Click here to view [url=http://www.mindat.org/msgboard-73.html][b]Best Minerals G[/b][/url] and here for [url=http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?tab=65][b]Best Minerals A to Z[/b][/url] and here for [url=http://www.mindat.org/mesg-63-159134.html][b]Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles[/b].[/url] Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities? After each set of pictures there should be some descriptive text. If none appears it means that we need someone to tell us about the specimens from that locality and something about the geology of the occurrence. [b][url=http://www.mindat.org/min-1720.html]Gold[/url][/b] [b]Au isometric[/b] [pic id=241678 width=850 float=left]Ground Hog Mine, Battle Mountain, Gilman District, Eagle Co., Colorado, USA ~12cm wide[/pic] Of all the native metals found on earth, Gold is probably been the most universally sought after, valued and cherished. It has been used as a store of value in bars and coins and jewelry since the dawn of civilization. It occurs sparingly in most places and where it does occur in modest abundance, men have moved heaven and earth to go to those places and their pursuit of it has changed the course of history. Some think that it was the gold from Africa, brought to Europe from Mali and Bekino Faso in Africa by Arab traders that remonetized the economy of Europe and made the Renaissance possible. It drew the conquistadors to the New World and again changed the course of history. Gold is commonly found in tiny flakes in some alluvial gravels. A few gravels produce larger flakes than others, and sometimes it is found in nuggets of considerable size, some many pounds each. Alluvial gold found in gravel or in rocks that were at one time alluvial before their consolidation probably counts for about 75% of all gold produced. Mindat lists more than 18 (2009) thousand localities for gold and probably the majority of them are for alluvial flakes and nuggets and there are probably at least as many more that are not listed or yet undiscovered. Mineral collectors are usually not all that interested in alluvial gold unless the nuggets are of an interesting or attractive shape. But even the most jaded collector will find themselves appreciative when they heft a nugget weighing several pounds in their hand. Gold nuggets never sell for much of a premium over their gold value, and a dealers will consider themselves lucky if they can buy nuggets for spot value and sell them at a 50% mark up. Very attractive nuggets may bring twice their gold value. Small nuggets of a size suitable for their use in Jewelry will often sell for double their gold value. Natural gold, flakes and nuggets always contain other metals mixed in. This is most times silver and copper, and the purity of the alluvial gold will range in purity from about 60% upward in rare cases to about 95% and even more. The further the gold has traveled from its source the higher the gold content becomes. The silver, copper and other admixed elements are mostly removed by chemical processes that take place in the ground as the gold moves away from its source. The kind of gold that collectors love in cherish is "specimen gold" and by that I mean leaves and wires of gold and especially specimens showing well formed gold crystals. This kind of gold will bring up to ten times the price of gold per ounce and in some cases much more. But well formed gold crystals are not easy to come by. Most of this kind of gold is not found in alluvial deposits, because gold is very soft, and the act of rolling around in alluvial deposits with other rocks quickly batters and rounds the specimens into nuggets and flakes. So gold crystals must grow in "pockets" in the rocks in which they are formed, so in most cases, good gold specimens (wires, leaves and crystals) must be taken from the "living rock" or very close to where it has weathered out of those rocks. Gold is chemically very inert and survives in the earth much longer than most other native elements like copper, silver and iron. To dissolve gold chemically you need a chemical reagent called aqua regia which is a nasty mixture of concentrated nitric and hydrochloric acids. A great many gold specimens are associated with quartz and when mined it is frequently found growing through and completely, intimately surrounding the the gold. The amount of gold in such rocks can be so low that you can't even see the gold or so rich that the majority of the gold/quartz rock is comprised of gold. Miners often call this rich ore "picture rock". Many times the