Glacial gold deposits involve those deposits in which ice has played a part in their formation. As in all other gold deposits, there must be to start with a belt of gold bearing rocks to be removed or the resulting mass will be barren or the gold content will be extremely low. Given such a belt of rocks there is no reason why glacial deposits should not contain gold, just as those which have been derived from aerial erosion, but we are likely to find a greater variety in the physical appearance of the gold, either smooth or angular coarse or fine, because it has been released from the containing rocks by a variety of methods.
Essentially, glaciers transport to the lower valleys, first the rocks or bowlders which are detached by frost from the exposed bluffs which form their boundary walls; and secondly, the rounded bowlders and sediment which are formed by their grinding action on the rocks over which travel. If they cross a belt of gold bearing rocks, they must discharge into the valleys the contents of these rocks, along with the remains of the rocks themselves, either in the stream which issues from their foot, or into the terminal moraine, if they terminate on land; or the contents may be widely dispersed by floating icebergs if the terminate in the water. While morainal deposits may be unsuited to mining ventures, the river deposits resulting from glaciations may be worked by machinery and equipment suitable to the retention of the excessively fine gold, which must necessarily be lost in the agitated waters of a sluice.