From the book
A Preliminary Report on a Part of the Gold Deposits of Georgia, Issue 4, Part 1
By William Smith Yeates, Samuel Washington McCallie, Francis Plaisted KingThe first property mentioned near Suwanee is the Roberts Property. Located in the southwest corner of lot 253 in the 7th District. The propert was owned by Mr. and Mrs A.R. Roberts. It was said the prospectors who tested found the vein to be worthless but teh quartz vein rich in iron sulphide deserved some careful prospecting. His property was located a half a mile northeast of Suwanee. The adjoining lots 254 & 255 were mined for iron by a Mr. N.B. Pratt of Atlanta in the summer of 1895.
The Harris Property loaced about 1 mile northeast of Suwanee located in lot 275 in the 7th District. One method of mining the gold on this property was done by slaves and the method was called arrastre.
" Miners from Sonoran Mexico had a technique for pulverizing gold ore that required no water for the initial stages of gold processing. Called the arrastre, this system consisted of an upright axle with large spokes. Horses or mules, hooked to the outside edges of the spokes, pulled them around and around. Tied to the interior of the spokes were chunks of gold bearing quartz, which were dragged over a rocky surface and hence pulverized. After the rock was pulverized, the miners then used gold pans for final processing." from
http://www.sierrafoothillmagazine.com/goldmethods.html
Only a trace amount of gold was present. The fact that so many areas were prospected and all of the road contruction bears the question if any real searches for gold go on today or if such viens were simply overturned and paved.