What Is So Special About Welsh Gold?

Welsh gold is associated with the royals and the easiest mining process. The presence of the metal in the Dolgellau area in Wales was explored for centuries. This discovery has been credited to the Celts, by scientists and researchers. In spite of the discovery of the Welsh gold at the various regions in Wales being explored so early, it was only in the year 1844 that the existence of Welsh gold was made known to the world. This is credited to Arthur Dean, who made his discovery known to the world through a paper to the British Association. A number of Welsh gold mines were established. The earlier ones included the Beddcoedwr Gold Mine at Gwynfynydd, the Dolaucothi gold mine located near Pumpsaint in Dyfed and the Clogau Gold Mine, located at Bontddu, near Barmouth. The local discovery of the precious metal since 1836 was enough to attract the British to the regions and capitalize on this colony that was only later given Home Rule.
The discovery of gold at the various regions in Wales led to a period of intense mining. There was a lot of speculation that followed and the discoveries of many more, smaller gold mining areas. An interesting tale of the Welsh God Rush is that of Pritchard Morgan. Morgan was one of the co-owners of the Gwynfynydd gold mine, after it was acquired from the original discoverer in 1887. This ownership came out of a legal dispute. When the Gwynfynydd gold mine was revived and active again, Pritchard Morgan found a very large pocket of gold! He hushed up affairs initially because he was unsure of whether or not his part of the ownership of the Gwynfynydd gold mine permitted him any right at all over the lease to extract the gold. At this point in time, in Wales, the ruling monarchy had prerogative rights over gold and silver. Irrespective of whether a person owns freehold land and the mineral rights within the owned property, it went without saying that the ownership of the gold and silver extracted was vested in the Crown. There was a Crown Mineral License required to extract the precious metals and naturally, considering the value of these metals, the leases were not granted lightly. Pritchard Morgan was unable to keep quiet for long and implicated special police to guard the find. It was on the strength of this find that Pritchard Morgan started the Morgan Gold Mining Company and retained 70% of the shares.
The tale of Pritchard Morgan is just one of the many that revolve around the gold mines in Wales. These tales and the fact that you can chance upon such pockets of wealth have added to the intrigue and value of clogau gold. The gold from Wales is not chemically combined with other minerals that are usually found in the ore rock and which makes it difficult to extract the metal. This ‘free’ gold is the most expensive gold found anywhere in the world and the lack of chemical association and the large grain size makes extracting of high density or volume easy and possible. Welsh gold is mined differently. The ore is crushed and ground to fine sand and then put onto a shaking table. The table operates in a way that separates the gold from the rock, without the use of cyanide, which is used in the refining of all other types of gold mined. Welsh Gold is very attractive even from the environmental standpoint.
The association of Welsh gold with the royals and the purity add to the value. There are dedicated online and offline resources of Welsh gold that cater to the demand for the precious metal by special patrons, who value the trouble taken to procure the pure, precious metal.
This article was translated into English by twigg’s translations (Englisch übersetzung)