Chvojnica, Malinová, Nitrianske Pravno
Probably the second largest gold placers in Slovakia occur on the slopes of the Malá Magura Mts., between the villages of Malinová and Chvojnica. The placers spread over a several km2 area and the estimated volume of washed material ranges between 5 – 12 million of m3. A total of 780 – 1890 kg of gold is thought to have been recovered here. The beginnings of panning and mining in the Horná Nitra area date back to the first third of 14th century, when the Nitrianske Pravno mining settlement was established. However, it cannot be ruled out that the Celts mining have originally worked here. Only two records have been preserved from 1614 and 1648, documenting 700 and 621,65 grams respectively, recovered by panning. Gold-bearing placers consist of Pliocene and Quaternary alluvial fans, originally deposited on the edge of the basin. Badly sorted, strongly clayeous gravels and clay are the main components of the sediments. Relics of historical pillars of auriferous gravel beds contain on average 0,6 g/m3 of gold but enriched section with up to 3,35 g/m3 have also been founded. The gold has been derived from vein mineralisation near Chvojnica hosted in Variscan granitoids, orthogneisses and migmatites of crystalline basement of the Malá Magura Mts. The quartz-carbonate veins, from several cm to 2m thick, are following cleavage planes in metamorphic rocks and have a short vertical extent. The major ore minerals are Fe, Pb and Sb sulphides and sulphosalts. Microscopic gold crystals hosted in quartz a fineness of 880, whilst tiny gold inclusions in sulphides are of lower fineness.
GOLD IN SLOVAKIA, František Bakoš, Martin Chovan, Peter Žitňan et al.