Gold Native, Big nugget from Suriname or French Guiana (gold nugget)- 29.31 g - (1)

This nugget comes from French Guiana, a French area in the Amazon, or from Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands.
I harvested it myself more than thirty years ago on the Maroni River (Marowijne River) which separates French Guiana from Suriname, in an area called Papaichton, a half-day journey by canoe from the town of Maripasoula.

At the time, I was a gold prospector in French Guiana, and I worked mainly on the rivers, the Oyapock which borders Brazil and the Maroni which borders Suriname.

My team and I used a floating dredge that pumped sediment from the bottom of the river.
These sediments were dumped onto a washing ramp (sluice) whose bottom was covered with a carpet
The whole thing was installed on a floating barge which also served as a living base with kitchen and dormitory.
The nuggets and the heaviest sediments were deposited by gravity on the mat and the rest of the sediments returned to the river.
The nuggets visible on the surface of the carpet were harvested directly by hand.
Heavy sediments containing flakes and gold powder were encrusted at the bottom of the carpet.
From time to time this carpet was washed to collect these heavy sediments.
These sediments were then treated with a vibrating plate or a pan to recover the powdered gold.

The gold collected was then regularly sold in French Guiana or Brazil.
I have kept the most beautiful nuggets for my personal collection and am now putting some of them up for sale.

Although located in the Amazon (South America) , French Guiana is a French overseas department.
These nuggets are therefore French.
However, some are Surinamese (Dutch) when the barge was closer to the shores of Suriname than to the shores of French Guiana.
In fact the separation between the two countries is a simple virtual line in the center of the river.
So French nuggets or Surinamese nuggets? ? …. difficult to know precisely, it all depends on which side of this virtual line the barge was on the day they were harvested.

The gold from this region is quite pure, in general its purity is around 950 to 980 thousandths, which corresponds to 22. 80 to 23. 50 carats

At the time this type of artisanal gold panning was authorized, now it is prohibited and gold mining is reserved for a few large industrial structures.
French Guiana is best known now for the Kourou space base which sends satellites into space.

Of course, the photos really correspond to the nugget sold, and I am sending you exactly the nugget that is in the photos.
All photos are taken in natural daylight.
I photographed this nugget as truthfully and precisely as possible using daylight.
Please note that differences in screen settings and ambient lighting may cause variations in perceived color, saturation and tones.

I send them quickly, securely and discreetly in a tear-proof envelope in C5 format (162mmx229mm) by registered mail from the French Post Office.