Gold (Visit to the Swiss Gold Museum)

[Etherealicer]

Recently visited the Swiss Gold Museum in Burgdorf. Its a small museum but quite interesting, primarily documenting the history of gold panning.

What I found most interesting, how different the gold is in different rivers.

River gold from all over the world


River gold from different parts of Switzerland


Largest Gold Nugget ever found in Switzerland
Its a replica
123 gramms

[kkokkolis]

Nice. I visited a diamond museum once, I think it was in Anviers. Geology is awesome.

[jerseydevil]

Very cool.  I've panned for gold in, as it says there, Arizone.    Didn't find anything though.  Maybe next time I'll have to try Kalifornien..........

[Etherealicer]

Very cool.  I've panned for gold in, as it says there, Arizone.    Didn't find anything though.  Maybe next time I'll have to try Kalifornien..........

Didn't notice that, thats of course wrong, even in German, we actually spell it the same way as in English. And I checked it would also be wrong in French...

Was your trip a one time or do you do this as a hobby?

[jerseydevil]

It was a one-time thing on a trip to Tombstone, which is a very (in)famous town in Old West history.  That's where probably the most famous gunfight in US history happened, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Sorry I'm on my phone or I'd link to it.  No movie's got it right, and the spot where the museum stands isn't even the proper location.....

[Etherealicer]

It was a one-time thing on a trip to Tombstone, which is a very (in)famous town in Old West history.  That's where probably the most famous gunfight in US history happened, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Sorry I'm on my phone or I'd link to it.  No movie's got it right, and the spot where the museum stands isn't even the proper location.....

Nice, did some reading about Tombstone and I have seen the movie from 1993 with Kurt Russel...

Never been to Arizona though, maybe on a future trip to the USA.

[ColoSwiss]

The shape of the nuggets or dust is going to depend on the original composition of the gold ore; and distance, stream gradient, and water volume. Basically the further from the source, the finer the dust.

I panned for gold in Alaska. Sitting on a bench, with warm water, and a 'salted' pouch of sand.  A commercial operation for the tourists. Really 'roughing it'. 


There used to be a lot of gold mining here in Boulder County; also silver and tungsten. Still a lot of valuable ore up there, but the cost of the paper-work to reopen a mine is astronomical, and the political opposition is intense.

There's still some old mining ruins in the area (vandals and thieves have destroyed most of the sites), and a small mining museum up at Nederland, west of Boulder.

[kkokkolis]

Perhaps they had in mind "Arid-zone"

[Etherealicer]

The shape of the nuggets or dust is going to depend on the original composition of the gold ore; and distance, stream gradient, and water volume. Basically the further from the source, the finer the dust.

I panned for gold in Alaska. Sitting on a bench, with warm water, and a 'salted' pouch of sand.  A commercial operation for the tourists. Really 'roughing it'. 


There used to be a lot of gold mining here in Boulder County; also silver and tungsten. Still a lot of valuable ore up there, but the cost of the paper-work to reopen a mine is astronomical, and the political opposition is intense.

There's still some old mining ruins in the area (vandals and thieves have destroyed most of the sites), and a small mining museum up at Nederland, west of Boulder.

Of course it is. I just never put a thought in it
Still I would expect that you'd find a more mixed "population" of gold-flakes. But it appears that within a region of the river the flakes are pretty uniform.

[ColoSwiss]

The shape of the nuggets or dust is going to depend on the original composition of the gold ore; and distance, stream gradient, and water volume. Basically the further from the source, the finer the dust.

I panned for gold in Alaska. Sitting on a bench, with warm water, and a 'salted' pouch of sand.  A commercial operation for the tourists. Really 'roughing it'. 


There used to be a lot of gold mining here in Boulder County; also silver and tungsten. Still a lot of valuable ore up there, but the cost of the paper-work to reopen a mine is astronomical, and the political opposition is intense.

There's still some old mining ruins in the area (vandals and thieves have destroyed most of the sites), and a small mining museum up at Nederland, west of Boulder.

Of course it is. I just never put a thought in it
Still I would expect that you'd find a more mixed "population" of gold-flakes. But it appears that within a region of the river the flakes are pretty uniform.

Gold doesn't chemically combine with other elements very often (occasionally tellurium). However it is almost always alloyed with other metals, particularly silver, copper, and iron. It is the different combinations that give the nuggets and flakes their different colors. Within the ore vein itself the gold may vary in size from large lumps to microscopic flakes. Some of the richest gold mines in the US (Homestake, Carlin) contain gold that is not visible to the eye. In stream placer deposits the size of the particles are going to decrease with distance from the source, but they are also dependent on the original size. Also within any given stream there may be numerous sources along its course for the gold. For instance along Clear Creek west of Denver there was both placer and hard rock mining activity along a 30 mile stretch, with numerous side streams also producing ore.