Melting moments with metal

Gold sinks, so amateur prospectors are told to dig deep - but even the tiniest find is worth the effort. Photo / Jim Eagles

What do you do with that pile of gold dust after you've panned it out of the river shingle?

I took mine to Paul Harris, at High Street Jewellers shop in the "olde worlde" village at Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco, because he's spent 30 years working with jewels and precious metals.

"Oh, yes, this happens quite a lot," he said. "I get a lot of people bringing gold in for me to work with.

"It's quite a tradition, down the West Coast especially, to mine the gold yourself and then use it to make your wedding rings. I can either make the rings for people or guide them through the process so they can do it themselves."

One of the attractions of gold, Paul said, was that it not only looks beautiful, but is easy to work with. To prove it he gave a demonstration - melting gold with a blowtorch, pouring it into a mould, shaping it with pliers and a ring bender, then closing the join with a special alloy to make a roughly shaped ring.

It only took about 10 minutes, but a complex ring can take two days of work to complete - shaping it, using drills, files and tools to create the design, then polishing with emery powder.

I asked how much gold I'd need to make a ring. "Oh, very little really," said Harris. "Not a lot at all. About 10mg. Maybe a teaspoonful."

Unfortunately it turned out I hadn't panned quite enough gold for a ring. I didn't have enough for a tooth filling either. I'm keeping my little vial of gold dust in storage for the time being. A couple more visits to Murchison and I reckon I'll have enough to make an eternity ring for my wife.

And in the meantime the grandchildren think grandad's gold is exciting. They probably hope to inherit it.