Who first discovered gold in America?
Many people in California figured gold was there, but it was James W. Marshall on January 24, 1848, who saw something shiny in Sutter Creek near Coloma, California. He had discovered gold unexpectedly while overseeing construction of a sawmill on the American River.
Currently, most US-produced gold is extracted from Nevada's large open-pit heap-leach mines. The remaining is generated from several lode mines and placer mines in Alaska and the western states.
The leading historical gold-producing district is the Boise Basin in Boise County, which was discovered in 1862 and produced 2.9 million troy ounces (90.2 tonnes), mostly from placers.
Most gold produced today in the US comes from large open-pit heap leach mines in the state of Nevada. The US is a net exporter of gold.
Tragically, while many in the Native American population knew where gold was, few valued it for anything. There were some that later found it useful to trade with settlers, but most viewed it as nothing more than a shiny piece of earth.
Most of that gold has come from just three countries: China, Australia, and South Africa. The United States ranked fourth in gold production in 2016.
Rogue River near Grants Pass, Oregon
Between 1852 and 1900 miners in Josephine county found over 1 million ounces of gold, worth almost $2 billion today!
India is a country of many wonders and unsolved mysteries! One such mystery flows through the unexplored terrains of Jharkhand, known as the Subarnarekha River. You'll be amazed to know that the river has pure gold in its water! The river flows through regions of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
If you found it (and it didn't involve trespassing), you get to keep it!
In 2021, the United States was estimated to have some 3,000 metric tons of gold reserves in mines. Thus, the U.S. was one of the leading countries based on mine reserves of gold. Australia is estimated to have the largest gold mine reserves worldwide.
What state has the most abandoned gold mines?
Since the discovery of gold in 1848, California has been plagued with the issue of abandoned mines. It is estimated that California has approximately 47,000 AML sites. Of that, 31,490 are located on Federal land.
Although iron is the most abundant metal in our body, traces of gold can be found in human body in several different places. These include brain, heart, blood, and our joints. If all the pure gold found in a human body whose weight is 70kg is collected, it can amount to 0.229 milligrams of gold.
Cosumnes River, California, USA
This swathe of land near near the Majuba Mountains is renowned for its chunky chevron-shaped gold nuggets, which are much sought after by collectors. The gold deposits are situated in soils to the west of the reservoir, so you'll have to dry pan or search with a metal detector here.
All the 4581.5 tonnes of gold in Fort Knox is entirely owned by The U.S. Department of the Treasury. Much of it is stored in standard bars measuring around 180 x 92 x 44mm each, similar to a standard house brick, and weighing 12.5kg.
Gold mines were rare in the Americas, as the precious metal was chiefly taken from rivers and streams. Yet the notion of accessibility to great riches endured, and the search for them was compulsively pursued. Rumors of gold brought Hernán Cortés and several hundred men to Mexico in 1519.
In 1828, European-Americans discovered gold in the Appalacian Mountains of Georgia. This land was part of the Cherokee Nation. Members of the Nation first discovered this gold in the early 1700s and it remained virtually untouched for 100 years.
The first person or civilization to discover gold is the Ancient Egyptians. They mined gold in Nubia around 2450 BC. An Egyptian alchemist named Zosimos was the first to find pure gold (24 centuries before Columbus reached the Americas).
Gold is a noble metal and it does not react with any other element easily to make a compound. Hence, Gold can be found naturally as the free metal. On the other hand, iron is stable after formation of oxides hence, Iron is not found naturally in the form of the free metal.
Gold is found in Archean (rocks older than 2.5 billion years) greenstone belts in Australia, southern Africa, and Canada. Greenstone belts are volcanic-sedimentary sequences, which include ultramafic rocks, dolerite, basalt, chert, sandstone, shale, tuff, banded iron-formation and other rock types.
You want to look for signs of gold like black sands, pyrite and small quartz, as these are all usually good indicators of gold being in the area. Garnets may also be present, often appearing in many shades of colors including red, orange and pink!
How deep is gold found?
Other gold mines use underground mining, where the ore is extracted through tunnels or shafts. South Africa has the world's deepest hard rock gold mine up to 3,900 metres (12,800 ft) underground. At such depths, the heat is unbearable for humans, and air conditioning is required for the safety of the workers.
Not every creek and river out there has gold. From a practical sense it would be fair to say that most of them don't have any gold, or there is so little gold that it would be a waste of time trying to find it. Taking some extra time to research good locations is time well-invested.
It was found that silt and clay contain much higher amounts of gold than does sand. Parent materials which have under- gone one cycle of soil formation seem to contain gold in the silt in the resistant metallic form.
Black sands (mostly iron) can be and usually is an indicator of gold, but not always. Rule of thumb is you will generally find black sand with gold, but not always gold with black sand.
Considered by most authorities to be the biggest gold nugget ever found, the Welcome Stranger was found at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates. It weighed gross, over 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg; 173 lb) and returned over 2,284 troy ounces (71.0 kg; 156.6 lb) net.