In fine weather, Véronique et Anne Laure, in partnership with the Rumilly - Albanian Tourist Office, offer introductions to gold panning in the Fier and the Chéran. A fun activity that allows above all a beautiful encounter with these alpine rivers, host of an important biodiversity.
It seems that metropolitan France still conceals more than 50 tons of gold in its basement! In fact geologists are categorical, the yellow metal is everywhere on the territory, but dispersed in very small quantities. The Cheran and Iron, the two rivers that cross Rumilly - Albanian, this territory located between Aix-les-Bains and Annecy, carry tiny particles, torn upstream from the rocks by erosion and transported by the current.
But no need to rush on the spot to explore the vein, baited by the gain, you would be quickly disappointed! If gold panning has been practiced in these gold-bearing rivers since Roman times, extraction has always remained on an artisanal scale, formerly making it possible to make some jewelry or for the lucky ones who come across a nugget, to put butter in the spinach. It takes hours of effort to remove from the bottom of rivers a gram of alluvial gold, whose particularity is to be close to 24 carats, therefore very pure!
Today it is not exceptional to come across a few amateur gold miners, for whom looking for gold in the Fier or the Chéran is a leisure activity, just like picking mushrooms or blueberries! For them, this hobby, which requires knowing how to read the river and being patient, is a good way to be in harmony with nature.
It is in this spirit that Rumilly - Albanian Tourist Office provides discovery outings de l 'gold panning during the beautiful season, where the gold spots, sand or gravel banks, the “placers” in gold miner jargon, are very accessible.
A family outing par excellence because there is no age to catch yellow fever!
