MORE Natural Gold Nuggets and Specimens, Plus Platinum Nuggets |
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A while back, I did up a page of gold photos, and that page has become so popular I decided to do up another page of spectacular natural gold photos. This time I decided to throw in some interesting Platinum Nuggets as well so people can see what those look like. So would you like to see some more native gold nuggets and specimens just as they were formed? Here is what they really look like, a very fine collection of photos depicting real natural gold just as it came from the ground. The gold in all of these nuggets and specimens is in all the same forms that the gold had when it was dug from the ground, but some of the gold quartz specimen pieces have had the quartz material around the gold is removed so you can see the gold that was inside better. On the nugget pieces, these gold pieces are just as they came out of the ground, only washed with water, that's it. Do be careful about staring too long and hard at all these photos. That kind of thing has been known to give a person a terrible case of gold fever a disease which is becoming an epidemic these days. If you contract a case of gold fever here, don't say you weren't warned! For those with slow internet connections, this page may take a while for all the photos to load up, but its worth the wait. |
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This spectacular handful of gold nuggets was collected from the famous placer areas near Rye Patch Nevada in Pershing County. A metal detector was used to find these pieces of gold while they were still buried in the dirt. These pieces are known as Chevron gold because of their beautiful angular crystalline patterns. | |
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This large piece of gold was found in the location known as Ladies Canyon in Sierra County, California. It shows significant signs of wear and smoothing from travel in the stream bed. This nugget weighs slightly over 6 ounces. | |
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The most basic and common pattern for gold crystals is the octagon. This beautiful museum quality specimen shows a large number of octagonal whole crystals that have grown together into a solid mass. The specimen weighs several ounces and was taken from a gold mine in California in the late 1800s. | |
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This small gold nugget shows an unusual herringbone type of crystal pattern which forms a V shape with a line running down the middle. This form is classic for Chevron gold, and this piece like the ones pictured above was also mined in the Rye patch area of northern Nevada. It was also collected using a metal detector. | |
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This very large heart-shaped gold nugget weighs in at 33.85 Ounces. It was found on June 16, 2004 at the Ganes Creek mine located near McGrath, in Southwestern Alaska. it was detected by Steve Burris of Idaho using a Fisher Gold Bug 2. The nugget was found in an area where many others had detected, but all the previous detector operators had simply missed this huge nugget. | |
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This haul of river polished, smoothed and rounded gold nuggets represents about three weeks of dredging time on the North Fork of the Yuba River, in Sierra County California. Not all dredge operators are this successful, but if you get into a good paystreak of gold, this is what you can find. | |
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This large nugget weighs 156 ounces. Was taken in the Mojave desert of California with a metal detector in the 1970s. To the best of my knowledge, this nugget is the largest solid gold mass ever found with a metal detector and the lower 48 states. It currently resides in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in downtown LA, where it is on exhibit with a large number of other gold nuggets both from California and other locations around the world. For those visiting LA, that collection is worth seeing. | |
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The photo at left shows a fine piece of gold in Quartz taken from the deserts of Arizona. A metal detector was used to locate it. | |
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This large and unusual gold nugget was taken from the Icabaru district of Venezuela in South America. | |
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Gold in this ram's horn type formation is extremely unusual and highly valued. Of the few specimens of this type mined in the US, most come from a single location at Gilman, Colorado. | |
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Here is another fine crystalline gold specimen from the Eagle's Nest mine in Placer County, California. | |
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This is another fine piece of Crystalline Chevron placer gold from Rye Patch. Like most of the other placer gold from this location it was recovered with a metal detector. The pieces of this type are highly desired by mineral specimen collectors. | |
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The beautiful gold piece shown here is from the big mine at Round Mountain. It contains very little quartz, and is mostly gold. |
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Here is yet another beautiful gold piece from the big mine at Round Mountain. The gold is formed in a mossy crystalline pattern on the surface of the rock. | |
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This very large nugget gold specimen is from Alaska, and shows the signs of wear and tumbling in a river environment. | |
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These mossy gold specimens shown here were taken from the Octave mine area near Rich Hill in Arizona. This collection weighs number of pounds, and is mostly gold. | |
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This beautiful piece of leaf gold is from the Jamestown area of the California mother lode. It's hard to believe that in the early days and many fine specimens like this were simply melted down for their bullion. Very few were actually preserved and they are quite valuable. |
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Many prospectors, especially new ones sometimes confuse silver colored materials that they find in the bottom of the pan. Nearly always this material is lead or some other less valuable material. Once in awhile however, a nugget of native platinum such as this one will turn up. Careful examination is worthwhile, because no one would choose to throw away a valuable platinum nugget such as this one. |
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While California and Alaska each produce platinum nuggets, there are a number of worldwide locations for placer platinum. The Ural Mountains in Russia have actually produced far more platinum than any other location. This unusual looking nugget is made of platinum and comes from the Ural mountains in Siberian Russia. At 9 ounces, its pretty good sized. |
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Pure gold is virtually non-existent in nature. Natural gold nuggets and specimens as shown here on this web page are normally in the range of 80 to 90 percent gold (roughly 20-23Kt). And by far most gold was formed in particles so small that they can't easily be seen by the human eye, visible only under a microscope, so these large natural chunks shown here are very rare indeed. For more on Gold as a mineral, see Mineral Gold Information. Most raw platinum is also mined as microscopic particles. Natural platinum nuggets also contain a significant amount of impurities, depending on the location in which the raw platinum was mined. For more on Platinum as a mineral, see Mineral Platinum Information
If you haven't seen my original crystal nugget page, beautiful nugget photos: CRYSTAL GOLD NUGGETS
I also have a page of beautiful Gold Ore Specimen photos: GOLD ORES AND MINERALS
For more information on gold vein ores, check out my page of CALIFORNIA MOTHER LODE GOLD QUARTZ VEINS
I also have a page of beautiful Silver Ore Specimen photos: SILVER ORES AND MINERALS
To learn about the minerals that produce copper, check my page of COPPER ORES AND MINERALS
Please note these specimens are not for sale, most are not owned by me. I present this page as a reference, as folks just love to look at real natural beauty and these gold specimens are definitely that. Photographs and text are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission.
