Sour milk mirrors how veins of gold form

A new discovery explains how gold veins form so quickly, researchers report.

Gold deposits typically form over tens to hundreds of thousands of years. But some can form in years, months, or even days.

For decades, the formation of these rare hyper-enriched gold deposits in places like Ballarat in Australia, Serra Palada in Brazil, and Red Lake in Ontario, Canada has puzzled scientists.

Studying examples of these deposits from the Brucejack Mine in northwestern British Columbia, Anthony Williams-Jones of the earth and planetary sciences department at McGill University, and PhD student Duncan McLeish, discovered that these gold deposits form much like soured milk. When milk goes sour, the butterfat particles clump together to form a jelly.

 

Here, they explain what they learned, why it’s important, and how their findings will change the mining industry:

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