Where, oh where, did the nugget come from?

CaptHenway

A 98 or so ounce gold nugget sold a few months ago as a California discovery is apparently one found in Australia back in 1987:

linky

Another account says that the person who claims to have found it on his land i n California is trying to raise money to open a gold mine there. He wouldn't be salting the claim now, would he?

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>A 98 or so ounce gold nugget sold a few months ago as a California discovery is apparently one found in Australia back in 1987:

linky

Another account says that the person who claims to have found it on his land i n California is trying to raise money to open a gold mine there. He wouldn't be salting the claim now, would he?

>>



He would be if it was gold chloride!

streeter

My BS detector blew a fuse when the original story(way back when) said the nugget was found by the land owner with a METAL DETECTOR.

Oh, come on.

Yo got some spainin to do Lucy. Every inch of the gold fields has been gone over 3x in the last 150 years. And this thing JUST TURNS UP. Hokey Dokey.

edit: 4 speeling

JamesMurray

"We're going to pursue this full tilt using the best science available," Holabird said."

I'm guessing they can do some test to determine if it's Australian or Californian gold , or is gold just gold ?

RobertS

<< <i>"We're going to pursue this full tilt using the best science available," Holabird said."

I'm guessing they can do some test to determine if it's Australian or Californian gold , or is gold just gold ? >>



I would suspect gold is gold but maybe they can test the soil encrusted in the nugget.

CaptHenway

<< <i>"We're going to pursue this full tilt using the best science available," Holabird said."

I'm guessing they can do some test to determine if it's Australian or Californian gold , or is gold just gold ? >>



IIRC, California gold tends to have a relatively high iron content. I would guess that they could test for this and other trace elements.
TD

Coins101

A nuggest that size generally is not pure gold. So, a lab may be able to determine where it came from IF he would let them test it.

This does remind me of the gold tail like this on the small stream near where I live. There was hard rock mines on the hills and placer mining on the creek. Then, in the 30's, a large company bought up all the placer claims and brought in a huge dredge and ran it down the creek stripping out all the gold. Twenty years later, a guy was walking over the dredge piles, which are up to ten feet tall, and found a gold nugget that was rumored to weight 45 pounds.

There was another gold rush up there as it was determined that the dredge screend the material going in and kick out anything larger than a fist. More were found and later with metal detectors, a few more. The sad part was the highway department used about 50% of the material as road fill when they improved the highway. My uncle use to call it the "golden highway."

66Tbird

<< <i>A nuggest that size generally is not pure gold. So, a lab may be able to determine where it came from IF he would let them test it.

This does remind me of the gold tail like this on the small stream near where I live. There was hard rock mines on the hills and placer mining on the creek. Then, in the 30's, a large company bought up all the placer claims and brought in a huge dredge and ran it down the creek stripping out all the gold. Twenty years later, a guy was walking over the dredge piles, which are up to ten feet tall, and found a gold nugget that was rumored to weight 45 pounds.

There was another gold rush up there as it was determined that the dredge screend the material going in and kick out anything larger than a fist. More were found and later with metal detectors, a few more. The sad part was the highway department used about 50% of the material as road fill when they improved the highway. My uncle use to call it the "golden highway." >>



That's how I came about most of mine. 1/4 screen remains (tailings-sp?) That and where the conveyors make a turn. Nothing like an oz of color in each shovel scope. Big mines don't/didn/t clean up to well. That and a grandffather that remembers where the equipment was setup.

Coins101

Just think if you found a 45 pounder.

There are still huge tailing piles up there but it is on Highway land next to a stream and can't be touched. I always wonder if someone took a cat and leveled them out what they would find. Any place you can look is claimed and they don't take kindly to strangers poking around.