Down that long, dark lode . . . he and his brother skated home in triumph.
A body of ore visibly separated from adjacent rock. (Mining)
Any regular vein or course of valuable mineral, whether metallic or not. (Mining)
A concentrated supply or source of something valuable.
Phrases & Compounds
mother lode
a large concentrated source of mineral or other valuable thing, from which lesser sources have been derived; -- often used figuratively. The term may have been originally applied to real or imagined large deposits of gold from which smaller granules were washed downstream, there constituting a diluted source of gold, and hinting at the richer source from which they were derived; as, to hit the mother lode.