value of these rich specimens can be further improved by removing some or all of the Quartz so that the gold becomes more prominent. About the only way to achieve this and not deform the gold further, is to etch the quartz away with hydrofluric acid. This is a dangerous toxic acid, and you don't want to use it without some training and safety equipment. After this treatment, the surface of the quartz looks rather white and sugary and not at all like the original texture of the original natural quartz. This effect can be mitigated by removing as much as possible this sugary coating by mechanical means like an air scribe (tiny hand held jack hammer) and exposing the unetched quartz below. When gold is found, the people who find it are as secretive as possible about where they find it. When asked where the gold came, almost always the finder of the gold will give a false locality and not a correct one. So often finding the true locality of a gold specimen is difficult and many times impossible. Finding a good locality for unlabeled gold specimens is like trying to locate a moonshiners still. When a well known gold mine produces a lot of rich gold specimens, it is a real head ache for the management. This is because many miners will try and steal these rich specimens for personal gain. Sometimes they may sell them, but if they do, they will never be sold with the correct locality. Gold mining companies would much rather run a gold mine with large but low grade ore reserves where eye visible gold is rarely seen. Books have been written about the eternal cat and mouse games between ingenious highgrading miners miners and and the mining companies doing what ever they can to prevent theft. Other books have been written about unethical mine promoters who "salt" worthless gold mines to make them look like valuable properties to foolish investors. One of the classical ways of doing this is to load shotgun shells with flakes of gold and blast them into the walls of mine workings. When buying gold, the buyer must consider the potential for fraud. Large gold nuggets can be easily faked and or adulterated and what is offered for sale may be mostly lead or heavily diluted with silver and copper. Making nuggets just takes a melting pot and a tumbler with rocks in it to make the nuggets look real. On several occasions wonderful gold crystals have been offered for sale but when ex-rayed it was found that they were not crystals of gold, but had been cast after pyrite crystals or hand made models. The casting of gold into almost any shape is a simple technology that has been know for hundreds of years. Also of some concern are Gold crystals that have been grown electrolytically in tanks. I have seen several fabulous looking specimens of big blocky gold crystals that were grown electrolytically. I suspect that such gold crystals would be of a suspiciously very high purity if tested. When I buy gold specimens I like to see the specimens associated with other minerals or at least from a well known mine that is known to be producing specimens of a known character. The gold localities talked about here and the specimens used to illustrate them are really only the tip of an iceberg. Probably no other mineral is hoarded and secreted as much as gold. Those who have it really don't want others to know that they have it because it invites envy and burglary. For every specimen shown here there are in many instances hundreds of better ones in hiding. As dazzling as you might think these specimens are, you would be blinded by the others if they all came out of hiding. Gold is universally bought and sold in troy ounces. One troy oz.= ~31.103 grams. When possible and known I have listed the weight of the the large gold specimens in troy ounces in the captions below their images. [Rock Currier 2009] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Afghanistan[/b] [b]Ghazni (Gazni) Province, Zarkashan gold deposit[/b] [pic id=185603 width=400 float=left]Gold with Malachite 2.9cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]New South Wales[/b] [pic id=241505 width=400 float=left]Gold ~5cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]New South Wales, Tongowoko Co., Tibooburra[/b] [pic id=22810 width=400 float=left]Gold, 5cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]New South Wales, Wellington Co., Ophir[/b] [pic id=174133 width=400 float=left]Gold nuggets, largest is 2.4cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Queensland[/b] [pic id=167052 width=400 float=left]Gold ~14cm wide 35oz[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Queensland, Gympie