Posted by the staff

By: Marlene Affeld

World's Largest Gold Nugget!

Gold nuggets are naturally occurring pieces of native gold. Water and erosion concentrate the deposit of nuggets which are recovered by placer or lode mining methods. Nuggets are also often found in residual deposits where gold-bearing veins or lodes have decayed. Today nuggets can also be found in the tailing piles of previous mining operations, especially the tailings of old dredging operations.

Nuggets are never totally pure or 24K in composition. Most nuggets are about 20 to 22K or 83 - 92 percent pure. Nuggets are noted for their purity by their “fineness”. As an example “865 fine” means the nugget is 865 parts gold per thousand. Copper and silver are the common impurities found in gold nuggets.  Read the complete article...

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