a copper find in central Wisconsin from around 1996 in Ladysmith, Wi. $400 million in copper ore underneath a Gossan . I think it was Kennecott that mined it under strict supervision from Wisconsin DNR who was concerned about sulfide pollution to the nearby river.and I heard rumors of a fair amount of gold  recovered as well , but never knew what the gossan thing looked like at all until now.

   I understand the word Gossan comes from the Cornish miners of the 1800's era in England?

 

-T

[tvanwho]

Chris,

 

Could a pick and shovel miner,like most of us, be able to get a good gossan sample to send in for an assay to see what minerals might lie below or in it? How deep would a person have to dig? How many samples to send in?  If you see visible gold in the red stuff or can pan it out, how do you determine the ounces per ton? But one good sample does not a gold mine make,right? I seem to remember your mentioning the nugget effect in sampling ....a few more tools for gold and mineral locating I am learning here..

Thanks.

 

-T