Gold in Britain: past, present and future

Britain is a country with modest gold deposits. At least six tonnes, possibly up to ten tonnes, of gold have been recovered from numerous localities in Britain. Recent discoveries have revealed another six tonnes in Scotland and over 30 tonnes in Northern Ireland, with the likelihood of more to be found. A new mine in Northern Ireland is producing several thousand ounces of gold per year. These are small figures compared to the current annual new mine production of around 2500 tonnes and the total world tonnage of gold mined to date of around 180,000 tonnes. Figure 1. Gold localities in Great Britain; other types include mafic hosted, breccia pipes and volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits (after BGS). numerous gold mines in Spain and elsewhere. They would have preferred to work alluvial deposits and also the shallow weathered gossanous zones containing free gold, above deeper primary deposits where the gold was contained within pyrite and other minerals. This ‘locked’ gold would have required quite sophisticated smelting techniques to liberate it, as well as supplies of fuel and water. It has been estimated that the Roman workings at Dolaucothi produced up to a tonne of gold from about half a million tonnes of rock (Annells and Burnham, 1995). This was probably from the oxidised gossanous zone above the unweathered primary material. A ‘Roman Lode’ has been inferred at Dolaucothi, and shallow workings to a depth of about 45 m are attributed to Roman working. They did not have explosives and therefore had to use metal picks to break the rock. They also used fire setting, where the rock is heated with a wood fire before water is poured on to split the rock as it contracts. Wooden objects, one of which appeared to be part of a drainage wheel, have been radiocarbon dated at 90 ±70 BC (Burnham, 1997), showing the Roman, and possibly pre-Roman, age of the site. Following the Roman occupation there is little hard evidence of gold mining in Britain. After the Norman conquest, all the land and contained minerals belonged to William the Conqueror “in right of The Crown” because he was king. Despite centuries of change in law and custom, the underlying ownership of The Crown still exists and there is always a presumption in favour of The Crown unless it can be proved that the land belongs to someone else (that is taken verbatim from the Crown Estate website). In the 16th century Beavis Bulmer obtained a licence from the King of Scotland to mine gold at Crawfurd Muir near Leadhills in Scotland. This area became known as ‘God’s Treasure-House in Scotland’. The activity naturally revived interest in gold in Britain, as well as in other metals. The development of armaments, such as cannon and small-arms, increased the demand for all kinds of metals, as well as gold and silver to pay for them and provide for the expanding currency requirements. German miners were employed to prospect and develop copper mining in the Lake District. and inevitably the question of ownership of minerals was raised. The Case of Mines (R v Earl of Northumberland) in 1568 decided “that by the law all mines of gold and silver within the realm, whether they be in the lands of the Queen, or of subjects, belong to the Queen by prerogative, with liberty to dig and carry away the ores thereof, and with other such incidents thereto as are necessary to be used for the getting of the ore.” Since the Royal Mines Act 1688 all naturally occurring gold and silver in Britain has been owned by the Crown, and has been administered by the Crown Estate since 1760, currently through the Crown Mineral Agent. This includes Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (apart from Sutherland in northern Scotland where the Duke of Sutherland owns all mineral rights). The record from the 16th Century until the middle of the 19th is neither voluminous nor clear. There may have been spurious ‘gold mines’ caused by discovery of pyrite or fool’s gold, such as a reported gold discovery near Ampthill in Bedfordshire (Calvert, 1853).