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Alexandra Museum Gold Specimens
simon  
Posted : Wednesday, 6 April 2011 4:08:29 AM(UTC)
simon

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I was over in alexandra yesterday and had a few spare minutes so had a quick look in the museum there.

Interesting examples of rocks, fossils, gold and water race history etc.

i took particular interest in the samples of gold from various waterways in the region.

one of note was very wirey / spindly.

i have never seen any gold look like this before.

looked like it had been stretched and turned, and opposed to various little bits being melded together.

sorry didn't get and photos of it.

worth a look though if you're in alex.

there were some good sized chunks from other spots in the collection thou, inc. some samples from the old dredges.

a pity they flooded the gorge.

one guy i talked to once spoke of how when the dam was being built i guy filled his pockets with nuggets from the bottom of the hole for the dam at the east end where they had to dig extra deep because of the fault line the dam is on, trying to find the solid rock to anchor the dam on. dunno if this is folklore or not.

simon.
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Lammerlaw  
Posted : Wednesday, 25 May 2011 12:20:17 PM(UTC)
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Who knows but an interesting story and certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility. I do know of another 'dam' which, when it was being constructed exposed a great deal of gold and some of the workers are said to have filled small bottles with gold - Now this I do know for a fact as I had picked up nuggets myself there strewn all over the place and the land owner got a 12dwt piece. Just upstream in 1984 in half a minute three handful's of dirt yielded me half a pound weight of gold and in total from that spot 15 ounces. I also remember about the same time thpough probably before 1984 after floods had displaced a wing dam walking along and suddenly spotting the river bottom glistening with nuggets and in minutes had around 4 ounces all penny weight and more.

I kept a diary for 1984 and was away from home 42 days, spend 36 days actually looking in the river, averaged 4 hours per day gold mining - gave away or swapped half of what I got and ended up with 21 ounces actually taken home. I never kept any diaries before or after that year.
Your story to me therefore has credence but one never knows.
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dthomas3289  
Posted : Wednesday, 25 May 2011 12:36:06 PM(UTC)
dthomas3289

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The sample of gold that looked "wirey" is a crystalline form of gold that can form naturally. Funnily enough it is known as wire crystalline gold and is one of the rarest forms of gold in the world.
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