You are well advised if you are first contact your instructor and senior geologist at your institute.

 Dear Mr. Salami,

I have been working for several years on heavy minerals analysis and placer deposits, including the commodity which you mentioned in your question. 

Placer deposits are dealt with in its best by those research workers who have a good knowledge and experience in mineralogy, sedimentology and geomorphology. Field work is mandatory. There are options to use various advanced methods of age dating from OSL to U/Pb dating or trace element analysis of special mineral species for provenance analysis.

It strongly depends on the area you are working and the type of mineral deposits and lithologies you might expect in the catchment area of the drainage system.

I refer to studies of mine which address these issues in more detail and which will give you an overview of this topic:

DILL H.G. , KHISHIGSUREN S., MAJIGSUREN Yo. BULGAMAA J., HONGOR O. and HOFMEISTER, W. (2004) The diamondiferous peridote (olivine)-garnet deposit Shavryn Tsaram, Central Mongolia, with special reference to its placer deposits.- Gemmologie, 53: 87-104.

DILL, H.G., MELCHER, F., FUESSL, M. and  WEBER, B. (2006) Accessory minerals in cassiterite: A tool for provenance and environmental analyses of colluvial-fluvial placer deposits (NE Bavaria, Germany).- Sedimentary Geology, 191: 171-189.

DILL, H.G. (2007) Grain morphology of heavy minerals from marine and continental placer deposits, with special reference to Fe -Ti oxides.- Sedimentary Geology, 198: 1-27

DILL H.G., MELCHER, F, FUESSL, M. and WEBER, B. (2007) The origin of rutile-ilmenite aggregates (“ nigrine ”) in alluvial-fluvial placers of the Hagendorf pegmatite province, NE Bavaria, Germany.- Mineralogy and Petrology, 89: 133-158

DILL, H.G. and LUDWIG, R.-R. (2008) Geomorphological-sedimentological studies of  landform types and modern placer deposits in the savanna (Southern Malawi).-Ore Geology Review , 33: 411-434.

. DILL, H.G. (2008) Geogene and anthropogenic controls on the mineralogy and geochemistry of modern alluvial-(fluvial) gold placer deposits in man-made landscapes in  France,Switzerland and Germany.-  Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 99: 29-60.

DILL, H.G., KLOSA, D. and  STEYER, G. (2009) The „ Donauplatin “: Source rock analysis and origin  of a distal fluvial Au-PGE (gold-platinum-group-element) placer in Central Europe.- Mineralogy and Petrology, 96: 141-161.

It is a selection of papers which you can download from the RG server. If you need some which are not available from the server let me know this.

I hope they will give you a quick insight into the topic and help you take a decision.

Best regards

H.G.Dill

Contact your suoervisior or find a gold company. good luck

I think it will be an exciting topic for you to work on. Certainly very original. Armed with the references suggested above and background information you will carry on your research to see what the outcome might be: you may find little gold, but your research work -following your supervisor's instructions- might be worth "gold" -especially if others follow your example in the same or other area.

Dear Pouria,

This is undoubtedly a very good topic for theses. But you do not specify what the concrete topic in the context bearing you want to deal with. Therefore, my answer can be only  general. Of course  it requires cooperation with geologists working on the deposit,, knowledge of the regional geology of the region, focusing on occurences  of mineralization (not only in secondary aureola), geochemistry  of heavy metals in stream sediments and geomorphology, taking into account hydrological conditions (present and in the past) of the locality. Moreover you can not to forget at the methods for assesment of placer thickness what requests proper geophysical methods utilization.

A lot of courage wishing

Ludo Kucharič

I think that a niche that you may want to consider is gaining expertise in shallow seismic refraction surveying.  This is a comparatively cheap and fast way to determine the channel geometry of a particular placer deposit.  Here is a recent paper of ours that summarizes the technique, albeit in a different geologic setting.  The principles are the same and the skill is very transferable.  I know many private consultants in industry who have a particular geophysical skill that are paid well for their services.

Hartz, M.A., Malone, D.H., and Nelson, R.S., 2016, Three-Dimensional Modeling of a Glacial Valley Train Outwash Deposit Using Two-Dimensional Seismic Refraction Techniques: Geosciences, v. 6,9 p. 1-15.

Dear Selami,

I saw very useful and detailed suggestions above, especially about the necessity of geophysical investigations. Primary ore deposits follows the primary deposition rules and precise methodologies are exist to exploration of them. Unfortunately, placer deposits have their own rules and they are depending to the existence of the primary ore somewhere, includes native gold grains. These deposits obviously are primary target for gold production becouse they are allready concentrated by the natural processes and no need to build an additional investment like building a concentration  plant. But you need to investigate the environmental geological conditions very carefully and find out the geological conditions of the primary gold occurrences. Afterwards, these kind of deposits needs long periods to be evaluate an concentrated placer, so you have to focus on the paleoplacers. And these kind of deposits may revorked and build another sedimentary deposits. That is why, I am agree with the suggestions of Dr. Dill: if you decide to work on these deposits, you have to venture a sophisticated work. Good Luck.   

Dear  Mr. Salami

This is undoubtedly a very good topic for your theses. But first of all you have to to investigate for gold in source rocks in your studied area.

Good luck 

I will be unpopular with many of the people above for saying this, but what is your purpose?  Gold placers can be interesting and I consult in them and have published on them.

Hughes MJ, Phillips GN, and Carey SP, 2004, Giant placers of the Victorian gold province, SEG Newsletter no 56, p 1, 11-18.

However the large gold placer deposits of the world were features of gold rushes in centuries and decades past, when there were less environmental controls, so it will not necessarily give you useful expertise for the future for a career in industry. It also might have limited potential in academia (it would have limited academic potential here at least, I don't know about in Iran). So even a study of a large and important deposit might have longer-term limitations. Concealed gold placers are receiving some attention again in Australia at present in some less environmentally-sensitive areas (but nevertheless might only have importance for a decade or two). If you are keen on placers, heavy mineral sands (Ti-Zr-REE) are currently of significance world-wide. This is just an alternative point of view for you to consider....