How much gold is in my backyard?

[SLD]

I don’t live anywhere special. Just in the foothills of the Appalachians. Iron ore was mined in our neighborhood decades ago. But probably stopped around 1900.

But my backyard does slope down to a creek. Gold has been mined before in Alabama. But I don’t think there are any operating mines left.

So what’s the probability of finding gold in my backyard? Maybe panning in the creek?

unfortunately, I don’t own the mineral rights.

 

[steve_bank]

TV show Yukon gold. Go west young man.

Yukon Gold (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are places out west where you can pan for gold. See if there is a state geological-mineral survey.

There is always te Lost Dutchman Mine.

Gold fever.

Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine (also known by similar names) is, according to legend, a rich gold mine hidden in the southwestern United States. The location is generally believed to be in the Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction, east of Phoenix, Arizona. There have been many stories about how to find the mine, and each year people search for the mine. Some have died on the search.

The mine is named after German immigrant Jakob Waltz (c. 1810–1891), who purportedly discovered it in the 19th century and kept its location a secret. "Dutchman" was a common American term for a German ("Dutch" being the English cognate to the German demonym "Deutsch", and not a reference to the Dutch people).[1]

 

[Elixir]

If you can locate an ancient creek or river bed and dig down to gravel, it’s likely that you could turn up a tiny flake or two of color. Anywhere volcanic uplift has eroded away, there will be at least trace amounts of heavy metals including gold.
In AL there are a number of areas where it is concentrated enough to have been at least marginally profitable:

• Hog Mountain District. Hog Mountains was one of Alabama's most important mining areas in regards to total gold production. ...
• Blue Creek. ...
• Chestnut Creek. ...
• Gold Ridge. ...
• Chulafinnee District. ...
• Weogufka Creek. ...
• Coosa River. ...
• Rocky Creek.

 

[Swammerdami]

So what’s the probability of finding gold in my backyard?

There's almost certainly SOME gold (at least a few atoms) in your backyard. As for "finding" it, simply hold up a handful of dirt and say "I've found a bit of gold!"

One study found there is only about one gram of gold for every 100 million metric tons of ocean water in the Atlantic and north Pacific.

So a whopping 10^-14 of the ocean is gold, by weight! Avogadro's number is about 6*10^23; the atomic weight of gold is about 197

10^-14 * 6*10^23 / 197 = 30456853. There are about 30 million atoms of gold in each gram of well-mixed sea water, if my arithmetic is correct.

Congratulations! Too bad you don't have the mineral rights.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I don’t live anywhere special. Just in the foothills of the Appalachians. Iron ore was mined in our neighborhood decades ago. But probably stopped around 1900.

But my backyard does slope down to a creek. Gold has been mined before in Alabama. But I don’t think there are any operating mines left.

So what’s the probability of finding gold in my backyard? Maybe panning in the creek?

unfortunately, I don’t own the mineral rights.

There's gold. The question is whether it's concentrated enough to be feasible to extract.

 

[lpetrich]

 Abundances of the elements (data page) - I checked on gold: Au

• In the Earth's continental crust: (2 - 4) * 10^-9 mass fraction
• In seawater: (4 - 11) * 10^-12 mass fraction
• In the Sun and the Solar System: (1 - 1.5) * 10^-9 mass fraction

Relative to silicon:

• In the Earth's continental crust: (0.5 - 1.5) * 10^-8 mass relative to silicon
• In the Sun and the Solar System: (1.3 - 2.1) * 10^-6 mass relative to silicon

 

[lpetrich]

Gold in Meteorites and in the Earth's Crust

The reported gold contents of meteorites range from 0.0003 to 8.74 parts per million. Gold is siderophilic, and the greatest amounts in meteorites are in the iron phases.

Estimates of the gold content of the earth's crust are in the range of 0.001 to 0.006 parts per million.

 

[Tigers!]

TV show Yukon gold. Go west young man.

Yukon Gold (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are places out west where you can pan for gold. See if there is a state geological-mineral survey.

There is always te Lost Dutchman Mine.

Gold fever.

Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine (also known by similar names) is, according to legend, a rich gold mine hidden in the southwestern United States. The location is generally believed to be in the Superstition Mountains, near Apache Junction, east of Phoenix, Arizona. There have been many stories about how to find the mine, and each year people search for the mine. Some have died on the search.

The mine is named after German immigrant Jakob Waltz (c. 1810–1891), who purportedly discovered it in the 19th century and kept its location a secret. "Dutchman" was a common American term for a German ("Dutch" being the English cognate to the German demonym "Deutsch", and not a reference to the Dutch people).[1]

The Australian equivalent is called Lasseter's Reef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasseter's_Reef