Clogau Gold is a 17 year old company, holding deep ties to Welsh history and steeped in tradition which makes it so unique.

In 1854, the owner of a copper mine accidently stumbled across glistening yellow pieces from within a piece of waste rock extracted from the mine – the first signs of Welsh gold. From this point on, the mine was no longer to extract copper and instead became the Clogau St. David’s Gold Mine. 

The mine actually dated back to the Roman era when it was very first discovered, it later and proved to be one of Wales’s most productive mines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the Welsh ‘Gold Rush’.

This same mine, left abandoned, was later discovered by a Welsh family in 1989. Its founder, William Roberts, intended to open the mine as a tourist attraction. However, this idea was overturned due to strict planning restrictions within the Snowdonia National Park. William then decided to gamble on the idea that there may still be some Welsh gold left within the hills. Luckily, the risk paid off and there was enough gold left to complete a few years worth of small scale mining, beginning in 1992, where small amounts of precious rose-coloured gold was extracted. 

William decided to use the extraordinary gold to produce jewellery of the utmost beauty and quality using Wales as the sole design inspiration. And so in 1994, the “Clogau Gold” brand was born with the launch of just five pieces of jewellery.

Due to the scarcity of Welsh gold, and the extraordinary cost associated with mining it – £1,000 per ounce – the decision was made to only include a small amount of the gold in each piece of jewellery. This way, the gold would last as long as possible and the jewellery would be more affordable.

Welsh gold is so precious that a single nugget of it has been used to create wedding rings for generations of the Royal Family, a tradition began by the Queen Mother in 1923. Subsequently The Queen, Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall all had wedding rings made from the same nugget of pure Welsh gold. 

The high cost of mining and the diminishing quantities of gold caused the eventual closure of the mine in 1998. As a result of this, our Welsh gold supply will eventually run out making it the rarest gold in the world.

Attempts have been made to make use of the discontinued mine. The idea of re-opening the mine in the hope that there is more gold left is an extremely appealing one, but the cost of doing so would be very expensive – six times as much extracting gold anywhere else. Therefore the future of the Clogau St. David’s mine remains unknown.