CARBON  LEADER  GOLD  ORE

  

Carbon Leader Gold Ore (above & below) (2.1 cm across) with gold (Au) and uraninite (UO₂) (black).  This rock is quite radioactive.

The Witwatersrand area of South Africa produces a significant percentage of the world's gold.  This is a spectacular sample of Precambrian high-grade gold ore from South Africa's Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine.  The rock is from the Carbon Leader (also known as the Carbon Leader Reef & Carbon Leader Seam), a blackened, hydrocarbon-rich stromatolitic interval richly impregnated with native gold (Au) and radioactive uraninite/pitchblende (UO₂).  This is a paleoplacer deposit, part of an ancient alluvial fan succession.

Stratigraphy & Age: Carbon Leader Member, Main Conglomerate, lower Johannesburg Subgroup, lower Central Rand Group, Witwatersrand Supergroup, lower Neoarchean, ~2.9 billion years old.

Locality: Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine, Carletonville Goldfield, West Witwatersrand ("West Wits"), South Africa. 

Carbon Leader Gold Ore

 

Carbon Leader Gold Ore

 

Carbon Leader Gold Ore

 

 

Home page