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Lapland gold: gold from the Finnish Arctic

In northern Finland, above the Arctic Circle, people still pan for gold in rivers that are frozen for half the year. This is Lapland gold.

The 1868 gold rush

In 1868 an expedition found gold in the Ivalojoki river, in Finnish Lapland. Within a few years hundreds of prospectors arrived in an almost uninhabited region, with dark winters and temperatures far below zero. It was Finland’s first gold rush.

Decades later, in 1945, gold was found in the Lemmenjoki river, which is now part of a national park and is still one of the best-known places in Europe to look for gold.

How it is found today

In Lapland, gold prospecting is still very much a craft. Prospectors work with pans, sluices and small digs, and can only do so during the short Arctic summer. Tankavaara, in Finnish Lapland, has hosted the World Gold Panning Championship several times.

What Lapland nuggets are like

• Small: most weigh less than one gram.
• Very pure and an intense yellow.
• Scarce: production is small and many stay in local collections, which is why they rarely appear on the international market.

Why collectors want them

Owning a nugget from the Arctic means owning a piece with a very particular story: gold carried by glaciers and rivers for thousands of years and extracted by hand in one of the most remote places in Europe. Together with nuggets from Alaska and Australia, they complete a collection of native gold from three continents.

When we have Lapland nuggets at auction, they appear on our website under the “Lapland” filter.