dredges on the river

Liberia is an equatorial nation on the West Coast of Africa where it receives 70% of its very high annual rainfall during a June through October rainy season. Liberia has hundreds of kilometers of rivers with conditions amendable to suction dredge mining.

Typical to most of the country, the gold found in Liberia originates from hydrothermal fluids rising along conjunctures of faults and shear zones producing areas rich in hydrothermal clays and iron oxides which provide the best environment for the development of coarse-grained crystalline gold. The laterite capping is of pre-fault occurrence, the events of natural erosion, folding, and fracturing has transported the capping laterite and quartz to form alluvium deposits along the base of the mountains. The quartz rock has survived the softer rock thus producing gravel bars composed of rounded and semi-rounded quartz aggregates. The gold, which is found along with the quartz, is subjected to transport by stress action and is re-deposited along the courses of the creeks and rivers.