Region, Eldorado Mine[/b] [pic id=57045 width=400 float=left]Gold in & on Quartz, 2.3cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]South Australia, Mt. Lofty Ranges, South Mt Lofty Ranges, Montacute, Victoria Gold Mine[/b] [pic id=76700 width=400 float=left]Gold on Quartz, 4.8cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Tasmania, Corinna-Savage River district, Long Plains goldfield[/b] [pic id=202577 width=400 float=left]Gold, 1.5cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Victoria, Ballarat[/b] [pic id=233202 width=385 float=left]Gold, FOV 10cm[/pic] [pic id=241503 width=433 float=center]Gold in Quartz ~7cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Victoria, Bendigo[/b] [pic id=34554 width=357 float=left]Gold in Quartz ~5.2cm across[/pic] [pic id=34559 width=450 float=center]Gold, 2.8cm wide[/pic] [pic id=34571 width=400 float=left]Gold, 9cm wide[/pic] [pic id=34562 width=400 float=center]Gold 7.5cm wide, 2.5oz[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Victoria, Moliagul, Black Lead[/b] [pic id=96158 width=800 float=left]Model of Welcome Home Stranger nugget. ~60cm wide, 2520oz (71kg).~90%pure gold[/pic] The Welcome Home Stranger nugget, found in 1869 by a Cornish miner, John Deason near the base of a stringybark tree. It is thought to be the largest mass of alluvial gold ever found. [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Victoria, Mt. Ivor[/b] [pic id=104669 width=400 float=left]Gold, 11 cm tall ~23oz.[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Victoria, Wedderburn[/b] [pic id=154035 width=450 float=left]Gold 11cm, ~27oz, 90% pure[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Cue, Gold Crown Gold Mine[/b] [pic id=219162 width=400 float=left]Gold on Quartz, 1cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Cue, Meekatharra[/b] [pic id=117509 width=400 float=left]Gold on Quartz, 2.1cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Goldfields-Esperance region, Leonora Shire, Yandal greenstone belt, Bronzewing goldfield, Bronzewing Mine[/b] [pic id=69476 width=400 float=left]4.1cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Kalgoorlie-Boulder City, Kalgoorlie, Salt Lake City[/b] [pic id=143560 width=400 float=left]Gold in Quartz, 5cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Kalgoorlie, Golden Mile Mines[/b] [pic id=55836 width=380 float=left]Gold & Quartz, 3.6cm tall[/pic] [pic id=160451 width=440 float=center]3.5cm tall[/pic] [pic id=160490 width=380 float=left]Gold & Quartz, 3.4 cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Kalgoorlie, Golden Mile Mines, Fimiston Open Pit Mine (Super Pit)[/b] [pic id=238549 width=400 float=left]Gold, 9.7cm wide, ~26oz.[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Australia[/b] [b]Western Australia, Laverton Shire, Leonora[/b] [pic id=173643 width=400 float=left]Gold, 15.2cm wide, ~16.4oz[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Austria[/b] [b]Salzburg, Hohe Tauern Mts, Rauris valley, Hüttwinkl valley, Alteck Mt. - Hoher Sonnblick Mt. area, Kolm-Saigurn, Rauriser Goldberg[/b] [pic id=154768 width=400 float=left]Gold v. electrum & Albite, FOV 8mm[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Bolivia[/b] [b]La Paz Department, Larecaja Province, Tipuani, Tipuani alluvials[/b] [pic id=216921 width=400 float=left]Gold, 1.7cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Bolivia[/b] [b]La Paz Department, Murillo Province, La Paz City, Chuquiaguillo River[/b] [pic id=34563 width=400 float=left]Gold, 4cm tall, 81 grams[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Brazil[/b] [b]Central-West Region, Mato Grosso, Alta Floresta[/b] [pic id=104100 width=400 float=left]Gold crystal, 2.6cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Brazil[/b] [b]North Region, Pará, Carajás mineral province, Curionópolis, Serra Pelada Min[/b]e [pic id=70386 width=400 float=left]Gold, 4.3cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Brazil[/b] [b]Northeast Region, Bahia[/b] [pic id=226221 width=400 float=left]Gold, 3.1cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Brazil[/b] [b]Southeast Region, Minas Gerais, Nova Lima, Morro Velho mine[/b] [pic id=229718 width=400 float=left]Gold, 1.4cm wide[/pic] This is a gold mine that has been in operation for more than hundred years and its underground workings extend down 3000 meters. It has produced many tons of gold. It has produces some spectacular gold specimens, but the little example above is one one of them. The mine is better known to collectors for the beautiful specimens