Disentis displays Switzerland’s largest gold nugget

A collection of gold found in Switzerland, including the country’s largest known nugget, is on display in Disentis/Mustér, SRF reported. The municipality has been offered the private collection, and its council is expected to decide in early December whether to buy it.

The collection is being shown in the customer hall of Raiffeisenbank Cadi, a bank in Disentis/Mustér. Most of the pieces come from the region above the Surselva. The owners and the municipality are still negotiating the price, municipal clerk Roland Cajacob said.

The collection includes gold found in Switzerland between 1970 and 2020. The nuggets are displayed in the forms in which they were found, in rivers or in rock, and are labelled with their names, locations and weights.

The largest nugget weighs 123.1 grams. It was found in Disentis/Mustér in August 1997 and is named “Ara Fontanivas”: “Ara” refers to its resemblance to a parrot, while “Fontanivas” is the name of an area on the Vorderrhein.

Gold panning has taken place in the Bündner Oberland for decades, and prospecting companies have also found high gold concentrations in the region. The Surselva is particularly known for gold deposits around the Medelser Rhein and Vorderrhein. Gold has also been mined professionally elsewhere in Switzerland, including at Calanda near Chur, in Gondo, Ticino and western Switzerland. Gold panning in the Napf region dates back to the 14th century.