This is a beautiful piece of raw gold found in Northern Nevada. This piece is most likely "electrum," which is a natural alloy of gold and silver, where the silver makes up over 20% of the alloy. It is relatively easy to identify due to its coloration and is quite beautiful.
Breakdown from XRF Gold is 61.65%n Au and 38.35 % silver on the front side . On the backside this piece has a spectacular crystallized formation with dendritic lines formed through out. The piece is 38% Gold/ 25% silver and 33% Iron. A very unique mix that is not seen often.
Gold mining in Nevada,
Gold mining in Nevada, a state of the United States, is a major industry, and one of the largest sources of gold in the world. In 2017 Nevada produced 5,641,538 troy ounces (175,470 kg) of gold worth $7.052 billion, representing 71% of gold produced in the United States and 5.6% of the world's production.[1][2] Total gold production recorded from Nevada from 1835 to 2017 totals 200,350,000 troy ounces (6,232 t), worth over US$260.5 billion at 2019 values.Much of Nevada's gold production comes from large open pit mining using heap leaching recovery.
The Nevada mining industry supported an average 14,387 direct employees in 2017, with about 75,000 additional jobs related to providing goods and services needed by the mining industry. The average pay for mining industry employees during this time was $95,121 per year, second highest of all employment sectors in Nevada.
Although Nevada was known much more for silver in the 19th century, many of the early silver mining districts also produced considerable quantities of gold. The Comstock Lode produced 8,600,000 troy ounces (270 t) of gold through 1959, and the Eureka district produced 1,200,000 troy ounces (37 t). The Robinson copper mine has produced well over 2,700,000 troy ounces (84 t) gold, along with over 4 billion pounds (1,500,000 tonnes) of copper.
GOLD NUGGET GUIDE :
What is a Natural Gold Nugget?It is a piece of gold that broke out of quartz deposits within the earth when erosion took place. It also goes by the name Placer Gold and each piece is a one of a kind with no two being exactly alike.
·Where can they be found?Wherever the effects of erosion took place. That would include rivers, streams, ancient dried up river channels and underground riverbeds.
·How pure are they?Gold nuggets range from 65 to 95 fine 16-23KT gold and can have other mineral content such as silver and copper mixed in with it.
·What sizes do they come in?Gold Nuggets come in all sizes, the smaller one range in sizes from 1 millimeter up to 6 and is often referred to as flakes. Bigger flakes are called nuggets and have been found as large as 2500 ounces although almost all nuggets bigger than 300 ounces were melted.
·How Are Natural Gold Nuggets found?They can be found in rivers and streams using a gold pan or suction dredges that act like an underground vacuum cleaner. Larger operations use large machinery that dig up huge sections of dirt weighing several tons and run it through machines that separate the gold from the dirt. Nuggets are also found using a metal detector.
·How are they weighed?They are weighed by the troy ounces. 12 ounces = one pound which differs from weight which is 16 ounces to the pound. The troy ounces are broke up into 20-penny weight to the ounces and use the symbol DWT or by the grams which has 31.1 to the ounces. The larger the nugget the more rare and valuable they are. A one-ounce nugget is now considered as rare as a five-carat diamond. (How many of those do you own?)
·Why are some real bright and others dull?Because it was formed underground in quartz deposit you often find quartz mixed in with it. When they broke off into the rivers and streams they tumbled against the sand and gravel, which gave the nuggets, it?s texture but dulled it. They can be cleaned in different solutions, and then tumbled in different media to give it the shine.
