What is placer gold?

The word placer (pronounced - plas-er, not pley-ser) is a Spanish derived word
which refers to an alluvial or eluvial deposit of
gravel containing particles of valuable minerals such as gold, silver or
platinum. As such, placer gold is gold that has
weathered from the host rock where it was formed and been "placed" either on
hillside (eluvial placer), stream bed or alluvial
fan by the action of water, glaciers or other geological forces. Subjected to
millions of years of weathering, upheaval
and the action of water, lode gold tends to expose itself and erode from it's
source to naturally distribute
itself among the other rocks and earth subjected to the same forces and form a
secondary or residual deposit called a gold
placer. As time moves, so does the gold. It can be found embedded in the placer
gravels and alluvial fans as specimen gold
still attached to the host stone to some degree, gold nuggets, small flakes,
fine gold and even down to micron gold smaller
than can be seen with the naked eye.

Gold is heavy. Roughly, it is 19 times heavier than water. As such, gold
particles of any substantive size do not tend to
move far from the source. Being subject to the forces of gravity, placer gold
tends to move downward, sinking as deep as it
possibly can and following the path of least resistance. As the gold comes
into contact with rocks and water, it breaks
up slowly over time, becoming finer and finer as it moves away from the
auriferous vein or lode from which it came, eventually
depositing on a beach or even in the ocean at the foot of a river. Extremely
small particles of fine gold can travel hundreds
of miles from their primary source while the larger nuggets, specimen gold and
crystalized gold remain closer to the source,
trapped by their own weight and the features of the surrounding bedrock or
gradient property of the stream beds.

Much of the gold that existed in ancient times was derived from placer gold.
Man, since ancient times, has been mining placer
gold because of the ease with which it can be recovered. Although most of the
placer gold from ancient times and even from
later gold rushes has been melted down for jewelry or bullion, more recently
it has found it's place as a precious gemstone
and treated as something beautiful in it's own right. Placer gold nuggets are
often used to fashion gold nugget jewelry or
placed on display in museums or in private collections. Indeed, placer gold in
it's untouched form is often worth more than
the weight of the gold itself.

Specimen Gold Nugget found in a hillside placer.

What is placer gold? Specimen-gold