Holtermann with his nugget:- Discovered at Hill End in 1872, the Holtermann Nugget remains the largest single mass of gold ever discovered in the world, measuring 1.5 metres long and weighing 290 kg. ( New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources, Australia)
The Latrobe Nugget is one of the largest groups of cubic gold crystals known in the world and is kept at the Natural History Museum in London.The nugget weighs 717 grams. It was found at Mount Ivor, Victoria, Australia in 1853. Naturally all gold has a crystalline structure, yet nuggets showing this structure are very uncommon because they need a specific set of conditions to form. Crystals of gold are found in cavities in softer minerals such as iron oxides.
The second largest nugget ever found was the 'Welcome Stranger' found at Moliagul,Victoria, Australia in 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates.It weighed over 2,520 troy ounces (78.38 kg)and returned over 2,284 troy ounces (71.04 kg) of pure gold.The largest gold nugget still in existence is the 'Hand of Faith'found in 1980 using a metal detector.
A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate the nuggets and they are recovered by placer mining, but they may also be found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes have decayed. Nuggets are also found in the tailings piles of previous mining operations, especially those left by gold mining dredges.
Composition
They are never pure 24K in composition but rather about 20 to 22K (~about 83% to 92%). Nuggets are also referred to by their "fineness", for example "865 fine" means the nugget is 865 parts per thousand in gold. The common impurities are silver and copper. Nuggets high in silver content are known as "electrum".
Composition
They are never pure 24K in composition but rather about 20 to 22K (~about 83% to 92%). Nuggets are also referred to by their "fineness", for example "865 fine" means the nugget is 865 parts per thousand in gold. The common impurities are silver and copper. Nuggets high in silver content are known as "electrum".
Gold oh beautiful gold. Pic we could have a nugget larger than that one....meet me at the Grand Canyon on holloween night at 12:01 sharp and I will bring a 5 gallon can of paint and paint one off those big rocks. Now that will be a hoot.
ReplyDeleteGod, that would be such fun.We have similar minds for mischief.I'd love to paint a big rock gold and bury it in someone's garden,just leaving a tiny tip exposed so they catch the sun glinting off the gold.Of course I would be hiding in the bushes, laughing my ass off as they dug it up,shitting themselves when they saw how big it was.
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