What makes the potential of the Peruvian Gold Sands so great?
The Gold Sands district of northeastern Peru is the product of just the right natural ingredients for a giant alluvial ore body — feeder deposits in gold-rich mountains; a fast-moving, high-energy river system; a broad and flat, energy-dissipating, zone of deposition; and, of course, time. The feeder system for the Peruvian Gold Sands is the mountains of Peru and Ecuador – home to some of the world’s largest gold deposits (See Question 4). The other elements needed to build a Gold Sands are present as well. The high-energy waters of two gigantic rivers, the Rio Marañón and the Rio Santiago, have been at work for millions of years, slicing their way through the Andes, carving out gold-bearing sand and gravel and couriering it hundreds of miles to the Manseriche Gorge. The fast-moving water shoots through the Gorge — but then abruptly slows as it fans out onto a broad flood plain that is virtually flat for hundreds of miles. When the water exits the Gorge, it enters a GO SLOW zone. The
