The Gondo Gold MineGerman Homepag Goldmine Gondo /ref> was the largest
gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
mine in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. The mine is located in the south of the
canton of Valais
Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...
near the Italian border at over 1200 m above sea level. In its heyday up to 500 men worked here, while the municipality of Gondo itself had only 100 inhabitants.
History
Gondo Gold was obviously already known to the RomansGoldbergbau in Gondo, Wallis /ref> and Gold ore was probably mined in the Zwischbergen valley as early as the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. Gold from the Gondo Gold Mine is mixed with
pyrite
The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...
and
silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
and bound to veins of
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
. Through the centuries the prospecting rights changed several times.
Gold mining has been documented since the 17th century. Among others, the famous Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper (1609–1691) from the city of
Brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...
was the owner of the Gondo Gold Mine. Stockalper paid the workers half a silver crown for every hundredweight of broken ore. Stockalper's descendants retained the mineral rights in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century.
In 1810 Valais was part of the French Empire and the "Département du Simplon". The Maffiola family, originally from Italy, worked as sub-concessionaires for the Stockalper family in Zwischenbergen. With 15 workers, the family made good profits, but had to move out after a dispute with the owners, not before having filled in the shafts and tunnels.
The Stockalper family ceded their concession to a French company in 1840. On February 16, 1875, the ''Société anonyme des Mines d'Or de Gondo'' was founded under the direction of the banker Eduard Cropt from Sion. After Cropt's death, the concession of the mine passed to the ''Société des Mines d'Or d'Helvétie'' in autumn 1881.
Climax
At the height of the Gondo gold rush in 1894, the Paris-based ''Société des Mines d'Or de Gondo SA'' took over the plant. At that time up to 500 men worked in the valley. With his announcement that he had found a "new California", the director was able to raise 5 million
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
in capital and hire English specialists. In 1893 the general manager of the mine Alcide Froment wrote:
New smelting plants were built. The
stamp mill
A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of Mill (grinding), mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than Mill (grinding), grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking materia ...
s and stone mills were powered by water power and electricity. Miners dug for gold in the rugged rock faces and tunnels. The ore was transported to the bottom of the valley with an invention that was revolutionary at the time, the cable car.
The gold deposits in the Zwischbergental were mined at altitudes of 1200 m to 1600 m. Mining took place in approximately 50 opencast mines and in 40 tunnels. The gold content could vary from a few grams to 30 grams per ton of ore.
In the tunnels, which drop steeply into the Earth's interior and are named ''Silzaly, Bruno, Fumée, Fontaine, Julie, Maffiola, Rona, Camozetta, Alcide'' and ''Minna'' and ''Vinasque'', the workers toiled in 12-hour shifts for a meager wage, while the operators, in anticipation of rich profits, indulged in luxury and well-being. It soon turned out, however, that the gold extraction was not worthwhile. In the period from March 1, 1894, to August 1896, the gold mine processed just over 5000 tons of ore. In the short time the company won 33 kg of raw gold.
Bankruptcy
The Gondo gold mines were considered a marvel of engineering at the time. From 1897, the gold content per ton of ore fell rapidly. On May 17, 1897, after only three years of activity, the last company, the ''Société des Mines d'Or de Gondo SA'', went bankrupt. An Italian
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
company dismantled the plant during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
Today
A museum about the former gold mine was set up in the Hotel Stockalperturm in Gondo. Enthusiasts are still looking for gold in the Zwischbergental today.German Internet Page abou Faszination Gold /ref>
Photos
File:Goldmine Gondo 3.jpg,
Azurite
Azurite or '' Azure spar'Krivovichev V. G.'' Mineralogical glossary. Scientific editor A. G. Bulakh. — St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg Univ. Publ. House. 2009. — 556 p. — ISBN 978-5-288-04863-0. ''(in Russian)'' is a soft, deep-blue copp ...
File:Goldmine Gondo 4.jpg, Interior of a gold mine tunnel in Gondo
File:Mines d'Or de Gondo 1895.jpg, Share certificate for 25 Swiss Francs of ''Société Suisse des Mines d'Or de Gondo SA'' from 14. September 1895