 This placer gold had been freed by the slow disintegration, over geological time, that freed the gold from its ore.This free gold was typically found in the cracks in the rocks found at the bottom of the gravel found in rivers or creeks, as the gold typically worked down through the gravel or collected in stream bends or bottom cracks.Some 12-million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush.