CAASG1979.1195 - This specimen comes from Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire. Gold is a precious metal because only rarely does it occur in large enough concentrations to be worth extracting. At Dolaucothi native (pure) gold occurs as small grains in quartz veins known as lodes. Gold was mined here by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. Mining resumed during the 19th century and continued until 1938. Around the world modern mining methods extract gold that is invisible to the naked eye.