I was interested to learn that the European Exchange Programme in which the National Trust has taken an active share has resulted in the re-examination of the once celebrated Dolaucothi mine in Carmarthenshire, which was exploited for gold by the Romans some two millennia ago. It appears now that the mine is more ancient than was previously supposed, and that it was worked in Celtic times as a source of gold about 3000BC.
Mining experts from a European group have discovered that the Romans in their turn managed to shift some 500,000 tonnes of rock from the mine site, using the energy produced by diverting water for 11km along the Cothi valley to expose the gold ore beneath. Evidently the famous cry "There's gold in them thar hills" echoed in the valleys of Carmarthen long before it took the American south-west and the Australian outback by storm.