Mother lode
Principal vein of gold or silver ore / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Mother lode (disambiguation).
Mother lode is a principal vein or zone of gold or silver ore. The term is also used colloquially to refer to the real or imaginary origin of something valuable or in great abundance.
(Left) Two water-worn gold nuggets from Tuolumne County. They are typical of larger nuggets found by the early California gold rush placer miners (each ~1.6 x 1.1 x 0.3 cm). (Right) Crystalline gold specimen from the California Mother Lode, probably from Tuolumne County (5.3 x 2.7 x 2.4 cm).
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/USGS_map_of_the_Mother_Lode_belt_in_California.jpg/640px-USGS_map_of_the_Mother_Lode_belt_in_California.jpg)