of pink Apatite, Siderite, Quartz and red Scheelite crystals that is sometimes produces. [Rock Currier 2009] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]British Colombia[/b] [pic id=241508 width=400 float=left]Gold crystals ~4cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]British Colombia, Atlin Mining Division, Tagish Lake, Engineer Mine[/b] [pic id=19674 width=400 float=left]Gold v. electrum, 2.5cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]British Columbia, Cariboo Mining Division, Barkerville area, Williams Creek (Wyoming Hydraulic Mine; Stouts Gulch; Emery Gulch)[/b] [pic id=34552 width=400 float=left]Gold ~4cm tall, 35gms[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] Canada [b]Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland, Baie Verte Peninsula, Betts Cove, Nugget Pond Mine[/b] [pic id=70738 width=420 float=left]Gold, 2.2cm tall[/pic] [pic id=71123width=403 float=center]Gold, 2.7cm tall[/pic] [pic id=226415 width=450 float=left]Gold & Microcline, 1.7cm tall[/pic] [pic id=181689 width=347 float=center]Gold, 1.7cm tall[/pic] Richmont Mines of Montreal owned this property with a wonderful mill that had locks and security guards. However, right beside the mill was the wide open mine with not even a door. They found one guy with a meter sized gold boulder having a hard time taking it out of the mine in a wheel barrow!!! It is a real tragedy that the shareholders of Richmont never knew what they had and never knew the value that the management destroyed. This was a spectacular crystallised gold deposit in very distinctive matrix with pink feldspars. You could recognize this matrix from across the room. The gold ranged from spongey, to leafy, to well crystallized. Sadly very little has survived. Around the turn of the century there was a court case where 15 stood accused of theft. Only a few of the miners were convicted. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of prerpared specimens were siezed and went to the crusher. A few large good specimens escaped to Europe. The Canadian federal police (RCMP) showed up in Tucson shortly after the trial and accosted and questioned Canadians about these golds. A couple of years ago I was looking for a good Nugget Pond specimen and the reply to my enquiries was, "The last time I was asked about this, it was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police!" [Rob Woodside, 2009] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Nova Scotia[/b] [pic id=241506 width=410 float=left]Gold in Quartz ~5cm tall[/pic] [pic id=69041 width=380 float=center]Gold in Quartz, 3.5cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Ontario, Algoma District, Missinabi, Renabie Mine[/b] [pic id=119585 width=400 float=left]Gold, 1.1cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Ontario, Cochrane District, Porcupine area, McIntyre Mine (Pamour Mine)[/b] [pic id=10883 width=400 float=left]Gold in Quartz, 6 cm wide[/pic] During the 1980's Pamour Mines had a specimen preparation team who picked the quartz away from the gold, estimated the bullion value, and sold the specimens in lots at twice bullion. Hundreds of specimens were prepared but at $200 per ounce for bullion many were sent to the crusher and after a year or two the operation, but not the mine, ceased production. The gold was emplaced in quartz veins in greenstone. Most of this Northwern Ontario Gold deposited as crystralized gold similar to the California motherload material. However, over a billion years of tectonic activity largely obliterated the crystals. Rarely one can find small surviving octahedrons and twinned crystals. [Bob Woodside, 2009] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Ontario, Cochrane District, Timmins, Timmons Gold Mine[/b] [pic id=39499 width=400 float=left]Gold crystals, 2.4cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Ontario, Kenora District, Red Lake Gold District, Balmertown, Red Lake Mine (Goldcorp Mine; Arthur White Mine)[/b] [pic id=190785 width=322 float=left]Gold, 3.1cm wide[/pic] [pic id=166236 width=481 float=center]Gold, 14cm center[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Ontario, Kenora District, Red Lake Gold District, McKenzie Island, McKenzie Mine (McKenzie Red Lake Mine)[/b] [pic id=52622 width=405 float=left]Gold in Quartz, 5cm wide[/pic][pic id=22816 width=390 float=center]Gold, 5cm tall[/pic] [pic id=172376 width=405 float=left]Gold in matrix, 7.1cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Québec, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, La Vallée-de-l'Or, Val d'Or, Sigma