Where in the earth's crust is gold found?

Question

in which part of the lithosphere is it found

Answer 1

Almost everywhere. Gold is extremely widespread, but there are few places where its concentration is high enough for it to be mined. Even sea water contains minute traces of gold.

The average crustal gold content of rocks is as follows, in parts per million; -

Crustal average  0.004

Granite              0.002

Diabase             0.005

Sea water          0.000 004 mg per liter

However gold tends to concentrate in sulphide minerals and and is often found in conglomerates. In days gone by its most important source was alluvial. When the mountains erroded away the lighter minerals were remove leaving gold concentrates behind in places like river beds.

Alluvial gold has been mined for thousands of years.

Answer 2

Mike T is correct. I would like to add further that Gold has two Metallogenic Epochs at 2.2 and 2.6 Billion Years. So you have more chances of finding gold in rocks of those ages. In fact the Archean Gold deposits are by far the major contributor of world gold production. The alluvial gold, including QPC, contribute only a minor quantity.

Another point is that gold has affinity to be associated with Arsenic, Sulphides and Tungsten minerals. So a concentration of one or more of these minerals may be a prospective domain.

Thirdly, certain rocks like ultrabasics are more common host of gold than other rocks.