Gold Nugget

Gold Nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate nuggets and finer gold in placers. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes are weathered. Nuggets are also found in the tailings piles of previous mining operations, especially those left by gold mining dredges.

Formation

Gold nuggets are formed when a gold crystal in a quartz vein erodes out of the rock, and becomes a part of a stream's sediment. The nugget is then carried downstream, and further weathering can smooth the nugget into the familiar rounded shape. Nuggets are usually 20.5K to 22K purity (83% to 92%).

Largest Gold Nuggets

The largest gold nugget ever found is the “Welcome Stranger” discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates in Australia on February 5, 1869. The nugget is 10 by 25 inches and yielded 2,248 ounces of pure gold. It was found just two inches below the ground surface.

Gold Nugget in Popular Culture

Gold nuggets have been a popular form of currency in historical times, and were used in trade and barter transactions. They have also been a symbol of wealth and status, and have been used as a form of treasure in many stories and films.

See Also

• Gold mining
• Gold rush
• Gold prospecting

References

This gold related article is a stub.