Join us on our impressive journey to the mining areas of our Suomi wash gold
to the far north of Finnish Lapland!
0 Prospecting areas in Finnish Lapland, in Lemmenjoki and Urho Kekkonen National Park
1 Urho-Kekkonen is the second largest national park in Finland with many lakes, rivers and bogs.
2 We meet reindeer everywhere.
3 A splendid specimen 🙂
4 Gold may only be mined in precisely designated areas with a state concession
5 Often the only way to reach the mining areas is by boat
6 Arrived in the mining area.
7 There is also edible gold to be found in the woods, incredibly large porcini mushrooms – our dinner is assured 🙂
8 Deadwood prospecting area, in the middle of the wilderness of Finnish Lapland
9 The prospectors test the soil on the banks for gold. Approx. 1m³ must be moved to obtain 2 g of gold.
10 The coarse excavated material is pre-sorted in this washing plant
11 A small vibrator sorts out the coarse material.
12 The vibrating mechanism works like a sieve: small particles fall through and end up in the washing trough.
13 Due to their weight, many gold grains settle in the mat of the wash trough.
14 The final step is always to wash out the gold in water.
15 Work at the washing area. Excavation and pre-sorting takes place in the morning and washing in the afternoon.
16 Thousands of mosquitoes make work on the water difficult.
17 After washing, the gold particles deposited on the bottom of the pan become visible.
18 In the evening, the daily yield is cleaned and documented.
19 The amount of sustainably extracted wash gold for one day is stored in test tubes filled with water…it takes a few days until the tube is full. At this point, we realize once again how precious our raw material is!
20 Lappin Kulta pure! You can also find lots of interesting information about gold panning around the world and beautiful exhibits at the Gold Museum in Tankavaara www.kultamuseo.fi
