Morphology and Chemistry of Placer Gold from Attappadi Valley, Southern India

We report the morphological, textural and chemical characteristics of gold grains in stream gravels from the Siruvani River in Attappadi Valley, southern India. The placer gold deposits contain both primary grains with jagged grain contours and secondary grains with smooth grain margins. The primary and secondary gold grains are also distinguished by marked contrast in microtextures with the latter displaying a range of corrosion textures including striations, etch pits and chemical corrosion cavities that coalesce to form honey-comb patterns. Some of these cavities are filled with fine clay derived from lateritic weathering front. While the primary grains are characterized by high silver content (up to 35.77 wt.%) with marginal overgrowths of high purity gold, the secondary grains show exceedingly high fineness (1000 Au/Au+Ag) levels (up to 984) with no marked compositional variation indicating selective extraction of Ag and/or reprecipitation of Au. From morphological and chemical characteristics, we propose that the high purity gold grains were not derived directly from primary sources, but underwent chemical refinement in the weathering front before they were transferred to the fluvial systems. Our findings have important implications for gold exploration in the Attappadi Valley.