Hunting for gold in virginia

Prospecting and panning for gold in Virginia is of increasing interest to people living in the eastern part of the United States. Panning is easy to do and there is a long streak of gold deposits in Virginia. Treasure hunting with a metal detector is also very popular. Revolutionary War and Civil War battles were fought here and many caches of valuables, including gold coins and jewelry, were hidden from opposing forces. Relics from Civil War battles are frequently found by treasure hunters using metal detectors.

Virginia gold nugget in the Smithsonian Institution

Excellent specimens of gold nuggets found in Virginia are in the U.S. Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). Should you find a nugget, keep in mind that even small gold nuggets are worth far more than their weight in gold. Gem and mineral collectors, rockhounds, mineral museums and geology departments of universities seek them. Jewelers use them in making jewelry, such as pendants. Small nuggets are used to make gold earrings. Big Ten’s Virginia Gold Map shows 200 gold mines and prospecting locations from official geological records of the State of Virginia and the federal government. Gold sites are shown in these 15 counties:
Buckingham
Culpepper
Cumberland
Fairfax
Fauquier
Floyd
Fluvanna
Goochland
Halifax
Louisa
Orange
Patrick
Prince William
Spotsylvania
Stafford.

Gold Mines in Virginia

The streak of gold mines and prospecting areas in Virginia starts in Fairfax County near Washington, D.C. and trends southwest for about 140 miles. The gold mines and prospects parallel Interstate 95 just west of Dumfries and Fredericksburg and continue southwest into Buckingham County, about 25 miles east of Lynchburg. Some other gold mines and prospecting areas are further south near South Boston and in Floyd and Patrick counties.

Heavy concentrations of gold mines and prospecting sites are seen near Fredericksburg and Wilderness along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers. Another large group of mines and prospects occurs along the Fluvanna / Goochland county line.

Virginia Gold Mining History

Historical information herein is from documents written by geologist Palmer C. Sweet of the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources.

Placer gold mining started in Virginia about 1804. Lode gold mining quickly followed. The only known reference to gold in the southern Appalachians published in the 18th century appears in Thomas Jefferson’s notes on Virginia wherein he described a piece of ore, found in 1782 on the bank of the Rappahannock River, that yielded 17 pennyweight of gold. Gold from Virginia and South Carolina was sent to the mint in 1829 and from Georgia in 1830.

A U.S. Geological Survey document, in referring to the southern Appalachian region, states that a real boom was under way and, press reports of the period contain such headlines as "Number of gold mines increasing daily," "Farmers find gold in every hill," "Moneyed men from every quarter of the Union purchasing land at extravagant prices," "Mills are building," "Mine produces 160 pounds of pure metal in one week," "Gold digging amounts to mania."

Applications

As the metal

Medium of monetary exchange

In various countries, gold is used as a standard for monetary exchange, in coinage and in jewelry. Pure gold is too soft for ordinary use and is typically hardened by alloying with copper or other base metals. The gold content of gold alloys is measured in carats (k), pure gold being designated as 24k.

Gold coins intended for circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called crown gold, for hardness. Modern collector/investment bullion coins (which do not require good mechanical wear properties) are typically 24k, although the American Gold Eagle and British gold sovereign continue to be made at 22k, on historical tradition. The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin contains the highest purity gold of any popular bullion coin, at 99.999% (.99999 fine). Several other 99.99% pure gold coins are currently available, including Australia's Gold Kangaroos (first appearing in 1986 as the Australian Gold Nugget, with the kangaroo theme appearing in 1989), the several coins of the Australian Lunar Calendar series, and the Austrian Philharmonic. In 2006, the U.S. Mint began production of the American Buffalo gold bullion coin also at 99.99% purity.

Today, gold has fallen out of use in coins made for general circulation.

Jewelry

Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties. Alloys with lower "k", typically 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher percentages of copper, silver or other base metals in the alloy. Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder metal. Eighteen carat gold containing 25% copper is found in antique and Russian jewelry and has a distinct, though not dominant, copper cast, creating rose gold. Fourteen carat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminum, although rarely done except in specialized jewelry. Blue gold is more brittle and therefore more difficult to work with when making jewelry. Fourteen and eighteen carat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. White gold alloys can be made with palladium or nickel. White 18 carat gold containing 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and 2.2% copper is silver in appearance. Nickel is toxic, however, and its release from nickel white gold is controlled by legislation in Europe. Alternative white gold alloys are available based on palladium, silver and other white metals (World Gold Council), but the palladium alloys are more expensive than those using nickel. High-carat white gold alloys are far more resistant to corrosion than are either pure silver or sterling silver. The Japanese craft of Mokume-gane exploits the colour contrasts between laminated colored gold alloys to produce decorative wood-grain effects.

Characteristics

Gold is the most malleable and ductile metal; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of one square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red.

Gold readily forms alloys with many other metals. These alloys can be produced to increase the hardness or to create exotic colors . Native gold contains usually eight to ten percent silver, but often much more — alloys with a silver content over 20% are called electrum. As the amount of silver increases, the color becomes whiter and the specific gravity becomes lower.

Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity, and is not affected by air and most reagents. Heat, moisture, oxygen, and most corrosive agents have very little chemical effect on gold, making it well-suited for use in coins and jewelry; conversely, halogens will chemically alter gold, and aqua regia dissolves it via formation of the chloraurate ion.

Common oxidation states of gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3 (gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reduced and precipitated out as gold metal by adding any other metal as the reducing agent. The added metal is oxidized and dissolves allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recovered as a solid precipitate.

Recent research undertaken by Sir Frank Reith of the Australian National University shows that microbes play an important role in forming gold deposits, transporting and precipitating gold to form grains and nuggets that collect in alluvial deposits.

High quality pure metallic gold is tasteless, in keeping with its resistance to corrosion (it is metal ions which confer taste to metals).

In addition, gold is very dense, a cubic meter weighing 19300 kg. By comparison, the density of lead is 11340 kg/m³, and the densest element, Iridium, is 22650 kg/m³.

Colour of gold

The usual gray colour of metals depends on their "electron sea" that is capable to absorb and re-emit photons over a wide range of frequences. Gold behaves differently, depending on subtle relativistic effects that affect the orbitals around gold atoms.