The electron and hole centers in qttartz are of great significance in gold prospecting. The existence of such centers. is attributed to defects in crystals resulting from isomorphism between cations of different valences. The common hole centers in quartz include Al-O-, Ti-O- and Fe-O-, while electron centers comprise Al(3+) + M, Fe(3+) + M, Ti(3+) + M etc. Electron paramagnetic tesonance and thermoluminescence are effective methods for detecting electron and hole centers. In quartz from gold deposits, the Al-O- hole center shows positive cortelation with gold concentration. The number and intensity of peaks of the thermoluminescent cutves are obviously related to stages of gold mineralization:the curve of the early barren quartz shows nearly Symmetric pattern; that of the major stage auriferous quartz is of multimodal type; the curve of the late quartz, low in gold, is marked by unimodal--bimodal type with rather intense luminescence. The thermoluminescence of quartz is connected to certain extent with dis-tribution of orebodies: the bimodal or multimodal curve commonly indicates orebodies, whereas the unimodal curve usually marks country rocks. Vertically,the intensity of thermoluminescence tends to increase with the buried depth of the orebody. The thermoluminescence curve of auriferous quartz is usually of multimo-dal type, with. the principal peaks generally negatively skewed. The barren quartz usually has an asymmetric, gentle and unimodal type curve with weak intensity of luminescence.