The supply of pure Welsh gold – the metal of choice for the wedding rings of the rich and famous – is expected to run out in the new year.
Welsh gold has been prized as a jewellery metal for centuries and dates back to the days of the Celtic kingdoms when nobles wore gold torcs as a badge of rank and power.
More recently the precious metal has been used to create wedding bands for the late Princess Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles.
Hollywood actor Michael Douglas also chose a band of Welsh gold to declare his love for Catherine Zeta-Jones on their wedding day.
But the only remaining regular producer of the metal is due to close down in early 2007.
Roland Phelps, the managing director of Welsh Gold plc, said the current supply came from reworking old surface tips at Gwynfynydd Mines Royal, in Dolgellau, North Wales.
But he said production of "the world’s most valuable precious metal" would end soon.
"We haven’t got a date for it yet as it’s produced in a haphazard way and one can never forecast sales, but we expect to be very close to running out within the early part of next year.
"We’ve looked elsewhere to see if there’s anywhere we might possibly go, but there isn’t anywhere we consider economical.
"This isn’t to say there won’t be a small amount of gold panned in Welsh rivers, but we don’t consider that a commercial operation. We won’t be producing Welsh gold any more."
Mr Phelps added: "We’ve switched our attention over to Ireland where Welsh Gold plc has an important shareholding in another company, Galantas, which is currently developing Ireland’s first gold mine in Omagh."
He said there was just one man left working at the mine in Dollgellau and he is only employed part-time.
"It has always been a difficult living to make, it was always feast or famine, and you need a steady business alongside.
"We’ve kept it going on a small scale for many years now because of the importance of the trade of Welsh gold. It has a special place in people’s hearts.
"But if you’re selling pure Welsh gold and you run out you can’t make any more. It’s not like diluted products which you can go on diluting ad infinitum."
But even sellers of diluted Welsh gold said their supply was about to dry up.
Ifan Evans, director of Rhiannon Welsh Gold Centre in Tregaron, West Wales, said his company’s supply of the metal would run out in about 12 months’ time so they were only using it for wedding and engagement rings.
The centre sells jewellery containing 10% Welsh gold from the Gwynfynydd Mines Royal and Mr Evans said he did not want to dilute it any further.
"Some companies make jewellery containing ‘a touch’ of Welsh gold, but that’s not a route we want to go down," he said.
"We still get lots of people asking for 100% Welsh gold, but we haven’t been able to buy any new Welsh gold for some years.
"We’ve been offered it by people who pan for gold, but you can’t guarantee its authenticity."
But Mr Evans said he was optimistic that Welsh gold would be mined again at some point in the future.
"You don’t need that much money to commercially mine for Welsh gold – you’re talking hundreds of thousands of pounds rather than millions – and I’m sure someone will come along with hundreds of thousands of pounds they want to risk," he said.
He added that he believed the Queen had been given a kilogram of pure Welsh gold in the 1980s which should keep the Royal Family in wedding rings for quite some time.
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