Gold fever in Schwarzwald: The hobby fueling german adventurers

Gold has not lost any of its myths, says geologist Michael Leopold in an interview with the service. He conducts gold prospecting courses in the Schwarzwald. He immediately cautions that although people expect gold nuggets the size of chicken eggs, the findings are usually very small and will not make a fortune.

People come to Bad Herrenalb in northern Schwarzwald from even the other end of Germany - from Kiel, which lies near the border with Denmark. The straight-line distance between these places is 390 miles, although gold prospecting is not only happening in the Schwarzwald. The same is happening in many regions of the country.

When a course participant finds something shiny and shouts that they have become rich, the instructor cools the excitement. Not everything that glitters is gold - reports n-tv.de. Prospectors often come across what is known as fool's gold, or pyrite - a very common mineral.

Twenty years ago, a retiree from Thuringia caused a stir when, during a walk in the forest, he found a nugget in a stream in the upper Schwarzatal valley over 1 inch long and weighed 0.34 ounces. At that time, it was said that its collectable value was around 1,500 euros. On the other hand, its material value was then less than 100 euros.

Usually, however, prospectors find much smaller particles. Suppose they find gold at all. Laboratory analysis of the findings shows that people often come across copper, quartz, arsenic, semi-precious stones, or slag. Thus, prospecting can mainly be treated as a hobby.