Gold Nugget from French Guiana or Suriname, 1.696 grams.- 1.7 g - (1)

Discovery area 3°47’ North 54°04’ West This nugget comes from French Guiana, a French zone in the Amazon or from Suriname, former Dutch colony. I collected it myself over thirty years ago on the Maroni River (Marowijne River) which separates French Guiana from Suriname, in a area named Papaichton, about half a day’s travel by pirogue from the town of Maripasoula. At the time I was an gold prospector in French Guiana, and I mainly worked on the rivers, the Oyapock which forms the border with Brazil and the Maroni which forms the border with Suriname. With my team we used a floating dredge that pumped sediments from the river bottom. These sediments were dumped onto a sluice ramp whose base was covered with a mat. The whole assembly was mounted on a floating barge that also served as a living base with a kitchen and dormitory. The gold nuggets and the heaviest sediments settled by gravity onto the mat and the rest of the sediments returned to the river. The gold visible on the surface of the mat was collected directly by hand. The heavy sediments containing the specks and powder of gold were embedded in the bottom of the mat. From time to time this mat was washed to recover these heavy sediments. These sediments were then processed with a vibrating plate or a pan to recover the gold powder. The gold collected was then regularly sold in French Guiana or in Brazil. I kept the finest of the nuggets for my personal collection and am now putting some up for sale. Although located in the Amazon (South America), French Guiana is an overseas French department. These nuggets are therefore French. However some are Surinamese (Dutch) when the barge was closer to the Suriname banks than to the French Guiana banks. Indeed the border between the two countries is simply a virtual line at the center of the river. So French nuggets or Surinamese nuggets? … difficult to know precisely, it all depends on which side of this virtual line the barge was on the day they were collected. The gold from this region is fairly pure, generally with a fineness around 950 to 980 thousandths, which corresponds to 22.80 to 23.50 carats. At the time this artisanal mining was authorized, now it is prohibited and gold mining is reserved for a few large industrial structures. French Guiana is now mostly known for the space base at Kourou which launches satellites into space. Of course, the photos truly correspond to the nugget being sold, and I am sending you exactly the nugget that is in the photos. All photos were taken in natural daylight. I photographed this nugget as honestly and precisely as possible using daylight. Please note that differences in screen settings and ambient lighting may lead to variations in color, saturation and tones perceived. I offer fast, secure and discreet shipping in a sturdy C5 envelope (162mm x 229mm) by La Poste French mail (registered).

Stima:€400

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