Is “Gold” lost in the smelting process? So you are saying a nugget with potential impurities is worth more than smelting it to purify it? Interesting.
No, GOLD isn’t lost during the smelting process (well, barely perceptable amounts can be).
But I THINK what Caribou was referring to is that some years ago, all but the very small nuggets could be sold for significantly above their metals value to mineral collectors... and/or jewelry makers who used the raw nuggets in making jewelry, not melted down and made into structural components, but more like gemstones are used.
It is a ‘trendy’ sort of thing that recurs every 20 years or so.
That sort of stuff is out of style pretty much everywhere, (except perhaps in Alaskan tourist traps) right now. But nice, big, well formed nuggets or gold crystals will always have a value well above the metals prices.
It is fairly likely that Caribou and a few of his friends make good money selling their nuggets to the guys that make the jewelery for the Alaska tourist trade,and a few non-trendy people in the rest of the world. But they will undoubtedly be selling all but the VERY best of the products of their pans, sluices and dredges to be melted down by some refiner, IF the economy goes to hell and the feces hits the air circulating device.