Interrelation between gold and tin: A historical perspective

Abstract

The historical evidence for the occurrence of some tin in gold objects and some gold in tin mini-ingots from various parts of the world has been discussed. It has been shown that their presence in each other is not intentional, but is due to their primary metal extraction process used. Both gold and cassiterite minerals were obtained as alluvial placer deposit in ancient and medieval times. Evidence for the simultaneous occurrence of gold in the same vein or alluvial placer deposits in various parts of the world has been presented. This type of deposit could be concentrated to either a cassiterite-rich or gold-rich concentrates by panning, Even the most efficient panning process used in those times, would have resulted into some amount of gold in cassiterite concentrate and cassiterite in gold concentrate. Such concentrates would give rise to some gold in the extracted primary tin, and some tin in the extracted primary gold. If tin bronze was used for making alloyed gold containing higher amounts of copper, at least a part of tin present in the alloyed gold might have originated from it.