Abstract
The gold concentration studied is located in lateritic soils overlying Precambrian schists of the Cuiaba Group in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The following five horizons may be recognized from bottom to top: (1) a gray-blue altered schist horizon, (2) a red argillaceous alterite, (3) a horizon characterized by iron oxihydroxide-rich pebbles and quartz fragments in an iron oxihydroxide-rich matrix and clays, (4) an iron crust, and (5) the present soil. The most significant gold content is found in the third horizon just below the iron crust. According to geological study and morphological observations of the gold particles, the gold ore mined today is the result of two combined processes, i.e., the ferrallitic alteration of quartz lodes enclosed in schists and the effect of the red argillaceous alterite which acts as an impervious structure preventing the largest gold grains from migrating downward during their mechanical concentration.
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