Millions of years later...

        We’ve been here before, explaining a lode claim versus a placer claim, but we continue to get questions about what is lode, what is placer?

        Lode (pronounced load) gold, or primary gold, is gold still in place in the host rock.  Take a look at this rock… if a ton of it were crushed, there could be ¼ ounce of minute pieces of gold.  That’s what mining companies go after; they crush tons and tons of ore to create ounces of gold. 

        Nature does the same thing, it just takes millions of years!  The same host rock in a primary vein eroded out through a million years or so and was deposited in the Cmabrian sea, and thus became cemented gravel which concentrated the gold.  Another few million years pass and this cement ore decomposes and becomes high bench gravels. Some of these gravels erode and concentrate again as mid-level gravel benches. Further erosion brings them to the creeks, where they concentrate again in today’s modern streams.

        Therefore, gold concentrates can be found in high bench gravel, mid-level bench gravel, and the creek. Examples of all can be seen in the Black Hills… if you’re walking down a Forest Service road and the road gravel is well-rounded, not crushed limestone, those might be native gravel benches.

A nugget, obviously, would have come from quartz and/or schist, Pre-cambrian primary veins of visible gold.  This is probably a more recent event; the rock is more intact and erosion breaks it open to release larger pieces of gold.

You can judge the distance to the source somewhat by the characteristics of gold flakes or nuggets.  The “rougher” the nugget, the closer to the lode. The longer distance it travels, it becomes rounded and bears the color and characteristics of the gravels which surround it. 

Happy gold hunting, and don’t overlook gravels where it seems gravels shouldn’t be!

            Speaking of gravels, high bench and mid-level, we just staked a new claim which I of course had to be harangued about from a phone call… you’re claim jumping!  It is a simple matter of a location certificate stating one section staked in another section, plus numerous other “errors” which don’t add up in any situation! There is a “good faith” clause, but there’s way too much misinformation to give the benefit of doubt.  Even if the claim was valid on that property, a failure to file an Affidavit of Assessment in the year following location resulted in a closed claim. We feel it was a fraudulent attempt to claim ground without paying the piper (BLM) and we feel strongly that at least a good faith effort must be made!

We were nice enough to leave a good-sized parcel unclaimed… do you suppose they’ll follow up and pay the fees to file now?