Sado Kinzan Goldmine

There has been a Goldmine on Sado Island since the 16 century although today it is no longer in operation. Both gold and silver were mined here and for over 300 years it was mined using chisel and hamer Modern mining techniques were introduced around the middle of the 19th century.. Not all of the labour was volunteer, around 2000 homeless were forcibly recruited from Edo (now Tokyo) and Osaka. A similar number were also recruited from Korea from 1939 until Japan's surrender. The exhibition does focus more on the earlier period which is when the mine produced the most gold.

Early mineshaft 

Later mineshaft 

A real gold bar weighing 12.5 kg worth around 150 million yen, which is about 1.5 million Australian dollars.

The hundreds of years of gold mining cousef the peak of the mountain to split.

bejind me is roughly how much gold came out of the goldmine.

Coffee with gold flakes.