Sado Island Gold Mines

Sado · Japan

Sado Island Gold Mines, Japan
Photo: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA - Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.", Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

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Best time to go
November–March
Budget
$$$
Coordinates
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Gold split a mountain on Sado: the Doyu-no-warito cleft, hand-dug by miners chasing a vein, still gapes above the Aikawa workings. For centuries this island off the Niigata coast was Japan's richest source of gold, its three-part World Heritage listing preserving placer workings at Nishimikawa and the deep shafts of the Aikawa-Tsurushi area, all worked without mechanisation. UNESCO inscribed the Sado Island Gold Mines in 2024 as a monument to pre-industrial mining craft.

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