Natural Emerald & Gold Nugget Alaskan Chain
This beautiful natural emerald & gold nugget Alaskan chain is 20″ long and is made of 76.5 carats of natural rough Colombian emeralds and 9.4 grams of Alaskan gold nuggets together with an 18k yellow gold clasp. The emeralds are about 1/4″ in diameter, and each nugget is almost 3/4″ long.
On any given day, local gold miners will come into our shop throughout the year with the gold nuggets they mined that season. We look through their stash and choose the very best nuggets to make into jewelry. Miners sift through the sand and gravel of ancient rivers and streams around Alaska and the Klondike to mine these natural pieces of “placer gold.” Finding gold nuggets in their natural state is very rare. In fact, only 2% of all found gold consists of gold nuggets. These nuggets themselves will vary in purity from about 75% to 95% pure gold, or 18k-22k. Because these pieces are completely natural, they can sometimes contain mixed minerals such as silver and platinum.
Big machines crush rock in “hard rock mining” to separate out small particles of gold, constituting most of the gold mined in the world. This is the most cost-efficient way to extract gold. The problem with this process is that it destroys these beautiful pieces of art. This means that if stores like us stop buying this type of gold, people will eventually forget this art.
