Native gold is a precious element, but the small quantity is widely distributed in nature. The occurrence of gold often associates with the small amount of copper, bismuth, lead, tin, and zinc.

　　Hydrothermal veins with gold are the quartz deposit. Gold is often found with dacite, granite, crystalline schist ,sandstone or Breccia. Gold-copper deposit of Chin-Kua-Shih, Taipei falls into the category of mild growing hydrothermal veins; in the past, it had the largest production in the Far East area and one of the important gold mining areas.

　　Gold deposit or minerals after weathering is likely to be disintegrated into sand and washed down to the river bed. Because of high specific gravity, gold is accumulated as placer deposits. Gold washing used to be found in Keelung River in Taipei and Liwu River in Hualien.