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The history of Goldpanning in the Napf area up to 1900According to Posidonius (135 - 50 B.C.) the Celts and the Gauls have collected alluvial gold. Switzerland had a reputation for being an area rich in gold according to Strabon. Celtic gold coins have been found near the Napf.
It is thought also that the Romans came to the Napf area as name of the stream "Grande Fontanne" comes from the Latin word meaning "fountain". Was this perhaps the fountain of gold?
The oldest record of Swiss gold prospecting dates from the 11th century; the Muri Monastery paid the "denarius aureus" with gold dust from the Reuss as its papal dues.
Goldprospecting which must have been practised much earlier, became a profession for people from the Lucerne region from the 14th to the 19th century. Those professional gold prospectors were called "golders". As early as 1523 the State of Lucerne was granted a monopoly for the buying of indigenous precious metals. Up to 1800 the monopoly purchased 31 kg of placer gold which was smelted into 1500 gold coins. However this figure does not represent the total output. The gilders and the goldsmiths preferred the Lucerne gold to that from other localities because of its exeptional purity and paid the golders very well for it.
The alluvial Napf gold occures as gold flakes, nuggets are found rarely. It is characterised by an porous surface and a brilliant yellow colour. The size of the grains varies between 0.2 and 2 mm across and at least 0.1 mm thickness.
Formerly it was thought that these tiny grains came from a fabulous lode at the source of the streams, which had been slowly eroded out by water. However, from ist geological point of view it is impossible that the comglomerate rock of the Napf contains gold veins. Thus the Napf gold has its origins in the Alps.
It was 50 million years ago that the Alps were formed; they concealed the gold lodes which were the primary source of the Napf gold.
In the Miocene Era large drainage systems transported Alpine detritius containing gold to the plains. Thus the Napf Massif ist made of alluvial deposits of ancient rivers. Today these sedimentary rocks are made up of horizontal conglomerate beds, sandstone and clay layers. The gold of this conglomerate is therefore secondary.
When the Napf conglomerate eroded, the gold was again displaced and thus became placer deposits in the area; that is, tertiary deposits of the Napf gold.
Extraction is limited to being all from the alluvial tertiary deposits - as we will se from afar. In the secondary deposit (conglomerate) the yield per tonne was between 0.002 and 0.0002 grammes. In spite of that it could be supposed that greater localised concentrations could be found. A keen team wished to prove this hypothesis in 1976 in the Goldbach valley, where an old dowser had shown where an accumulation of gold dust should be found. Intrigued by the mystery which surrounded this strange revelation, the adventurers excavated for weekend after weekend a gallery into the conglomerate rock, using a pneumatic drill. However, the fabulous "goldpocket" remains undiscovered.
The gold content of the alluvial depositsMicroscopic and chemical analysis demonstrate that the gold is homogeneous with a fineness of 983. The silver content is very low at 1.7 percent due to silver depletion during mechanical transport.
Transportation downstream also causes a reduction in size of the grains of gold. They are abraded by the moving gravels. This fact can be demonstrated by the number of grains weighing one gramme. For example, in the Grande Fontanne 1500 to 2000 particles weigh one gramme, in the lower course it is some 3000. In the Rhine between Freiburg and Mannheim it is 20000 particles and further down it can be 160000 particles.
The average gold content of the alluvions is about 0.6 grammes per tonne. However, one must realise that the alluvial deposits are small in extent and once exploited a long time must elapse before gold is deposited again.
The particles carried by the water are redeposited in the gravels according to their specific gravity. Gold, which has a high specific gravity, is concentrated in certain places together with big boulders and the heavy minerals such as garnets, epidotes, zircons, rutile and metallic minerals such as ilmenite, haemetite and magnetite.
The gold research is better conducted in the lower courses of the creeks as the upper parts are very difficult to access. There are four types of location which are particularly promising:
Drawing on my own experience, I would like to add the following:
Events since 1900After 1900 the profession of a goldprospector was abandoned. An 18th century goldprospector could survive thanks to the Napf gold but could not longer today. The purchasing power of gold has declined in the last two hundred years while wages have risen. Despite this there have been new attempts. In 1933 the engineer Killias proved the placers of the Ramisgummen (the nighbouring massif to the Napf). He collected nuggets of a previously unknown size, but this harvest was insufficient for commercial exploitation.
In 1939 an Anglo-Swiss society methodically studied the Napf area with a view to an eventual exploitation. These studies showed that even if sometimes there was an appreciable quantity of gold, exploitation would render the countryside useless. The findings of the Bureau of Mines of the Confederation struggling against unemployment of 1941 and 1943 came up with the same result.
Since then and up to 1967 the Napf gold was forgotten. From 1967 - 70 K. Schmid scoured the Napf area for material for her doctorial thesis on gold. Her epilogue reads:
"My gold panning experiences streched over a three year period and I recoverd some 52 grammes of gold. If one compares the yield with the difficulties, and the energy and the perseverence required (without allowance for travelling and accomodation) it is a meagre result. The Napf massiv can, at best, be recommended to amateur panners who, for pleasure, still have the taste for the adventure and the romance of gold."
And the amateurs panners haven't waited long. Some years later, in 1978, P.A. Gonet writes in his book on gold prospectors in Switzerland: "For several years a unique Swiss phenomenon has occured in the Napf area; for a new gold prospector's generation it is still possible to live the adventure."
Video of a recreational goldprospector in the Swiss Napf area: Youtube ou Realplayer-stream
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