Georgia Gold Belt

The largest quantities of gold found in the eastern United States were found in the Georgia Gold Belt, extending from eastern Alabama to Rabun County, Georgia.

The biggest concentration of gold was found in White, Lumpkin, and northern Cherokee counties in Georgia.

Most of the gold was found in eroded rock (saprolite) and mixed in with quartz.

The most profitable veins, in the Dahlonega District, occur in the contact zone between mica-schists and granite or diorite.

The historic cities of Auraria and Dahlonega were the primary beneficiaries of the gold discovery, and a branch mint of the United States Mint was operated in Dahlonega until 1861.

Georgia Gold Belt showing, southwest to northeast, the Sixes, Franklin, Strickland, Kin Mori, Barlow, Wells, Findley, Loud, Smith, and Moore Gold mines. Gold-quartz veins are found in the schists and gneiss . [ 1 ] : 19, 27, 48
Gold veinlets (they appear white) in a sample of gneiss from the Battle Branch Mine in Lumpkin County