MINING LORE Royal gold By Cecilia Keating
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74 | CIM Magazine | Vol. 13, No. 2
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or over a century, Welsh were expected to fetch gold has been sought after between £1,600 and £2,000 because of its connection in an auction; they went for to royalty, its rarity and its £10,500. unusual pink tint. While most For years, many errogold mines in the country shutneously believed that Welsh tered 20 years ago, the industry gold ore had an unusual may be poised for a revival; not warm, pinkish tint. In fact, it only has Welsh gold been thrust just appeared so because Vicinto the public limelight by torian jewellers diluted the media speculation about Prince gold with silver, bronze or Harry and American actress copper. But the myth worked Meghan Markle’s wedding bands, to their advantage and but there has also been a flurry of boosted the gold’s mystique interest in dormant gold mines in The remains of the Clogau gold mine in Wales, the most prolific and desirability, so they pernorthern Wales. petuated it. mine in the Dolgellau gold belt. Clogau closed down large-scale Historically, the majority of operations in 1911. Welsh gold’s royal connecWelsh gold mining took place in tions have also heightened its the Dolgellau gold belt, which stretches across Snowdonia allure. Exchanging wedding rings made of pure Welsh gold National Park. No gold mines are currently operating there, has been a tradition for the British royal family for almost a but a 2012 report by mining consultancy Snowden esti- century. In 1923, the Queen Mother and King George VI were mated the area contains US$220 million dollars of given a Clogau gold nugget for their wedding rings. Enough untouched gold. gold remained in the nugget to create wedding rings for the In December, the Clogau-St. David’s mine, once the most Queen and Prince Phillip in 1947, the Princess Margaret and prolific in the region, made headlines when junior miner Alba the Earl of Snowdon in 1960 and Princess Diana and Prince Mineral Resources announced plans to bring it back into pro- Charles in 1981. duction after a nearly 20-year closure. One month later, Welsh There is less than one gram left of that original nugget, but jewellery firm Clogau, currently running down a stockpile of in 1981 the Royal British Legion topped up the Queen’s supply Dolgellau gold for its jewellery, submitted an application to when they gave her 36 grams of Welsh gold of unknown orirestart work at the nearby Gwynfynydd mine. gin. One kilogram of gold from Gwynfynydd was presented to First mined for copper and lead, Clogau was the site of two the Queen on her 60th birthday in 1986. Either of these gifts gold rushes in the 19th century. Since 1800, it produced could have been the source for the pure Welsh gold wedding 81,000 ounces of the 131,000 produced in Dolgellau. The rings exchanged by Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles mine continued as a large-scale operation until 1911, when it in 2005, and by Prince William and Kate Middleton six years was closed due to diminishing returns. Gwynfynydd was less later. Royal pundits are now speculating whether Prince Harry prolific, producing 45,000 ounces in total between 1883 and and Markle will carry on the tradition. 1998, and large-scale operations ended in 1916. Welsh gold’s connection with royalty is not limited to wedClogau and Gwynfynydd were mined intermittently ding bands, and pre-dates King George VI’s wedding. In 1911, throughout the 20th century, but gold was scarce and opera- gold from Clogau was incorporated into the coronet, rod, ring tions were expensive in the U.K.’s high-wage economy. More- and sword worn by 17-year-old Prince Edward – later King over, pollution controls in Snowdonia were stringent and Edward VIII – at his public investiture as Prince of Wales at waste was disposed of at a high cost. By the time both Clogau Caernarfon Castle in Wales in 1911. and Gwynfynydd were announced commercially exhausted in The regalia was used again for Prince Charles’ investiture as 1998, gold cost more than £1,000 per ounce to extract. Prince of Wales in 1969 – apart from the coronet, which King Because it is so scarce and expensive to mine, Welsh gold Edward VIII smuggled to France with him after he abdicated fetches up to three to five times the spot gold price. Jewellers the throne in 1936. Relations between King Edward VIII and that sell Welsh gold items – like jewellery firm Clogau – ration his family were so bitter that the Royals did not stoop to asking it to “a touch” in each piece. In November 2017, gold nuggets for the coronet’s return. Another was commissioned, also out and flakes from the Clogau mine totalling around two ounces of Welsh gold from Dolgellau. CIM