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The term probably came from a literal translation of the Spanish veta madre, a term common in old Mexican mining. Veta madre, for instance, is the name given to an 11-kilometre-long (6.8 mi) silver vein discovered in 1548 in Guanajuato, New Spain (modern-day Mexico).
Herein, where does the term Motherload come from?
Motherload does not exist in the English language. And mother lode refers to the source of gold from which small nuggets originated . The term was first used in the Californian goldfields in the 1840's.
Correspondingly, is it mother load or mother lode?
Although you may dig a load of ore out of a mother lode, the spelling “motherload” is a mistake which is probably influenced by people thinking it means something like “the mother of all loads.” A “lode” was originally a stream of water, but by analogy it became a vein of metal ore.
Lode mining is also called hard rock mining. When these lodes are disintegrated by natural erosion, such as water flowing over the rock, placer gold is the result - the deposit of loose surface soil or gravel that contains gold.