Spain anciently possessed mines of gold in regular veins, especially in the province of Asturias; but the richness of the American mines has made them be neglected. The Tagus, and some other streams of that country, were said to roll over golden sands. France contains no workable gold mines; but it presents in several of its rivers auriferous sands. There are some gold mines in Piedmont; particularly the veins of auriferous pyrites of Macugnagna, at the foot of Monte Rosa, lying in a mountain of gneiss; and although they do not contain 10 or 11 grains of gold in a hundred weight, they have long defrayed the expense of working them. On the southern slope of the Pennine Alps, from the Simplon and Monte Rosa to the valley of Aoste, several auriferous districts and rivers occur. Such are the torrent Evenson, which has afforded much gold by washing; the Orco, in its passage from the Pont to the Po; the reddish grounds over which this little river runs for several miles, and the hills in the neighbourhood of Chivasso, contain gold spangles in considerable quantity.
In the county of Wicklow, in Ireland, a quartzose and ferruginous sand was discovered not long ago, containing many particles of gold, with pepitas or solid pieces, one of which weighed 22 ounces. No less than 1000 ounces of gold were collected.
There are auriferous sands in some rivers of Switzerland, as the Reuss and the Aar. In Germany no mine of gold is worked, except in the territory of Salzburg, amid the chain of mountains which separates the Tyrol and Carinthia.
The mines of Hungary and Transylvania are the only gold mines of any importance in Europe; they are remarkable for their position, the peculiar metals that accompany them, and their product, estimated at about 1430 pounds avoird. annually. The principal ones are in Hungary. 1. Those of Konigsberg. The native gold is disseminated in ores of sulphuret of silver, which occur in small masses and in veins in a decomposing felspar rock, amid a conglomerate of pumice, constituting a portion of the trachytic formation. 2. Those of Borson, Schemnitz. And, 3 of Felsobanya; ores also of auriferous sulphuret of silver, occur in veins of sienite and greenstone porphyry. 4. Those of Telkebanya, to the south of Kaschau, are in a deposit of auriferous pyrites amid trap rocks of the most recent formation.
In Transylvania the gold mines occur in veins often of great magnitude, 6, 8, and sometimes 40 yards thick. These veins have no side plates or wall stones, but abut without intermediate gangues at the primitive rock. They consist of carious quartz, ferriferous limestone, heavy spar, fluor spar, and sulphuret of silver. The mine of Kapnik deserves notice, where the gold is associated with orpiment, and that of Vorospatak in granite rocks; those of Offenbanya, Zalatna, and Nagy-Ag, where it is associated with Tellurium. The last is in a sienitic rock on the limits of the trachyte.
In Sweden, the mine of Edelfors in Smoland may be mentioned, where the gold occurs native and in auriferous pyrites; the veins are a brown quartz, in a mountain of foliated hornstone.
In Siberia, native gold occurs in a hornstone at Schlangenberg or Zmeof, and at Zmeino-garsk in the Altai mountains, accompanied with many other ores.
The gold mine of Berezof in the Oural mountains, has been long known, consisting of partially decomposed auriferous pyrites, disseminated in a vein of greasy quartz. About 1820, a very rich deposit of native gold was discovered upon the eastern side of the Oural mountains, disseminated at some yards depth, in an argillaceous loam, and accompanied with the débris of rocks which usually compose the auriferous alluvial soils, as greenstone, serpentine, protoxide of iron, corundum, &c. The rivers of this district possess auriferous sands. The annual product of the gold mines of Siberia is 3740 pounds avoirdupois.
In Asia, and especially in its southern districts, there are many mines, streams, rivers, and wastes, which contain this metal. The Pactolus, a small river of Lydia, rolled over such golden sands, that it was supposed to constitute the origin of the wealth of Crœsus. But these deposits are now poor and forgotten. Japan, Formosa, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, and some other islands of the Indian Archipelago, are supposed to be very rich in gold mines. Those of Borneo are worked by the Chinese in an alluvial soil on the western coast, at the foot of a chain of volcanic mountains.