SALT n PEPPER - GOLD SPOT or NOT ?????
CRACKING the PROSPECTING Code:
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What on earth does 'look for salt n pepper to find gold' mean and how can this crazy sentence be one that thousand of prospectors have used to help them find GOLD areas ????
What are they talking about???
'Salt and Pepper': the strict definition that this is referring to are areas where there is a noticeable amount of quartz 'FLOAT',.... pieces of quartz Veining scattered all over the ground
It is common for these areas of Quartz-Veining rock fragments (white rocks - salt) to ALSO have many rocks on the surface (rock 'float') that are IRON RICH (Ironstone),.... the black rocks (pepper).
Quartz + Iron-rich rocks = Salt and Pepper
OK... but does this mean there is guaranteed gold in the ground at these spots????
..... NO,.... it definately does NOT mean that if you keep detecting long enough your going to find nuggets.
Is it a good 'starting point' to find gold??
... MAYBE,.... but there are many areas,..... thousands that have the WRONG GEOLOGY that will never have any gold deposits and no nuggets..... too many. Salt n Pepper as your only indication of what to 'look for' to find gold will unfortunatly most times produce no nuggets.
BUT,.... the MAJORITY of gold gets into rocks within Quartz Veining,... so it's only logical that if there is a lot of quartz float scattered all over the ground, then these should be a good place to look,... and that is CORRECT !!!
However, all rocks in the Goldfields have had MULTIPLE generations of faulting and deformation associated with abundant NON-GOLD BEARING Quartz-Veining.
As a general rule, MOST Quartz-Veining is NOT associated with gold which is why there is far too many areas of SALT n PEPPER that doesn't have any gold,... and to make matters worse,...
MANY of the GOLD BEARING Quartz-Veins are RICH in the iron-oxide minerals with very little quartz,.... and it is MANY of these areas that often have NO QUARTZ FLOAT on the surface.
The main message here is to not just restrict yourself to just a limited way of looking for gold areas, as this will limit the gold you will ever be able to find.
As many that have completed the Prospecting Course will know, the more ways you have to identify the different areas that have gold, the GREATER chances you will have to finding more gold.
But don't stop looking at areas with Salt n Pepper,.... these CAN have nuggets and the reverse is also very true that the gold in some areas is only where there is Salt n Pepper.