mine (Sigma No. 1 mine)[/b] [pic id=81335 width=450 float=left]Gold in Quartz/Tourmaline, 4.5cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Canada[/b] [b]Yukon Territory, Dawson Mining District[/b] [pic id=180848 width=370 float=left]Gold, 1.9cm tall[/pic] [pic id=180850 width=445 float=center]Rough Gold crystal, 1cm tall[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Chile[/b] [b]Antofagasta Region, Tocopilla Province, Sierra Gorda District, Caracoles, La Compañia Mine[/b] [pic id=49866 width=400 float=left]A 1mm flake of Gold with Boleite[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Chile[/b] [b]Coquimbo Region, Elqui Province, Andacollo, Andacollo Mine[/b] [pic id=219116 width=340 float=left]Copper and Gold, 2.7cm tall[/pic] [pic id=219117 width=475 float=center]Close up of picture to the left.[/pic] The gold on this copper specimen is in the form of tiny crystals growing on the copper crystals which you can see is you look carefully. [b]Gold[/b] [b]China[/b] [b]China[/b] [b]Sichuan Province[/b] [pic id=81456 width=400 float=left]Gold, 2.7cm wide[/pic] [pic id=107793 width=400 float=center]Gold, 3.9cm wide[/pic] [b]Gold[/b] [b]Czech Republic[/b] [b]Bohemia (Böhmen; Boehmen), Central Bohemia Region, Vlašim (Wlaschim), Roudný[/b] [pic id=67573 width=400 float=left]Gold on Quartz ~11cm wide, http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,145679#msg-145679 Fri, 24 May 2013 13:24:28 +0000 Phorum 5.2.15a http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,212879#msg-212879 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,212879#msg-212879 I would be best to put such questions as yours in the Collecting forum. There may be people who frequent that forum that can help you.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:36:13 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,212548#msg-212548 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,212548#msg-212548 Ronald Perdue Best Minerals G Tue, 01 Feb 2011 03:05:40 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,207208#msg-207208 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,207208#msg-207208 LostDutchman Best Minerals G Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:41:25 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181361#msg-181361 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181361#msg-181361 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 23:50:41 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181335#msg-181335 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181335#msg-181335 Rob Woodside Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 20:55:14 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181259#msg-181259 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181259#msg-181259 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 08:54:15 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181239#msg-181239 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181239#msg-181239 Rob Woodside Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 02:27:20 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181228#msg-181228 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181228#msg-181228 Can you give us some information about the mine, its geology and how many specimens it produced or any other interesting information about the place?]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 00:07:28 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181227#msg-181227 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181227#msg-181227 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 00:05:28 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181226#msg-181226 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181226#msg-181226 Thanks for your eagle eye. But I hate it when that happens. I think I have got it sorted out now. Have for the time being deep sixed the Placer county entry and gone with the older picture, the one I took when Dave Wilber had it before Joe got it. However which is correct is probably lost. Finding the correct locality for gold specimens and gem minerals is like trying to locate moonshiner's stills.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 03 May 2010 00:03:52 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181224#msg-181224 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181224#msg-181224 It has been a dream to have a photo published, ok so it's not the same as having a photo published in a book, but its probably as near as I will get, so thank you, for the excellent article and for choosing my pic.
