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