Gold is found when the flow of water is altered by obstacles such as rocks and logs or by the contours of watercourses, such as river curves. Gold can also be found where two rivers or streams meet. This is called the confluence zone. Gold will tend to accumulate as a wage streak in these areas, making it an attractive option for those looking to convert their 401k to a Gold IRA. You can do everything perfectly, learn to “read the river”, dig in the right place, and do a stellar job searching for gold, but if there's no gold in the areas, you'll go home empty-handed.
There are quite a few stories circulating about gold miners who were lucky enough to excavate waterfalls that contained really large amounts of gold. Gold tends to concentrate in places where the current loses speed and strength, causing gold to fall. The first type of Placer gold deposit will occur on the surface of the ground, where a gold vein emerges. Once a heavy gold nugget is stuck firmly in the bottom of a rock bed crack, a magnitude “ten” earthquake will be needed to lift the bedrock enough so that the stream current can completely eliminate the overload and eventually wear down the bedrock itself, thus releasing the gold.
Not only does gold sink deep into the gravel, but it also constantly moves downstream until it hits an obstruction. Of course, gold isn't evenly distributed throughout the river system, so it's important to understand some basic facts about gold. Gold may be trapped in the upper slope of a rock, but normally there will have to be a major fissure in the face of the rock mass to catch the gold when the current pulls it against the rock. As the elements erode the gold vein, the gold is released from its quartz matrix and descends down the hill and into the ravine; the ravine eventually pours its golden treasure into the drain of the X River.
The presence of black sand does not guarantee the presence of gold, but if you are in a stream containing gold, it is very likely that there is gold nearby.
