DCHP-1 Online

mother lode Placer Mining

• the rich vein or lode which has "mothered" the gold found below as float (def. 2).

  See also: float (def. 2)  

  • c1860  (1927)  After working for some time . . . they started up-stream in search of the mother-lode.
  • 1897  A theory has been advanced, that in the center of this mountain exists what is termed a "mother lode," and that the lodes appearing on either side are simply veins thrown out of the "mother."
  • 1958  Their appetites whetted for the mother lodes, the majority pressed on up the Fraser's terrifying canyons.