MINING NEWS: Silverado auctions gold nuggets from Nolan Creek gold mine in Alaska

Patricia Liles

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Silverado Gold Mines Ltd. has been auctioning gold nuggets mined from its northern Alaska gold mine on eBay, an on-line auction site.

So far, the company has auctioned five nuggets and it began the sixth on-line auction for an 8.65 troy ounce nugget Aug. 23.

The nuggets have been mined from the Nolan Creek mine, just west of the historic mining community of Wiseman, roughly 280 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Some of the gold nuggets sold have been hosted in white quartz.

Gold nuggets from this area have a “general consistency of being 92 to 97 percent pure gold,” the company said in a press release. “Gold in this Arctic region, known as the Koyukuk region, is renowned for its high purity.”

Silverado auctioned the first gold nugget from Nolan last summer. It weighed 4.89 troy ounces and sold for $4,938.88, according to the company.

The second nugget auctioned this summer weighed 2.93 troy ounces, which sold for $1,753, and the third weighed 1.32 troy ounces, which sold for $1,675.65.

The two most recent nuggets, weighing 0.661 troy ounces and 1.32 troy ounces, sold for $716 and $1,025.

The Nolan Creek mine is 100 percent owned by Silverado. In 1994, Silverado recovered the 10th largest gold nugget in Alaska history from the area, which weighed 41.35 troy ounces. Its value by gold content was $16,000, but due to its unique characteristics and size, sold for $50,000.

The first prospectors found gold in the Wiseman area in 1899. Mining began at Nolan in 1905. In its early years, miners recovered approximately 130,000 ounces of gold from the present day Nolan Creek part of the Silverado property. Mining was completed by hand-steel and steam to extract gold from the permanently frozen gravels.