Paul Isnard is a mining concession in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

, named after a gold miner.

History

Paul Isnard discovered gold in the area in 1875. The Paul Isnard mine was initially explored by CMPI. Paul Isnard is, as of 2012, part of the

Montagne d'Or mine The Montagne d'Or mine () is one of the largest gold mine projects in French Guiana, an overseas region of France. The mine is located in the north-west of the country in the Arrondissement of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The mine has estimated reser ...

together with three other mines, and is being exploited by Orea Mining Corporation, a Canadian mining company. During the penitentiary era, many former prisoners had to serve the same amount of time as free men as their original sentence (called "doublage", "double up" in French) but were forbidden to leave French Guiana. Many went to the rain forest to find

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. They worked manually using mercury. At the end of the 19th century Paul Isnard and other share holders brought a huge engine system to the mine as spare parts on horseback and foot. This machine is still there in the jungle between Citron and the airstrip. Mercury became ubiquitous and reached higher concentrations in ore than needed to make "amalgam" (mix of gold and mercury), a sign of intense activity in the past. Ore concentrations declined to a few grams per metric.

References

External links

Paul Isnard Track by Raoul Kieffer
Gold mines in French Guiana Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Villages in French Guiana {{FrenchGuiana-geo-stub