ABSTRACT:
The discovery and production of gold from epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the Carolina slate belt of the southern Appalachians perhaps have overshadowed the gold potential of orogenic gold deposits in relatively higher grade metamorphic terranes of the southern Appalachian Piedmont. There has been a limited amount of exploration in the non-Carolina slate belt southern Appalachians since the early 1980s. Here we describe some of the recent exploration activity and geology of gold occurrences in the most productive part of the Alabama Piedmont, including the Goldville and Devil’s Backbone districts. In this area, there is a strong geochemical association of gold and arsenic in bedrock, saprolite, and soils, which reflects the mineralogical association of gold with arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite in mineralized zones.
Stone Quarries and Sourcing in the Carolina Slate Belt