Gold of the karkonosze mountains

On the Polish side of the Karkonosze Mountains, the main gold excavation sites concentrate in the area of Szklarska Poręba, Świeradów, Jelenia Góra and Karpacz. Research results have confirmed the presence of small amounts of gold in sand and gravel of local streams.
Within Karpacz gold could be found in stream flowing through Płóczki, Ścięgny, Wilcza Poręba and in the valley of Sowia Dolina. Placer mining was also used on the Łomniczka, the Złoty Potok and the Łomnica rivers. J.G. Volkelt in his book published in 1775 in Wrocław on gold mining in Silesia writes that Antonio Wahl claimed that gold could be found near Mały Staw and Śnieżka. The author also writes that the Walloons knew about considerable amounts of gold at river springs in the Karkonosze Mountains and the ore extracted from Złoty Potok in Biały Jar was said to have been used a gold chain for George II Duke of Legnica-Brzeg.
Old river names that contained prefixes or suffixes Seifen or Seiffen directly and clearly confirm that gold was mined in the streams. The word seifen means flushing gold out of sand and gravel in stream beds.
The old Slavic name of the Płomnica River (Plaknitz), which flows through Sowia Dolina and Wilcza Poręba, confirms that also there people searched for ore and gemstones. Moreover, the records in the Walloon Books preserved such pieces of information like: A valley under a rocky ridge, where you may find red gold, crystals, garnets and gems.
One of the two streams that form the Płomnica is the Płóknica River, 1.1 km long, which has its springs under Średnia Kopa and Czarna Kopa. Its name (Polish płukać ‘to flush’) also indicates that already in the Middle Ages people looked for gold there.
Besides, there are geographical names containing the word Eule, which is a corruption of Celtic jilova, meaning ‘gold.’ Therefore, Quiring claims that Sowia Dolina (German Eulengrund) was in ancient times a place, where the Celts looked for gold. A further proof are typically Celtic shapes of mining pits.
The oldest method of extracting gold was flushing grains and bits of gold out of the ore mined at a deposit vein or its roof cover not deeper than 1 m. Deeper deposits were practically inaccessible, as it required building embankments and removing pebbles that were too heavy to lift for 2-3 people. Such excavation sites were often abandoned and mining was continued in water-filled pits, even a few dozen meters in diameter. In the pit there were panning devices to extract gold from placer. Such methods of mining, before other more systematic ones, were used in Sowia Dolina.
One of the excavation methods involved special forming of river bottoms and rock barriers along the riverbed, as well as building of river bars and water intakes. Such a device was a kind of sieve that trapped water-carried gold particles. The entire excavation site was surrounded by stones with carved crosses marking the boundaries of the plot. After a few days of maintenance, such a placer mining site was ready to use and could serve several generations of miners.
According to some chroniclers from Jelenia Góra, a Venetian named Jeremiah Vinzentz found so much gold in the Karkonosze Mountains that he had an inscription reading Montes Chrysocreos fecerunt nos Dominos placed on the frontage of his mansion, which translates ‘Gold-bearing mountains made us lords’.
GOLD is a precious metal, as it is weather-resistant, it does not rust or patinate. A 10 x 10 x 10 cm cube made of gold weighs almost 20 kg. Gold melts at 1064 o C, being at the same time very flexible. One gram of the metal is needed to make a wire 2,400 m long or a gold sheet that is translucent.
Gold has always been a symbol of wealth and the most sought metal. There have been ‘gold rushes’, when thousands of people migrated to places, where the precious metal could be found.
In the Middle Ages, the Walloons searched for gold in streams of the Karkonosze Mountains. In Wilcza Poręba you can see ruins of an old placer mining site. It is estimated that in the Karkonosze Mountains about 3 tons of gold were excavated in 1175-1492. In 1500 the world’s gold production output was about 6,000 kg, in 1700 it was 11,000 kg, while in 1900 – 350,000 kg.
Gold has had numerous extraordinary applications. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have produced a special hair dye made of gold for Florence’s ladies; beaver-hair brushes were used to apply gold during the process of gilding in the form of gold leaves just 0.0001 mm thin; colloidal gold known as Cassius’ gold purple was used to produce precious ruby-coloured stained glass and to paint on glass and porcelain.
FOOL’S GOLD was once the name for pyrite, the mineral described by Pliny in ancient times as the one that prevents blood from going bad.
The name comes from Greek pyr ‘fire’, due to the sparks that appear when pyrite is struck.
The mineral is quite common, so many of us have seen small golden grains resembling gold in sand and gravel of the Karkonosze streams. It is easy to distinguish between the two, because when you scratch pyrite with a sharp tool you see a black line, whereas such scratches on gold are yellow.
In ancient Greece people believed that pyrite had magic powers, so they wore it as an amulet. It was also called Inca-stone, because the Inca people used it to make mirrors, which were later discovered in Inca tombs as polished pyrite sheets.