Geology Lab Report: Gold Mine and Museum
William McKinnon IV
Geology Lab Report: Gold Mine and Museum
January 27th 2013
Gold is the buzzword associated with some of the most amazing human migrations during the 19th century. The first major gold rush occurred in Dahlonega, GA. This town lies in the portion of the state that is in the Appalachian gold belt and was originally discovered by Benjamin Parks in 1828. It is estimated that the total amount of gold yet to be retrieved from the Earth is 100,000 tons. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of gold and is estimated to have half of these gold resources. The United States and Brazil each have significant amounts of the world’s gold resources. Gold has various uses 10% is used in coinage or in the financial stores of governments. The remaining 12% is consumed in a wide range of other uses which include electronics, medicine, dentistry, computers, awards, pigments, guilding, and optics.
Typically gold is found in veins of quartz called reefs. These reefs are formed as a result of magma being intruded into solid rock. As the magma solidifies water and other substances separate from the magma as a result of pressure, this pressure causes fissures in the surrounding rock and allows mineral deposits to settle and form and they create veins of quartz and this allows the gold to travel though these fissures and solidify inside the quartz. Gold has an isometric crystal system and has a specific gravity of 15.5 to 19.3
Miners usually search for gold deposits in and near quartz veins. While on the lab trip we visited the Consolidated Mine in Dahlonega, GA and looked at some of the early and modern methods of discovering gold. One of these methods was panning. During the early days of the gold rush prospectors would take pans to the rivers around gold rich areas and use the weight (specific gravity) of gold to separate it from the water, sand and other mineral deposits in the rivers they were looking in. Also while at the consolidated mines we were
Geology Lab Report: Gold Mine and Museum
January 27th 2013
Gold is the buzzword associated with some of the most amazing human migrations during the 19th century. The first major gold rush occurred in Dahlonega, GA. This town lies in the portion of the state that is in the Appalachian gold belt and was originally discovered by Benjamin Parks in 1828. It is estimated that the total amount of gold yet to be retrieved from the Earth is 100,000 tons. South Africa is the world’s largest producer of gold and is estimated to have half of these gold resources. The United States and Brazil each have significant amounts of the world’s gold resources. Gold has various uses 10% is used in coinage or in the financial stores of governments. The remaining 12% is consumed in a wide range of other uses which include electronics, medicine, dentistry, computers, awards, pigments, guilding, and optics.
Typically gold is found in veins of quartz called reefs. These reefs are formed as a result of magma being intruded into solid rock. As the magma solidifies water and other substances separate from the magma as a result of pressure, this pressure causes fissures in the surrounding rock and allows mineral deposits to settle and form and they create veins of quartz and this allows the gold to travel though these fissures and solidify inside the quartz. Gold has an isometric crystal system and has a specific gravity of 15.5 to 19.3
Miners usually search for gold deposits in and near quartz veins. While on the lab trip we visited the Consolidated Mine in Dahlonega, GA and looked at some of the early and modern methods of discovering gold. One of these methods was panning. During the early days of the gold rush prospectors would take pans to the rivers around gold rich areas and use the weight (specific gravity) of gold to separate it from the water, sand and other mineral deposits in the rivers they were looking in. Also while at the consolidated mines we were