‘GOLD’ RUSH
Excavation find triggers frenzy in quiet Hanover community despite uncertainty
Published:Monday | January 9, 2023 | 1:10 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
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WESTERN BUREAU: Scores of people have been descending on a property in Chester Castle, Hanover, after news began to swirl that deposits of what residents believe to be gold had been located while digging a pit. Ralston Cole, who occupies the...
WESTERN BUREAU:
Scores of people have been descending on a property in Chester Castle, Hanover, after news began to swirl that deposits of what residents believe to be gold had been located while digging a pit.
Ralston Cole, who occupies the property located in a section of the community called Top Land, told The Gleaner that the discovery was made shortly after they hired the services of a heavy equipment operator to do excavation works, as a house is being constructed there.
“Them start to dig the pit Tuesday, and, after about 10 feet down, dem see an unusual soil coming from out of the pit,” Cole said. “The unusual soil carry some gold-looking thing. Is a mineral, so people from all over come now and say it look like gold. So them start to dig out the earth and find the things them what looking like gold.”
Cole admitted that they were still unsure as to what the substance or the shiny objects found were.
He is calling on government mining specialists or geologists to come in and conduct soil testing and make an assessment of the mineral.
However, the uncertainty was not enough to deter the throng of people who turned up at the location. Dozens of people from miles around turned up with machetes, digging away and loading buckets of the shiny rock to take away.
Several young men could be heard shouting that they were now rich. Others were already making plans to better their lives from the sale of the find, if it turns out to be gold deposits.
Jamaica's first-known gold mine was located in Pennants, Clarendon. It was operated by Australian company Ausjam, which began mining on expectations that it would have extracted 35,000 ounces of nine- and 15-karat nuggets.
But, by December 2002, it had only yielded 12,000 ounces, and geologists suggested that only another 3,000 to 4,000 ounces remain to be extracted.
The company closed its operations in 2003, citing financial woes because of low ore grades.
Recent works being carried out by Canada-based mining exploration company C3 Metals Inc and Geophyxs Jamaica, through separate operations, have raised the antennas of residents, increasing speculation that communities within the parish's northern belt might have reserves of gold and other valuable minerals.
Robert Stewart, managing director of Geophyxs Jamaica, told The Gleaner last August that, while copper and gold traces have been discovered in the area, there had been nothing conclusive at the time.
Stewart said, historically, there are values of gold in the soil in the area and samples taken will show a higher-than-average reading.
Gold may have weathered over time, transitioning into the soil, he said.
“It's what they call micron gold, little microscopic particles of gold. So it is there, but it's not like nuggets of gold. However, it means that there might be a system in the area,” Stewart said then. “It may be small. It may not be viable, but nobody to date has actually proven a system is there.”