I have found out from clicking on the link to that location the mine was opened in 1986 and is now exhausted, well relinquished is the exact word used but I think it means the same!]]> Jason Evans Best Minerals G Sun, 02 May 2010 23:21:08 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181196#msg-181196 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181196#msg-181196 I think that Round Mountain should be better represented in this text - I think that this is locality which produced one of the world best (or the best) crystallized golds. Unfortunately there is not a lot of pictures of gold from this locality at MinDat. I just added one from our collection - this is not a really top piece – good ones are too expensive :(

© SpiriferMinerals

Tom]]> Tomasz Praszkier Best Minerals G Sun, 02 May 2010 19:52:24 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181193#msg-181193 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181193#msg-181193 Peter Haas Best Minerals G Sun, 02 May 2010 19:43:15 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181191#msg-181191 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181191#msg-181191 Jolyon & Katya Ralph Best Minerals G Sun, 02 May 2010 19:22:06 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181189#msg-181189 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181189#msg-181189
I noticed that one gold specimen is listed twice from different locations:

1) Joe Freilich photo: [www.mindat.org]
2) The same specimen on one of your photos: [www.mindat.org]

For direct comparison, I turned one of the photos upside down (turning the eagle into an alien).]]> Peter Haas Best Minerals G Sun, 02 May 2010 19:09:09 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181102#msg-181102 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181102#msg-181102 Would you be willing to write up your experiences at the Emperor mine at Vatacola along with something about your experiences with specimens from there? Any chance you could come up with some better pictures? I know that mine must have produced some great things during its time. The bit about telurides being roasted on the side by miners/merchants was just speculation on my part based on what I have heard and read about mining camps like cripple creek. I did not know about gold having no place in the local culture. At any rate I suspect that if any of this was done that it would have been funneled through the local Indian merchants that see so well entrenched in Fiji. Is the mine still working? Yours is exactly the kind of knowledge that we are trying to capture here in best minerals. The pictures are nice, but the text is what will bring them to life. I want this to be much more than just another picture gallery.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Sat, 01 May 2010 23:35:25 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181089#msg-181089 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,181089#msg-181089 I have just had the time to read some of the best minerals articles. You have made a very nice one about gold!
As for your comments on the Emperor mine in Fiji, I can probably present some corrections/additions. I may be one of the very few collectors who have visited this mine 15 years ago and was very friendly received by the mine geologist. I have also seen nice specimens of gold ( in part also as wire-gold) found there in collections in Australia. During a long history of mining local "nests" of very rich tellurides and native gold have been encountered. But I do not believe as you suggest that these may have been highgraded and melted by the local miners. I was told that gold had no place in the local culture and the deposits were not exploited before the mining company arrived. To avoid any highgrading, they had a special team which was called upon when such a rich areas of gold ore was encountered. The ore - including what must have been also very good crystallized gold and tellurides - was sealed in special bags to be brought directly to a special safe before processing. I tried to encourage the company to save some good specimens of gold and tellurides for a future mining museum in Fiji and to keep also some lesser specimens that could be sold to the collectors market to finance such a museum. A few yerrs ago a former mining geologist brought a few nice specimens with crystals of Sylvanite and native Tellurium to the market. Except for that very few speciemsn of gold or tellurides have been available from the Emperor mine.
Knut]]> Knut Eldjarn Best Minerals G Sat, 01 May 2010 21:05:33 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159478#msg-159478 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159478#msg-159478 Could you arrange to have those images uploaded to mindat? If so, I think they would fit nicely in Best Minerals.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:58:48 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159472#msg-159472 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159472#msg-159472
It is possible that the old gold mines at Lykling, Bømlo, Norway ( [www.mindat.org]) should be included in this article. Active mining for gold took place in the period 1882-1910 and some 140kgs of gold where extracted. In the 1980-ties and 90-ties the the mines where worked for specimens.

The best specimen from here is probably a gold in quartz specimen at the Geological museum in Oslo, containing 670g gold (see [www.kjemi.uio.no]), also Bømlo municipality has a nice specimen ( [www.bomlo.net]. )Norwegian museums and private collections undoubtably has some nice specimens from here.

The gold are hydrothermal in origin, and are found in quartz with pyrite and chalkopyrite in a gabbro host rock penetrated by diabase gangues.

Olav]]> Olav Revheim Best Minerals G Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:32:53 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159232#msg-159232 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159232#msg-159232 Thanks for the tidbits. They will eventually be incorporated into the article.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:36:09 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159157#msg-159157 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,159157#msg-159157
Truly awesome article! Some scallywags have suggested that the Groundhog wire (rope) gold is actually Kongsberg silver that was gold plated much as the the USA 5 cent pieces were in 1883 as those coins did not have the word cents on them and were passed as $5 coins - more than a week's wages back East when the fraud occurred. Note that yesterday, the owner of a Congo gold pointed out that the picture of his specimen was posted in the wrong country- Brazzaville instead of DRC. Check at Mongbwalu, Haut-Zaire, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaïre). Specimen shows nice cubic hopper growth. Unfortunately, the area has been identified as a "blood gold" area of atrocities.]]> Van King Best Minerals G Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:46:38 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150143#msg-150143 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150143#msg-150143 The calcite substitution for the gold is very strange. I am sure that it was not originally like this. At any rate it is fixed. Thanks. David. Yes wire is better. Fixed.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:04:11 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150048#msg-150048 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150048#msg-150048 David Von Bargen Best Minerals G Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:05:18 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150045#msg-150045 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,150045#msg-150045
Great article on a great mineral, but it seems that two pictures of Elmwood Calcites sneaked in this Gold article.
You will find one Calcite under the locality: Botés, Alba Co., Romania, and the other one under Rosia Montana, Alba Co., Romania.


Regards,
Mario Pauwels]]> Mario Pauwels Best Minerals G Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:45:01 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146522#msg-146522 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146522#msg-146522
In California, it's known as the Mother Lode, not load. [en.wikipedia.org]

In the contemporary usage, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. [en.wikipedia.org]

In it's historic roots, a lode is an old English word meaning rich source of supply. [en.wikipedia.org])

A "load" is what the gold nuggets become once I put them all in my pants pockets. (tu)

Scott]]> Anonymous User Best Minerals G Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:14:31 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146520#msg-146520 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146520#msg-146520 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:14:09 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146192#msg-146192 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146192#msg-146192 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:24:02 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146165#msg-146165 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146165#msg-146165
Uwe, in 1987 your Museum had a nice cabinet specimen of gold from Trestia or Trestja, Romania on display with the Zlatna leaves etc in the systematic element display. It is a sister to the smaller 6 cm specimen that Rock has used in the article. I visited the Gold Museum at Brad also in 87 and was saddened to see lumps of black quartz from Trestia that they were mining. They were excited about it, claiming this ore to be incredibly rich and that was the best they had. That 6 cm specimen entered the British Museum before 1835, possibly in the 18th century. I wonder what the provenance of your piece is as dollars to donuts they were collected at the same time.]]> Rob Woodside Best Minerals G Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:41:50 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146162#msg-146162 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146162#msg-146162
I don't want you to feel that I shut you out of helping with the gold article and if you like doing that kind of work, I would point out that all the quartz articles have listed suggested localities and image links and you could spend any amount of time reversing the locality strings and bringing the images into the articles. That is all the bare bones kind of work that needs to be done. I try and get the frame work done and then stick in what little I can in the way of descriptive stuff. That at least gets something going on the article. Next week I hope to begin the Quartz, USA article, and that one will be the killer. Any help you could give there would be appreciated. I would get to it sooner, but I have been scanning in and doctoring up the silver images from my slide library on the off chance that some of them might be of use to Dave on his silver article.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals G Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:07:03 +0000 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146159#msg-146159 http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,73,145679,146159#msg-146159 Rock Currier Best Minerals G Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:56:20 +0000